It wasn't a big story outside some mentions on Fox News, journalism Web sites and various Colorado media, so it would've been easy to miss the brouhaha created by an "editorial" in the Colorado State University student newspaper which carried read "F*** Bush" in what was once known as "second coming" font size of about 300 points. (There are 72 points in an inch.) The editorial was in response to the tasering of a conspiracy-minded Florida college student who had basically disrupted an appearance by Sen. John Kerry.

The editor of that publication, David McSwane, has been on some cable and radio shows and is defending his headline in the name of "free speech" and getting the attention of the student body.

As for McSwane, he insists that he wants the media to focus on free speech, not him. "This story's turned into 'Here's this kid who used the F-word. He's either the ballsiest kid in the world or the dumbest,'" he says. "But what really happened is, the editorial board felt passionately that we needed to get students thinking - and I agreed with them. So we did what we did, and now my ass is on the line."

Well, it isn't any longer. Friday he was rebuked, but allowed to keep his job.

But McSwane is wrong in a plethora of ways. The Florida incident wasn't about free speech. You didn't see the likes of McSwane taking a stand on free speech when two of the founders of the Minutemen were chased off the stage at Columbia University last year. Free speech isn't about the right of one heckler or conspiracy theorist to take over a speech by an invited guest.

McSwane is portraying himself as being a brave defender of free speech. Instead, I'm reminded about the old joke about the American and the Russian comparing rights in their respective countries.

Another example from the President's current cache of Soviet stories concerns an American who tells a Russian that the United States is so free he can stand in front of the White House and yell, ''To hell with Ronald Reagan.'' The Russian replies: ''That's nothing. I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, 'To hell with Ronald Reagan,' too.''

There's no bravery in McSwane's little tantrum.

Instead of a spirited defense of free speech, McSwane's headline was nothing more than a simple vulgarity. It's something you expect to hear from a too clever eighth-grader. And it brings the craft of journalism into disrepute. Journalists are supposed to be good with words, and the best McSwane can do is "F*** Bush?"

In a year or two McSwane will be out in the real world, looking for a real job. In a just world, this little episode would be a barrier to a job in the journalism field. However, it is unlikely that will be the case -- and that says quite a bit about journalism nowadays too.