"That standard changed," Glassman, who is now a financial columnist at The Washington Post, says, "My guard was sort of transitional--not as radical as those who came after."

Crimsonites in the early '70s faced the unique challenge of both participating in and covering undergraduate uprisings on campus.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III recalls the night he received a phone call from a Crimson writer he had seen picketing earlier that day--the reporter wanted to interview him for the news story he was writing about the protest.

Crimson editors were among the many students involved in the ejection of University faculty from their offices in Harvard Yard during the infamous 1969 anti-war uprising.

They also engaged in numerous sit-ins and teach-ins during this time, according to Glassman. Most demonstrations surrounded Vietnam War issues, especially on-campus recruitment by companies that manufactured biological weapons.

When confronted by punitively minded administrators about protest activities, Crimson editors had to choose between defending a cause and suffering the consequences or weaseling out by claiming journalistic status.

Glassman recalls how the demand, "Are you there as a reporter or a participant?" forced him to think seriously about his role.

"A lot of the political activity was just play until we really had to decide," Glassman says.

Objectivity and Passion

Messages recorded in the newsroom's "open book"--an ongoing journal and forum for editors to express opinions on all aspects of the paper--reveal The Crimson's sympathy for Vietnamese communists.

One entry pronounces: "[We are] dedicated to the continuous solidarity between the people of Viet Nam and the American people. May they march together to a better world of justice."

On October 16, 1969, an editorial titled "Support the NLF" made headlines from cities all over the U.S. to Paris. No longer just fodder for the open book, the pro-Communist sentiment of The Crimson's editors emerged publicly.

"The National Liberation Front whom we have been trying to exterminate has the support of the people of Vietnam," the editorial declares. "It deserves our support as well."

The heated nature of the global conflicts and domestic social issues that dominated the '70s encouraged activist journalism at The Crimson.

With a political composition that ranged from "far left to left," according to Daly, the newspaper projected its "anti-war, anti-administration, anti-Establishment" stance onto both its news and editorial pages.