Freedom of Speech in Journalism

This article was all about universities in the United States monitoring their student-athletes Facebook and MySpace pages and possibly giving them consequences for the things that they post if the image they are portraying is not favourable to the student-athlete or to the school's image.
I haven't had any of my own experience with this subject simply because I have a fairly private profile and I would never add any of my high school teachers or university professors while they were my teacher/professor.
I disagree strongly with the university monitoring their students/athlete's Facebook/MySpace pages. Especially if the person being monitored hasn't really agreed to it or added their coach as a friend. If it's the image of the student or athlete in question, the university could advise student not to post some pictures because it could harm their image. However, if it is the image of the university or the coach in question, I don't think the university has any right to be giving the athletes consequences if what they're saying doesn't put their university or coach in a positive light, unless it was agreed upon before-hand. Facebook is private in some ways, and it's a way of expressing yourself and it's no different than if a student in the 50's was saying bad things about their school or their coach to their friends, it just wouldn't have been online. If the student has the right privacy settings, people that he doesn't have as friends won't be able to see any of his posts or pictures so it's not like anything he's saying is going out to the public or the press. Besides, in America people have freedom of speech and expression. That goes for Facebook and Myspace just as much as if they were writing a book or a song. I can't see why the universities are trying to change the rules now.

By B.L.