[citation needed] The State News is governed by a Board of Directors, which comprises journalism professionals, faculty and students.
On election day, 1948, The State News, going to press at 7 a.m., became the only morning daily to place Harry S. Truman in the lead for president.
The school did, however, announce the appointment of a full-time college employee, William McIlrath, as director of the publication with authority over the paper's content.
This culminated a period of six years—since the end of World War II—of increasing irritation of the school's administration by the independent attitude of the student journalists.
Returning veterans were a significant portion of the paper's staff and, being several years older than students enrolled directly from high school and matured by war, they tended to exercise a more critical attitude toward campus events.
It also published a series critical of the school's plan to require male cooperative residences to hire "house mothers"; ultimately, the coops were exempted, but fraternities were not.
[citation needed] When the local Congressman demanded in 1950 that Michigan State remove left-leaning economist Paul Douglas (later U.S.
[5] Internal controversies include a group of junior editors dissatisfied with the editor-in-chief starting a weekly newspaper, Campus Observer, in 1968.
In 2003, an advertisement printed in the State News showed Palestinians celebrating in the street while Israelis lit candles and prayed.
In response, Young Americans for Freedom and the College Republicans picketed the offices of The State News and called for Ramsey's dismissal.
In 2008, the Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments regarding The State News' lawsuit against MSU over Freedom of Information Act issues.
The State News received criticism in 2010 for replacing some of its comics with games/puzzles, including new additions of a giant crossword, Octo, Word Finder and Pathem puzzles.
[7] In 2018, The State News received national attention for an editorial demanding the resignation of MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon amid fallout from the Larry Nassar sex assault scandal.
Reporters often travel to cover news, especially to out-of-state sporting events, such as the 2009 presidential inauguration, the 2012 and 2016 Democratic and Republican national conventions, the 2014 Rose Bowl Game and 2019 men's Final Four.
Other recent alums of note include Jemele Hill, former co-host of "SportsCenter" on ESPN who now writes for The Atlantic; Steve Eder, a presidential campaign reporter for The New York Times; and John Hudson, who covers national security for the Washington Post.
In 2012, The State News began marketing its Gryphon content management system to other college newspapers under the moniker of SNworks (www.getsnworks.com).