The Merciad staff apologizes to anyone offended by last week’s advertising promoting SpringBreakMax.com. We in no way “condone the binge drinking and ‘hooking up’ culture” represented in the advertisement, as Mr. Baker asserts, but we do believe in the advertisers’ rights to control advertising content.

The Merciad is funded in part by advertising profits. We need advertisements for our production, including weekly printings and online updates which brings important news to students, faculty and the community. As Mr. Baker must have seen, we ran a ‘March for Life’ advertisement in last week’s issue without comment from those who disagree with the cultural beliefs implied therein. We trust that Merciad readers can distinguish between our published news and advertising content.

We pride ourselves on a standard of journalism that intentionally avoids the tabloid-style gossip prominent in today’s mass media. Whereas other campus newspapers feature sexual how-to columns and he-said, she-said slandering, we try to bring to light in a fair and even-handed manner all the source-based news we can. We want to point out that we regularly cover such spring break alternatives as Habitat for Humanity service trips and rowing and tennis athletics campaigns. We believe our newspaper is written very much in the spirit of Mercy and are especially proud to have added a Green page concerned with promoting environmental sustenance to our usual sections this year.

We follow Pennsylvania law in that we do not permit advertisements for Pennsylvania-licensed establishments to sell alcohol and refuse to promote any on-campus consumption of alcohol. Decisions beyond that lie in our discretion.

While we wished we had paid more attention to the photos in the SpringBreakMax.com advertisement, we find it a slippery slope to equate the advertisement to the Merciad’s condoning of women’s subjugation and diminishment and hold ourselves in no way responsible for the Web content of our advertisers.