WHEN a Quincy House resident allegedly stole copies of Peninsula from door-steps and distribution areas, he or she did the campus Right an enormous favor. In the first place, this inexcusable abridgement of free speech exposed liberals on campus to charges of hypocrisy and intolerance of competing viewpoints--charges that are justified far too often. Any such attempt to interfere with the dissemination of Constitutionally protected speech is an affront not only to the victims of the theft, but to the values of academic freedom, free expression and liberal tolerance that all members of the Harvard community should uphold.

But the perpetrator damaged the liberal cause on campus in another way--by depriving some Harvard students of an opportunity to see Peninsula's sophomoric diatribes for themselves. Let Peninsula compete in the "marketplace of ideas." There is no better way to discredit it.