Students present at Vicente Fox's speech at Syracuse University October 29 were denied a right fundamental to the prestigious school of journalism: freedom of speech.
Fox only took pre-screened questions presented by the organizer of the event, according to The Daily Orange. Since students were unable to ask questions, they voiced their dissent the same way a heckler lets a comedian know how poorly they're doing.
President Fox is a politician; the circular logic, making things seem better than they are and avoiding difficult questions goes with the territory. However, Fox is the former president of Mexico, meaning his electability is not affected by any answers he could give. He could deny the existence of homosexuals in Mexico, like Ahmadinejad did for Iran, and his career would not be jeopardized. The administration denied students a forum to ask questions of their guest speaker - heaven forbid someone hold a politician accountable.
As the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox deserves respect, which he could not receive because students were shouting during the presentation. If the University wanted to avoid this, they should have allowed students to ask questions in a civilized manner. SU may have feared students getting out of line with an open microphone, the same way Andrew Meyer got out of line with John Kerry at University at Florida, resulting in him being Tasered.
Lee Bollinger didn't respect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, after inviting him to Columbia University. As if Iran needs another reason to hate America. SU did the opposite of Columbia.
Removing a student after such an outburst may seem like an ordinary course of action, but the University should have expected it since students had no other outlet. By trying to prevent students from voicing their criticism in a civilized debate, officials ensured chaos. Several students voiced dismay during the presentation; when Fox mentioned NAFTA, one shouting student had to be removed, yelling "don't tase me, bro!" before being escorted out.
Despite how controversial Michael Moore may have been, we were still allowed to ask questions. The First Amendment is synonymous with America, and no one uses their First Amendment rights more on a daily basis than journalists.
Writers go on strike to get a bigger piece of the pie
This title would have been better, but our writers are on strike
Thank you, Writer's Guild of America, for going on strike this week and messing up everyone's television schedules. Couldn't you wait until after the Lost season finale? Casualties of the strike include popular shows Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine, among many other CBS sitcoms, according to E! Online. Late-night comedians like Letterman and Leno will not bid watchers goodnight, but fans can see Leno picketing in support of his writers, along with Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Saturday Night Live has (obviously) gone straight to reruns, though "Dick in a Box 2" would be a sight to see.
Unfortunately, both sides have been unwilling to compromise on the demands. Writers want a larger percentage of DVD sales. Currently, they receive four cents per DVD sold, according to the Guardian Unlimited. The writers have also demanded that large corporations pay them fees when they offer sneak peeks of new media, and a percentage of money received from downloads and digital sales, according to The New York Times.
This isn't the first time the industry has gone on strike; according to the Guardian Unlimited, the last strike was in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry $500 million. With stats like that, it looks like couch potatoes won't be getting their fix any time soon.
The camaraderie felt between students who gather together to watch Lost will be missing until the writers and corporations reach an agreement to return viewers to their regularly scheduled programming.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
