The Daily of the University of Washington

In November 2008, The Daily ran an op-ed column written by John Fay, a columnist, which criticized gay marriage as part of a point/counterpoint regarding the passage of Proposition 8 in California. The piece was accompanied by an illustration of a man standing next to a sheep, referencing Fay's statement that allowing gay marriage would lead to legal bestiality. Among other controversial statements, Fay argued that "being homosexual, like other emotional tendencies, doesn't make someone a bad person, but it's a problem that needs to be dealt with, not denied." The article sparked outrage among the student body, and students assembled in the Husky Union Building to protest, claiming that the article encouraged "fear and hate".[15]

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) drafted a resolution at their December 3, 2008, meeting to have the editor-in-chief and opinion editor to either apologize for the publication of the opinion piece and illustration, or to resign.[15] Editor-in-chief Sarah Jeglum stated that she supported balanced viewpoints and did not plan to give the apology as requested.[16] She encouraged groups and individuals to continue to voice their various opinions and to have The Daily act as a public forum for a variety of opinion. The GPSS then passed a resolution at its February 4, 2009 meeting to direct the Graduate and Professional Student Senate representative on the Board of Student Publications to vote for censure of Jeglum.

On February 10, 2009, the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) passed a resolution supporting "the independence of The Daily as a member of the free press", and "its right to publish controversial material provided it is within the bounds of speech protected by the first amendment and THAT the ASUW finds that printing this article did not cross those legal boundaries and did not violate The Daily's code of ethics, thus a call for censure of Sarah Jeglum is not warranted."

The Board of Student Publications met on February 19 to consider the GPSS resolution to censure Sarah Jeglum. The Board voted with two yea, and five nay; the resolution failed to be adopted.

ASUW then considered another resolution in response to the GPSS attempt to censure, to establish Free Speech and National Freedom of Speech Week during the third week of October.

On April 26, 2021, The Daily published its annual ASUW Elections endorsements as well as separate cartoon that attempted to caricature the uncontested elections process by suggesting that student voters write in random campus icons on their ballots. The endorsements and cartoons were criticized by many students as being racist, pointing out the language in the endorsements calling a majority-POC ticket of candidates "lazy" and "unprepared" as well as the inclusion of the UW Medicinal Herb Garden monkey statue[17] as one of the proposed write-in suggestions. Quickly following these criticisms, the cartoon was taken down and the cartoonist issued a personal apology for the harm caused by its publication.

The ASUW President, Camille Hattwig, issued a "Response to 04/26 Post from The Daily," emailing it to all students campus-wide on April 28, 2021. The message, in its entirety, read: "We were deeply alarmed to see the recent publication of racist imagery from The Daily surrounding the current ASUW elections. All students and student leaders deserve to be treated with basic respect, and ASUW stands in solidarity with the candidates. The ASUW calls on The Daily for legitimate accountability for publishing racist material aimed directly at other students. We are grateful for the continued work of past, present and future generations of student leaders within and outside of ASUW who continue to work to make our university equitable for marginalized students. Every day we are reminded there is more work to be done."

Following this email, many students took to Twitter and Reddit to share their confusion with the vague email as not every student had seen the endorsements nor the cartoon, nor understood that the ASUW was referencing those pieces. Many of the same students shared their opinion of the endorsements and cartoon after a copy was posted in the Reddit group, the majority of whom claimed they did not feel either piece contained racist intent nor content and felt the ASUW had overstepped its authority. Some students organized a recall petition which, if it collected enough signatures, would begin recall proceedings against Camille Hattwig. The petition, while gaining hundreds of signatures, did not meet the threshold and no further action was taken against ASUW.

On April 29, 2021, Editor in Chief Mac Murray published a Letter from the Editor,[18] issuing an apology and action steps The Daily would take to rectify the situation.