The saga over Ann Coulter being forced to cancel her speaking engagement at UC Berkeley over safety considerations was hardly a triumph for free speech.
But something less incendiary – though undoubtedly much less interesting – is happening at Berkeley tonight. The Berkeley Forum, a student run-organization, which claims to be non-partisan, is hosting an event entitled ‘Journalism and the Internet’. It’s a discussion about journalism and the internet.
One of the panelists is Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold, a notorious adversary of President Trump who was recently honored by the liberal Pulitzer Prize judges for his reporting “casting doubt on Donald Trump’s assertions of generosity toward charities.”.
Ahead of preaching to the choir, Fahrenthold was trying to drum up interest in the event by throwing shade on Coulter:
If you happen to be in Berkeley tonight, and your other plans fell through… https://t.co/rLoTTKiQA2
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) April 27, 2017
Other panelists include Laura Davis, Assistant Professor at USC Annenberg and Seth Lewis, Associate Professor at the University of Oregon. You get the impression that if this event were to be canceled, no student would care enough to resort to litigation, as they are in the case of Coulter.
The debate’s organizers write: “This event is open to the public. Entry to the event will be open to ticketholders and, space-permitting, a limited number of walk-ins.”
Don’t all rush at once…