Breaking: Journalism now Illegal
Watch this video of John Ziegler getting arrested outside of an event at the USC School of Journalism (H/T Hot Air). The event was honoring Katie Couric for being a good journalist…I guess.
That video is truly unbelievable. Ziegler is simply asking questions to people heading into the event. The officer in the beginning of the video uses the line that Ziegler has no business being there. He said he wasn’t protesting and he wasn’t going into the event. That is completely irrelevant. For starters Ziegler had a reason for being there, he was being a journalist, secondly it doesn’t matter if he had a reason to be there or not. It is public property. Free speech isn’t allowed only sometimes, it’s always allowed. And it isn’t bound by a “reason” or “purpose.”
If the officer was serious about this rule of “purpose” for being there, do they ask everyone standing outside of a building on campus if they have a reason for standing there? And what happens if you don’t have a reason, are you arrested?
This video came at a great time for me. Just last night I got to hear Mike Adams speak. He’s a columnist at TownHall.com and he fights college campuses on free speech across the country, including the one where he works. When I was watching this video one thing he said stuck out in my mind; university administrators write speech codes and rules as if they’re above the constitution.
There is an arrogance in the administration buildings of our universities, they truly believe they are above the constitution. The Ziegler incident is a perfect example. They had no right to throw him out of a public place (is that even possible by the way?). But administrators have no spine, they’re afraid that someone will be “offended” as if they have a right not to be offended.
That was another point that Adams hit on last night. He said, and he’s absolutely right, that people don’t have a constitutional right to be comfortable, the first amendment was written with full knowledge that people will offend each other. If you’re in the boundaries of the United States you assume that you’ll be “offended” several times a day (but then again I guess it would depend on your definition of offended).
If campus police can arrest you (and steal your microphone) for simply asking questions to people walking into an event, and it’s tolerated, at what point does it end? Since when did it become illegal to offend people?
It’s not illegal to offend people, it’s our right to offend people if we want to, whether universities like it or not. Our universities are slowly turning us all into closed-mouthed pansies.
–jb
3 Comments
Jacob on April 18th, 2009
I really wish it were an exception to the rule.
And I wouldn’t characterize it as liberal universities, although I may have in this writing, I would consider it administrators who just get power hungry and believe they’re above the constitution.
You can find cases like these at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. And the Alliance Defense Fund. They are the two big organizations that fight these kinds of cases.
parafish13 on April 19th, 2009
After my three essays due this week are done, I’ll check out those organizations. Thanks.
parafish13 on April 18th, 2009
“It’s not illegal to offend people, it’s our right to offend people if we want to”
I agree with you 100% there.
But wait…are you sure you want to end on the note that it’s “free speech vs. evil (liberal) universities?”
Our own President just shot down the anti-Tutu request in the name of open communication and debate. This video is disappointing, but it’s the exception to the rule.