PROOF： “The state of journalism in 2019 is worse than you think”
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Summary
In this episode of The Ezra LeVant Show, host Ezra Levenoran tells the story of a crazy story out of Northwestern University, where a conservative speaker was invited to campus to give a speech, and the left had a problem with it.
Transcript
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Hey Rebels, today I tell you a story out of Illinois, Northwestern University to be precise.
00:00:06.080
It's a crazy story. It's a fun story. It's an American story, but I think it's a Canadian story too.
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You'll be the judge of that. Before I go, may I invite you to become a premium member of The Rebel.
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Go to premium.rebelnews.com. It's eight bucks a month, and you get the video version of this podcast,
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which I think is great. All right, here's today's show.
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Tonight, I want to show you the state of journalism in 2019. No, it's worse than you think.
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It's November 14th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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Do you know the name Jeff Sessions? He used to be a U.S. senator, really one of the first to endorse Donald Trump
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That really helped Trump. It was a sign that someone in the establishment took him seriously,
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and that someone with strong conservative bona fides believed Trump was a conservative.
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You have to remember, back in 2015 especially, most Republicans took Trump as if not a joke,
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just a lighthearted, also-ran, maybe some sort of performance art, something unserious.
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No one could believe that it could happen, especially in those early days.
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And people thought maybe he was even un-Republican.
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But Jeff Sessions, in his early endorsement, was a significant counterpoint to that.
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And Trump rewarded Sessions by appointing him Attorney General, where he served for 18 months.
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He took a hard line on some issues, very conservative.
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For example, Jeff Sessions really opposed so-called sanctuary cities, where local politicians just declare
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they won't enforce immigration laws, even against violent criminals.
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And wouldn't you know it, now Sessions is looking to get back into the Alabama Senate.
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When I left President Trump's cabinet, did I write a tell-all book?
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Second, the president's doing a great job for America and Alabama.
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Trump is being mean to Sessions, to use a word.
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But I thought that was a pretty high-minded response by Sessions.
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I don't think he's Trump's favorite, but there it is.
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Anyways, whatever you think of Jeff Sessions, he's a man of consequence.
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He's former attorney general of his own state, former U.S. attorney.
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He was a senator in Washington for a decade, then Trump's attorney general.
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But the Republican Student Club at a university in Illinois called Northwestern University,
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they thought Sessions was interesting enough to invite to campus to give a speech.
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Of course, as usual, the left on campus had a freakout.
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Here are some details about their reaction, as published by the student newspaper called
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Over 150 students protested the event, some holding signs and others chanting F.U.C.K. Sessions.
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Protesters also stormed the back entrance to Lutkin and attempted to enter the hall by climbing
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University police officers followed students into Lutkin, knocking some protesters to the
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And here's the university's president, Morton Shapiro, as reported in the newspaper.
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Unlike other colleges, Northwestern University PD prevented the protests from fully disrupting
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The police force showed tremendous restraint and professionalism to make sure that people
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I'm not a fan of the former attorney general, but he's not going to get hurt at my campus.
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Although some universities grant amnesty to student protesters, Shapiro emphasized that
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He said NU makes the rules of engagement very clear.
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You can protest, you can't hurt anybody, and you can't shut down speech.
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And if you do, you're going to face the consequences.
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I think that's much more enlightened than many other universities where they cave in to the
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cancelers and the de-platformers and the violent thugs.
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I sort of like that guy, just based on what I read here.
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Now, of course, the student government at Northwestern is as awful as you'd imagine.
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Hardcore left-wing, of course, grievance mongers.
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ASG introduces resolution following Sessions protests to support students of marginalized
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In response to student protests against former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' speech
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at Northwestern, the Associated Student Government introduced an emergency resolution during its
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November 6th session to provide students with more time and resources.
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The resolution, which passed 28 to 2, with two abstention votes, called on the university
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to reconsider attendance policies for students who hold marginalized identities and may have
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been impacted by the protests, the legislation states.
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It also seeks to expand comprehensive counseling and the Center for Awareness, Response, and Education.
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As in, if you're a minority and Jeff Sessions hurt your feelings, you get special grief counselors and more
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And I'm up-talking all of those sentences, because I'm sure that's how it was spoken at the university
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student government, whose graduates will go on to be part of the real student government,
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real government, grown-up government, soon enough.
00:07:03.140
Um, this is just normal butter popcorn, but I have a secret.
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I put ground pepper over my popcorn, and it adds a little, like, savory dimension.
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It just makes, you know, like pop secret, but gourmet.
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Anyways, so I didn't mention that Northwestern has what is regarded as one of the United States'
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Which is why they also have a daily student newspaper.
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So this isn't just a hobby or an extracurricular, this Northwestern, daily Northwestern paper I've
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Here's one of their student reporters covering Jeff Sessions' speech, or more accurately, covering
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Protesters tried to rush the room where Sessions was speaking.
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Okay, here's the report on the protests in the newspaper.
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So let me read a little bit, because it's a window into what it's like on campuses these
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And I don't think it's much better up here in Canada.
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Students on Tuesday protested Northwestern College Republicans' decision to host former
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions, chanting outside Lutkin Hall before attempting to interrupt
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Sessions' talk by climbing through open windows and pushing through doors.
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Around 150 protesters, some holding signs reading, no concessions, no racism, no KKK, no fascist
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And Sessions is a traitor, gathered outside the lecture hall before Sessions was scheduled
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to speak at 7 p.m., booing and yelling as attendees entered the building.
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Sessions' talk, hosted by NUCR, was titled The Real Meaning of the Trump Agenda.
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Some protesters chanted, hey, hey, JBS, you got us into this mess.
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And I-C-E-K-K-K, how many kids have you killed today?
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While others called attendees clowns and urged them to stop disguising their racism as free
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So they're a bit crazy, or maybe more than a little bit crazy.
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In fact, I think I mentioned before that Sessions was a prosecutor back in Alabama before he was
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He's the one who, almost 40 years ago, filed civil rights charges against the KKK for killing
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So yeah, sort of the opposite of a racist, but that's too much journalism-ing for Northwestern.
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A few days after Sessions' visit, look at this editorial in the student newspaper, addressing
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Last week, the Daily was not the paper that Northwestern students deserve.
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On November 5th, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke on campus at a Northwestern
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The Daily sent a reporter to cover that talk, and another to cover the students protesting
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his invitation to campus, along with a photographer.
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We recognized that we contributed to the harm students experienced, and we wanted to apologize
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for and address the mistakes that we made that night, along with how we plan to move forward.
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You ran a story that was pretty much 100% in support of the protesters and against Sessions,
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One area of our reporting that harmed many students was our photo coverage of the events.
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Some protesters found the photos posted to reporters' Twitter accounts re-traumatizing
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On one hand, as the paper of record for Northwestern, we want to ensure students, administrators,
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and alumni understand the gravity of the events that took place Tuesday night.
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However, we decided to prioritize the trust and safety of students who were photographed.
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We feel that covering traumatic events requires a different response than many other stories.
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While our goal is to document history and spread information, nothing is more important
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than ensuring that our fellow students feel safe.
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And in situations like this, that they are benefiting from coverage rather than being
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We failed to do that last week, and we could not be more sorry.
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This is the sorriest you could ever be in the whole world.
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You know, that whole safe spaces thing, that whole triggering thing, I think that was
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just supposed to be a meme or like a joke or sarcasm.
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It's why people bring signs to protest and have those rhyming chants.
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Some students also voiced concern about the methods that daily staffers used to reach out
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Some of our staff members who were covering the event used Northwestern's directory to
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obtain phone numbers for students beforehand and texted them to ask if they'd be willing
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We recognize being contacted like this is an invasion of privacy.
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And we've spoken with those reporters along with our entire staff about the correct way
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So don't use phones or is it don't use phone books?
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So you're saying journalists politely contacting people whose names are in a public phone directory
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asking nicely in advance if they would like to be interviewed.
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Now, sometimes the answer to such a journalist inquiry is no or even to say no very rudely.
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That's an extremely long and boring op-ed by Northwestern, the Daily Northwestern.
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This is like The Onion or the Babylon Bee or some joke?
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Unfortunately, the Daily Northwestern, let me read some more.
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Ultimately, the Daily failed to consider our impact in our reporting surrounding Jeff Sessions.
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We know we hurt students that night, especially those who identify with marginalized groups.
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According to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics,
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ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues, and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.
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So you're apologizing because by telling people what happened in the world,
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you have hurt their feelings and they feel disrespected.
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But if you care about that, you are in the wrong profession.
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You should be in the bubble wrap business or the noise-canceling earphones business or,
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I don't know, social work or vacation getaways or something where people can avoid bad things.
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Except that this is journalism by student journalists at one of the leading journalism schools in America,
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And these baby reporters are all about to graduate and go work in real newspapers and radio stations and TV stations
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which is reason 14 million why you can never trust the mainstream media.
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which tells you that I'm in London in the United Kingdom.
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I have just stepped into a vehicle outside the Royal Courts of Justice at which the High Court is located,
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though with the traffic the way it is in this country, you never know.
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The reason I was in London is the reason I'm usually in London,
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which is to cover the latest litigation involving our friend Tommy Robinson.
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When I was last out here, I was actually in Luton, which is Tommy's hometown,
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about 45 minutes north of London, an hour north.
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And that was when the police and prosecution were suing Tommy to ban him from attending any football game in the United Kingdom,
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or as they call it here, they call it football, what we call in North America, soccer.
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It was literally the state deciding that Tommy Robinson was the most dangerous person
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because he goes to those football games, and we better stop that.
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You got 23,000 jihadis running around this country,
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But Tommy Robinson going to football games was what they were prosecuting for.
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That's what I was doing in Luton about a month ago.
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But a couple of days ago, Tommy Robinson called me up and said,
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as I've got this civil litigation against me at the high court,
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it's a defamation case where a young Syrian migrant, who's a student,
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Sorry, it's a little bit bumpy, so the camera's jiggling around.
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So Tommy reported on this, as he says he took the other side of the story.
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And the kid, his name is Jamal, sued Tommy for a defamation.
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We didn't actually get into the substance of the case.
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they talked about one of the issues regarding the witnesses for about 10 minutes.
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the lawyers talked with each other and with the judge about their fees.
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I'm a former lawyer myself, and of course I've been involved in litigation,
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both giving and receiving, in North America and even in other countries.
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But I have never seen a thing like I saw today.
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There was a proposal to have seven lawyers on this case.
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And the lawyers were talking with each other and with a judge called the Master
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they really weren't the subject of the conversation today.
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And it was about the lawyers making sure they got well paid.
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So we were all in this little office of this kind of a judge called a Master.
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And the senior lawyers were right up against the desk across from the judge.
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And then there was another row of three more lawyers and Tommy.
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And then there was me, one other journalist from an alt-left news agency called Press Association,
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And for 90 minutes, the lawyers said, well, I want to get paid for this.
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And it was really three lawyers talking about seven lawyers getting paid.
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And when I say three lawyers, I am including the Master,
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because, of course, she's a former lawyer, is a lawyer.
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And the figures they were coming up with were so staggeringly large.
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Like I say, I've been involved in litigation in various jurisdictions.
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But if I, and I'm just, there were so many numbers thrown out.
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But the final number that the Master approved for the plaintiffs,
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I converted it immediately to Canadian dollars,
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which is twitter.com slash Ezra Levant for the exactitudes.
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So more than half a million for the plaintiff's lawyers,
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if this thing goes all the way, and if they win.
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I can assure you, although I shouldn't say that now,
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because this is making me question what I thought I knew about the British legal system,
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that Jamal will not get that amount of money if he wins.
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and there was a suggestion that there ought to be seven lawyers.
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What they, the barrister, the one who argues in the court,
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and the solicitor is the one who does the groundwork.
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In Canada and the United States, there is no distinction.
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I can see now why they have that split profession.
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So they can have more piggies at the trough.
1.00
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And listen, I'm sure all the lawyers in the room were outstanding lawyers.
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But I have just never in my life seen such insane bills on both sides.
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And I've never seen the money being sorted out as the first issue.
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I mean, in Canada, which I'm most familiar with,
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We won a little bit for this, and we won a little bit for that.
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And typically, even the winning side gets just a fraction of what they spent.
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Unless the behavior by the other side was so egregious,
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But here, the amount of money they were getting approved in advance
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And the fact that the lawyers were all discussing this
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they weren't pleading Jamal's case or Tommy's case.
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I have to tell you, I'm slightly demoralized by the whole thing
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And I guess that goes to what this lawsuit's really about.
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This defamation case is not about a young Syrian migrant
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I don't believe that's what this case is about.
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I believe it's about throwing anything at Tommy
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I mean, Tommy's not a threat to the football games either,
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They'll throw literally anything they can at him.
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So it was about just slightly less than a two-hour hearing today.
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There was a 10 or 15-minute break where the master went through things.
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The final result was her coming up with those dollar figures.
0.68
00:24:22.260
But like I say, we didn't even get into any of the substance.
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which is he doesn't want to turn over the identity of his witnesses
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to the plaintiffs because he's worried they'll be abused, threatened, etc.
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So Tommy told me, and I think this video should be up at TommyTrial.com,
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and he said he's got students ready to testify,
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He says he's got internal records from the school
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that all show that this kid was indeed a bully.
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For maybe 10 minutes, they talked about the fact that,
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therefore, Tommy wants his witnesses to be kept confidential
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The judge will obviously be able to know who they are, etc.
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But he wants them kept confidential from the public
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And the reason for that we didn't get into today,
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but I know why, having talked to Tommy and seen his videos and whatnot,
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the lawyers involved sent an insane Antifa street thug
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and they live-streamed it, thus revealing his home location.
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So this wasn't that Jamal Syrian kid anymore.
1.00
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The law firm, instead of sending what's called a process server
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or a private detective or even a courier or a messenger
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You can see it on my other video at TommyTrial.com.
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and live-streamed the visit to Tommy's confidential home location.
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to the law firm itself because of their abuse of conduct so far.
00:26:40.460
or the benchers or whatever they call it over here
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on the same phone as I'm doing this live stream.
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I won't get into the confidential nature of our discussions,
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but he obviously agrees that this is the law fair,
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including the kitchen sink, seeing what'll stick.
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As I say, there was only one other reporter in the room,
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They probably wouldn't call themselves extremists.
00:27:51.800
but I've seen their misconduct on Tommy reported,
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I mean, it was a pretty bland and boring hearing.
00:28:02.680
so I'm not even sure how it could be mischaracterized,
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I'll strike up another live stream and tell you,
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and I'm serious, there were five lawyers in the room,
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and it's only paid by conservatives, by the way.
00:30:21.120
So if you want to help cover the cost of my flight,
00:30:31.400
Altogether, it'll be just under $2,000 a Canadian.
00:30:42.160
That's it for today from the streets of London.
00:30:45.480
on behalf of all of us at Rebel World Headquarters,
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for causing harm and hurt to people's feelings,
00:31:37.460
on behalf of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,