Thomas Friedman Gets A Pie In The Face During Speech At Brown

Watch the video of Friedman getting a pie in the face here.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was attacked with pies in the face by environmental activists during a speech about energy at Brown University yesterday.

The Providence Journal reports that Friedman's message — that responding to climate change will make America "stronger, more innovative, [and] more energy secure" — was greeted by protesters:

Not everyone agrees with Friedman's vision that innovation is the path to climate and energy salvation. Just seconds into his speech, he was interrupted by two environmental activists, who stormed the stage shortly after Friedman stepped up to the microphone, tossing two paper plates loaded with shamrock-colored whipped cream at him.

Friedman ducked, and was left with only minor streams of the sugary green goo on his black pants and turtleneck.

He stood in bewilderment and mild disgust as the young man and woman bolted from the stage and out the side door, throwing a handful of fliers into the air to relay the message they apparently were not going to deliver personally.

"Thomas Friedman deserves a pie in the face...," the flier said, "because of his sickeningly cheery applaud for free market capitalism's conquest of the planet, for telling the world that the free market and techno fixes can save us from climate change. From carbon trading to biofuels, these distractions are dangerous in and of themselves, while encouraging inaction with respect to the true problems at hand..."

After five minutes, Friedman returned to the stage undeterred, with only faint traces of the green cream on his clothing.

The Brown Daily Herald reports that the students involved have been apprehended but charges are not likely to be brought against them:

After the pie hit Friedman and splattered on his face and torso, the two jumped offstage and ran out of the southeast exit of the building, followed closely by a man trying to catch them. A police officer also ran toward the exit but stayed inside.

The thrower was eventually caught by police, who detained her in Salomon's lobby before moving her elsewhere.

"One of the offenders was apprehended, placed in the custody of the Brown Department of Public Safety and identified as a Brown student," University spokesman Michael Chapman said in a statement released Tuesday night. "The University will review this incident through its non-academic disciplinary system to determine the appropriate response."

DPS Lt. Rick Lombardi told The Herald that no party wishes to press charges. Lombardi would not confirm the student's identity.

Pictures, hopefully, to come...

Related: FNC's Courtney Friel Gets A Pie In The Face

Comments

[sajc]

the single greatest threat to free speech is LIBERAL FACISM hands down.

-conservatives fight dumb liberal ideas with words and debate

- liberals go "wah wah, i don't like opinions that differ from my own so ill throw things at people i disagree with"

liberals are pathetic children,

Arianna came to speak at my university back in 04. did i agree with her? no. did i try to shout her down or throw things at her cause i disagreed? no. why? cause i'm a conservative who believes in the rights of people to have an opinion counter to my own. Not a WHINEY LIBERAL who can't stand the fact that some one disagrees with their world view... grow up.

[rudeboycyle]

Maybe you should look up the meanings of LIBERAL and FASCISM ( probably the spelling, too). They're on opposite ends of the spectrum, therefore LIBERAL FASCIST must mean you're talking about middle of the road Americans.

[Chiang]

"Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg is a current non-fiction best seller. It discusses glaring philosophical links between doctrines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Fascism

[RedDogBear]

I'm further to the left than liberal but I'll defend them anyway. If you look at the comments you will see several people have criticized this stunt as foolish even though we agree that Friedman is a fool. For someone who is so concerned about ideas you might want to use language more accurately. What exactly is "liberal facism"? From your usage I assume that interfering with free speech is facism and that when liberals do it its liberal facism. Wikipedia defines facism as:
"authoritarian nationalist political ideologies or mass movements that are concerned with notions of cultural decline or decadence and seek to achieve a millenarian national rebirth by placing the individual as subordinate to the nation or race and promoting cults of unity, energy and purity" I would quibble with that a bit. Most definitions also include a strong coupling between corporate and government interests. However, no reasonable definition would describe anything that is discussed here as facist. Actually, let me amend that. The ideology that Friedman and the Neocons advocate comes pretty close.

[Chiang]

You defend an attack/disruption on a public speaker yet you oppose fascism. How do you reconcile this?

[rudeboycyle]

I think that caged "Free Speech Zones" are a pretty big threat also.

[jplass]

liberal fascism? it was a pie to the face! Seems to me you're the only one doing any unnecessary whining here

[marignymitch]

Liberal fascism is an oxymoron, kiddo,

[HamletsMill]

I heard he reportedly said to the Dean of Brown University that he would re-think about whether he would press charges in six months (a Friedman Unit).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_(unit)

[laborgrunt]

Thomas Friedman is full of hot air. He does not bring anything new to the world.

[ZombieKiller]

i gotta say, its funny (in a sad way) to see liberals bashing the pie throwers. this is a dude that cheers the destruction of damn near everything just to make a buck. he doesnt really believe in stopping global warming, he believes in capitalism using global warming to make money.

[NicoleAnonymous]

How is that different what the ecohypocrites do? Everyone knows Gore gets paid for speaking about it. Every month I get some fashion magazine telling me how buying things will help global warming.

"Buy this $50 candle and part of the proceeds will be donated to groups trying to stop global warming! Of course you could just send $50 directly to the charity instead of buying a $50 candle but you will eel better about yourself if you buy this candle!"

"Buy this trendy bracelet that probably cost a few cents to make for $25 and help save the world! Of course you could just send $25 directly to the charity but look at the celebrity wearing the bracelet! You can be just like her!"

They aren't really trying to stop global warming - they're trying to get publicity and encourage people to buy more things they don't need while they fly around the world in private jets.

[bushmocker]

You have to have money to get your point across,you have to fly,you can't promote your agenda from the basement of your home.These people you bumrap are trying to improve the world unlike almost all Republicans who are in a race to destroy the environment,kill all the brown people they can,ruin the economy and oh yeah ,give themselves a tax break.

[plages]

Key-lime, is so good!

[jnratliff]

I hope it was a cow pie!

[provgrays]

You can generally rely on Brown students for undistilled immaturity. Trust funds breed cowardice. No matter what they were protesting, they should have "used their words" instead of ersatz baked goods.

[bushmocker]

Think we'd be reading about it and understand who Friedman really is?This is a flashback to the sixties and we need more of this.Respe­ct doesn't always get your point across and sometimes never will.Befor­e brainwashing more students I'm sure this stunt made those in attendance think just a little bit harder about the message they were hearing.It was only pie.Maybe if we had more activists we wouldn't be in such a mess now.Too bad the people that really really deserve a pie in the face are surrounded with bodyguards and protesters are safely tucked away in free speech zones miles away.We are living in a fascist state and we're too busy going about our busy lives to do anything about it.The students are what saved us in Vietnam,maybe they can do it again.

[provgrays]

Yes, we are living in a fascist state, but a pie in the face is ineffective and Friedman is hardly the appropriate target. The pie attack was an assault and that is still illegal, right?

Besides, you would think that Ivy League students could organize and protest collectively. It's fine to raise your voice in a democracy, but pies in the face are juvenile and they only detract from the reasons the Trust Fund kids protested in the first place.

Throwing around fliers and running after a physical attack is just cowardice. Would Martin Luther King have done that kind of thing?

[UltraClassic]

Hillary '08

Send the parents of those two brats the cleaning bill for the guy's suit. In the future, are conservati­ve/liberta­rian type speakers should carry a black jack or other device and be prepared to open up a big can of whoop A$$ on these worthless little punks.

Hillary '08

[leftbehind2000]

Geez - at least the guy BELIEVES there is global warming. Seems there are plenty of more deserving faces for those pies.

[NABNYC]

Hey hey hey. If we're going to start attacking vapid useless mascot drones who marry rich women and spend their lives thinking they're important because their wife has lots of money, I think we need to start with John McCain and work our way down.

Friedman would be way at the bottom. He's been thoroughly discredited ("Hey, let's send all our jobs to China and see what happens to the working people." "Hey, let's sell all our corn for ethanol, create an artificial bubble in the commodities market, and see what happens when 2/3 of the world has nothing to eat.")

I only wish the jobless and hungry could get in touch with him personally. I doubt they would have pie on their minds.

[NicoleAnonymous]

"Let them eat cake."

Sincerely

Thomas Friedman

[cordier]

I don't think reports of this incident will last for even one "friedman unit".

[nikto]

Some Liberals throw pies.

Some Conservatives blow people up, or shoot them dead.

Any questions?

Didn't think so.

[shockmagog]

Think of Huffington Post as big, cycling, electronic newspaper. This is merely a story in the Media section (although it would probably fit on the Lifestyle page).

[NicoleAnonymous]

I don't consider this a newspaper - they mostly take articles from other places and give them snappy headlines and then post them here. That isn't journalism.

And the "lifestyle" section here is really strange - it's obviously meant for women but some of the articles are really stupid which makes me think they believe women only read stupid things. And another very strange thing about that section is they have articles about women being sexually assualted almost every day. They're usually not written by women who have actually been victims - today there are two of them. I can't remember any day where they haven't had an article there about women being sexually assaulted - it's just really strange. I don't have any theories about why they do it but you wouldn't see that in most newspapers.

[ruralguy]

Pie throwers are always so inept.

[nikto]

Someone should do this to him at least once every FRIEDMAN UNIT.

[nanoscare]

I believe the proper way to start this article is: Billionaire New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was attacked with pies in the face by environmental activists during a speech about energy at Brown University yesterday.

[obsessed]

Don't worry Tom,

The pie-throwing will stop ... in about 6 months.

[EggsBolinski]

Well that was not a pie. It was just green whipped cream. I like pie and when I found out it wasn't pie I thought now that was disappointing.

[leftbehind2000]

My feelings egg-xactly.

[marignymitch]

Bummer. That's cheating. No shortcuts allowed. It's gotta be real pie if it's gonna be a real protest.