Does the First Amendment Protect the Right to Be a Dumbass?

Upon seeing John Ziegler in handcuffs, I was struck by the sheer suaveness of a simpleton who discovered that getting in the face of security with a camera will lead them to apprehend you. It was similar to how he looked on a reality dating show explaining his ideal relationship to a clearly perturbed woman: that marriage should be renegotiated every five years like a business contract. How did this not go over well?

This video shows Ziegler on the USC campus trying to get in to an event he was not invited to, nor granted press credentials for. The event was an award ceremony for Katie Couric at the Walter Cronkite center. (Why Katie Couric was being awarded for journalism eludes me.) That the event was reportedly honoring her interviews with Sarah Palin would be sufficient reason to get Ziegler angry enough to show up and cause a scene.

As I wrote here on the Huffington Post, Ziegler's documentary, Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and How Sarah Palin Was Targeted, offers little substance supporting his assertion that the media conspired to bring down Sarah Palin, other than Ziegler's own voiced-over rants.

Further, in my sit-down interview with Ziegler to give him the platform to make his case of media bias, he offered no substantive issues to champion Palin, and showed contempt for the idea of truth.

So it was not surprising to see him attempting to heckle Katie Couric, whom he blames for Palin's downfall. Despite original claims that this was shot by some other company from Orange County that has nothing to do with Ziegler, the microphone he is thrusting in people's faces is clearly feeding audio to the camera.

Nor was it surprising to see USC security guards lose their patience with Ziegler after he refused to leave despite repeated requests. They asked him, told him, then laid hands on him as he cries out that he is not blocking the sidewalk, and a Borat-like struggle ensues as Ziegler awkwardly attempts to hold his ground.

NOTE: At this juncture, yelling out "I JUST WANT TO ASK A QUESTION!" will not ingratiate you to local authorities. Nor will it grant you the credibility that will make a public relations person representing an event say, "OH! Well if you just want to ask a question..."

I have been in similar situations with a camera many times. As Spinal Tap keenly observed, there is a fine line between clever and stupid. In being confrontational with cameras, there is a fine line between making a point and looking like a dumbass. When you are up close to cops, security, or soldiers, and they say don't film, they mean it. They are asserting their authority in this situation. If you mock that authority, they don't like it. They will take it to the next level of deterrence, because if they don't stand up to you, who else might threaten the thin blue line between society and chaos? Many conservatives tend to sympathize with law enforcement in these situation, particularly when independent media types are manhandled outside of political conventions.

This is where strategies such as "tact" and "respect" come into play, antiquated concepts to John Ziegler. I have consistently found that if you acknowledge the officer's authority, step off like they request, and inquire as to how you can best get what you want, you will receive similar respect in turn.

Many conservatives seem surprised at the restrictions on non-credentialed media after seeing this happen to someone whose cause they sympathize with. I have been struck by the many outcries on Breitbart about how this proves we live in a fascist/communist society, and that the liberal establishment is clearly picking on an innocent guy for being conservative, or whatever.

No, this video shows what misbehavior in front of security guards on a private campus gets you. If you do not believe me, I suggest you go to a private university, stand outside an event you are not welcome at, and yell "I JUST WANT TO ASK A QUESTION!" Nobody is going to ask you how you voted in the last election, how much you make a year, or whether or not you teabag (not that there's anything wrong with that). You will make whatever authorities present uncomfortable, and they will remove you because you are freaking people out.

What's more, the claims that USC is a liberal autocracy are dubious. My first week there as a film student, there was a rally held by the Young Republicans, then the largest extra-curricular group on campus. The rally was in protest of a bill in California that would include homosexuals under job discrimination laws applying to other minorities. The homophobia was like school spirit before the USC vs UCLA football game. When I was writing for the USC paper (the regrettably named Daily Trojan), our opinion section regularly featured outspoken conservative views.

What this video shows is not reflective of USC campus security, who have to police the outlying South Central L.A. neighborhood in bulletproof attire besides telling unwelcome provocateurs to behave. This video is not reflective of a media conspiracy to silence conservative critics. This video shows a guy who craves attention being obnoxious and then being escorted away by security guards, as they are wont to do with someone causing a scene.

What is remarkable is that Ziegler was not charged or cited, and that he was able to walk away with the footage. Perhaps, if this were not a middle-aged white guy in a suit, and instead a young black guy with low-slung pants, there might well have been a different outcome to this standoff. I suspect many young black men who do not seek confrontation with cops might concur.

This type of pseudo-struggle does not bestow any type of journalistic legitimacy. Getting a reaction from people by showing up with cameras and getting in their face is not hard. Michael Moore flogged that horse into dog food decades ago. It is such a tired tactic of self-imposed importance, I parodied it in my documentary FREE FOR ALL! when I crashed Diebold headquarters asking questions.

Yes, we have a glorious First Amendment which says that congress shall pass no law abridging the freedom of speech or freedom of the press. And when an individual shows up uninvited on private grounds, congress is not involved in making laws that prohibit people from kicking a crackpot off their property. While an alarming number of citizen journalists have been restricted, harassed, arrested, even beaten in trying to report from their place in the world, this video is more like a Tom Green bit, and just as painful.

This is more misinterpretation of our country's founding principles. Like people protesting taxes while they receive tax cuts, this is maligned patriotism, with self-pitying posturing projecting a fallacious air of vindication. John Ziegler is a discredit to his cause, and any who embrace him should be embarrassed.

Comments

[mredder4]

I've had two comments on Ziegler's response post remain unapproved since it was posted. So much for honest debate.

[TrooAmerican]

THis is funny...

the right wing nutcases have been the ones trying to quell independant thought, investigative journalism and free speech for so long, they dont know how to get the best they can by acting appropriately within the law.

I'm surprised he didnt start yelling out.."Dont tase me Bro! Dont tase me!"

[MaryscottOConnor]

A-m-e-n-d-m-e-n-t

[Tremonius]

Another problem I have is with the seepage of great noble Constitutional Issues into the private realm. Some time ago, it was held by the Supremes that petitioning at a private mall was protected speech. Does this mean the nutbag slimers with their idiotic signs can invade the garden while your daughter's wedding is underway?

When we age, we drift towards the Fourth Amendment from the First. We are riotous for expression when we be young and clamorous and yet in later years we just want to be left alone. I mean, we've heard it all before, so we want to choose what we want to read and hear, thank you very much.

[ESerafina42]

Only if your daughter's wedding is open to the general public, though I wouldn't argue it on first amendment grounds. There IS a difference, though you seem determined not to see it, and if the person is pestering others and/or causing a disturbance then that should be a reason to expel them from the mall.

[BlackJAC]

The mall still is private property, though. It's like a ticket to a movie or concert or ball game: from a strict legal standpoint, you've entered into a contract where you're renting that seat for the duration of the event, and they would be within their rights to require you to buy $200 worth of concessions as part of that contract.

[Tremonius]

The wingnut hysteria around broadcast is understandable when you realize this is the only shot they have. I mean, like Palin, these people, the "core," do not read. And so like illiterates everywhere they must be told what to think, and that's why Faux Noise and Limbo are there. If you have a fetid cesspool in your yard, you shall have mosquitoes. No mystery.

At some point, it was said the Supremes were considering breaking the First Amendment away from image, so that only print might be protected. Think on that. All political ideas then must be expressed close to thought to be protected. I like it. Images range from corrossive to toxic, but they can be a workable antidote for them as need them. As witness, reports were printed without notice in Harper's about atrocities at Guantanimo maybe a year before the snapshots came out of Abu Ghraib .

[soonhappyamerica]

I have to ask, is there a minute, an hour or a day, whereby, there isn't a scandal associated with Sarah Palin?

[CJWebber]

Yes, yesterday she was pretty silent. Travelling.

[soonhappyamerica]

An outstanding, well phrased and thoughtful expose, Thank you. I thorougly enjoyed this intelligent article.

[soonhappyamerica]

Why is it always the case, that when statements should be intelligent, substantive, backed by facts and research, that the extreme right behave as though they hadn't even gotten through the first grade?

Did the entire republican party along with the christian right, become as dumb as a bag of rocks? It certainly appears that way across the board.

[protagonia]

Home schooling. The unintelligent teaching their young from the kitchen.

[soonhappyamerica]

Just another bad PR move in the name of Sarah Palin. How is it that both Sarah Palin and her supporters seem to add to her already scandalous life.

What an embarassment!

[traveller77]

I disagree. It is wrong when private, undeputized security people screw over Liberal activists and it is wrong when these same securtiy people screw over Conservative activists, too.

I saw no reason why Security wanted Zeigler to leave the USC campus, which is not as "Private" as you claim. What did he do? He was not attending the private event. He did not appear to me to be disrupting the normal course of business on the campus. There simply was no disturbance of the peace that I saw.

I wonder if you are allowing your personal distaste for this man to set aside your own Civil Rights in order to justify one of those rare instances when security guards mess over someone most of us would disagree with? If he was in a public area (and he was), then he roundly deserved to be left alone until he created a disturbance.

It disturbs me that he was not left alone, and that you don't care.

tt77

[soonhappyamerica]

There are certain behaviors that we must follow to live in our free and remarkably democratic society in order to keep ourselves safe from harm.. If you listened to Ziegler's pleadings, he sounded weak and irrational. His rantings didn't make sense and it didn't elicit credibility and a level of confidence.

I believe people are treated in direct proportion to the way they behave. He was treated poorly because he himself was behaving poorly. His voice was extremely thin and he kept on with his mantra of "I just want to ask a question." , over and over again. He was like a child getting caught with his hand in a cookie jar and when reprimanded he protested a little too much.

You can't storm into a private event without an invitation, even if you're quiet as a mouse. One could certainly not make a case for someone who wanted to bring in their negativity and video cameras.

This weakened his position as a filmmaker and journalist wanabe.

[traveller77]

I understand your plea. I sympathize with it, but I still disagree.

I am still more interested in my own Civil Rights here than Zeigler's. I want the right to go onto a public area and remain unmolested by security guards or cops as long as I am not disturbing the peace. I did not see Zeigler disturb the peace. I certainly did see the security guards incite Zeigler to disturb the peace when they improperly impeded his own right to remain unmolested in a public place. And he WAS in a public place.

The whole thing stinks. It doesn't stink less just because I don't like Zeigler. If those pretend-cops can act against Zeigler on such arbitrary judgements, then they can act against me, too, and be just as arbitrary. My bottom line: Those pretend-cops damaged MY civil rights that day; not to mention YOURs as well; not just Zeigler's. I am surprised you don't see that.

Now, you are welcome to correct me if you can point out something that wasn't on that Youtube video. Maybe something happened before or after the vid was shot. But if the vid stands alone and I were Zeigler, I'd sue USC

tt77

[LeftRight]

They wanted him to leave because he was being disruptive at a time when disruptive behavior is not allowed. I would have expected them to do the same reasonable thing to a liberal protest occurring at the same event.

[quindy]

If you cannot show your journalist credential or invitation to the security you are out.

[BlackJAC]

It's not USC's fault that John Ziegler historically chose to act in a certain fashion that would cause their security people to reasonably believe he'd continue to act in that same fashion. It's been my observation that whenever someone invokes the real or perceived persecution of whatever subgroup they belong to, they probably don't have anything else going for them. The term "free speech" is a misnomer for every word uttered carries a price, and the price John has paid is getting a rep as a partisan rockthrower looking for any sort of attention.

[Nommo]

Seems to me that the FA has protected far more of the uninformed than the informed. Of course, the uninformed always seem to outnumber the informed, so I guess that's what FA do. Protect idiots. Clearly, god is not enough.

[talktozig]

HuffPost's Pick

This is John Ziegler. Yes, that one. The above post is a hatchet job done by a guy who doesn't have the facts. Since I gave him an extensive interview recently (where he expressed lots of sympathy for my views/cause) and he has all my contact information and never bothered to get a hold of me before writing this piece of trash, he clearly doesn't want the facts.

If any one on the left actually does care about what really happened here and why it indeed was a serious violation of all of our free speech rights, I urge you to read my response to my critics that I will post on HuffPost on Monday.

I have been extremely disappointed that so many of those on the left who pretend that free speech is sacred have, at best, bent over backwards to find an excuse to not support someone with whom they simply disagree and, at worst, resorted to vicious and inaccurate personal attacks like this post.

This is an extremely sad episode for America, regardless of your political views.

[18wheeler]

Sad episode for America would have been having GINO as VP...

[traveller77]

I agree with you, and I am definitely a Progressive. Civil Rights are for everybody and that includes you.

... Civil rights are even for people (like you) who don't particularly respect the concept. Arresting people (like you) because we disagree with them is for South American dictators and George W. Bush -- not for real Americans. If you disturb the peace, THAT would justify your removal, but not before.

I just want to point out that USC is not a particularly Liberal place, and there are no "security people" who are politically Liberal or particularly democratic. Progressives did not do this to you.

I want to know the rest of the story -- what happened before this video was shot, and what happened after this video was shot. While the vid is sufficient to give us something to talk about here in this comment section, it doesn't really settle very much.

With all this being said, you really don't have much credibility here. Anything you claim you would certainly have to prove as well. If you can prove your claims, then it doesn't matter what we think: Your proof would also give you good cause to take legal action against the University for what they did. That's more important.

tt77

[LABC]

I think it is sad that you feel the need to harass a journalist over an interview voluntarily given by the candidate to draw attention to yourself.

[quindy]

No, extremely sad episode was when Bush invented 'free speech zones' and corralled people in it. Where were you to protest than?

[KataVideo]

I find it equally or more sad that one of the screaming meemie sycophants of the (wrong) side that has done more to curtail free speech and media rights is now self-righteously demanding that we defend him.

What was it that Huey said in that first episode of "The Boondocks"? "Every Black Man who gets arrested ain't Nelson Mandela!" I'd like some confirmation that what this guy was doing was actually 'journalism" and not "stalking" or "harassment".

[thebigbike]

To the extent that you do not infringe on others rights, you have every right to be a dumbass and to show every one repeatedly until there is no possible doubt of it. You don't have the right to evade the consequences that may come of your interference with the rights of others. Goodness knows the left has been guilty of that as well. but what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.