Ziegler was attempting to interview people attending The Annenberg Norman Lear Center's excellence in journalism awards ceremony at which CBS's Katie Couric was to be honored for her "Evening News" segments with Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Unfortunately, the good folks at USC didn't want Ziegler to speak with anyone, and physically escorted him off campus in handcuffs (video embedded below the fold, h/t Hot Air):
Ziegler: I'm being handcuffed for standing on a sidewalk asking questions outside of an awards ceremony on journalism excellence. You can't get more irony than this!
No, you can't!
Of course, it is similarly ironic that this event comes exactly one week after Ziegler pointed out in a Fox Forum article:
[F]or there to even be such a thing as an [sic] prize for “Excellence in Television Journalism,” in an age where a desperate thirst for ratings has caused most TV “news” to become little more than glorified infotainment, is a bit like passing out awards for fiscal responsibility to members of Congress. But for Katie Couric, the poster child of news as “infotainment,” to be the recipient of such an “honor” is like giving John Murtha or Barney Frank a trophy for frugal spending in Congress. [...]
It is obvious that Couric is being rewarded for the political result of her interview –the shooting down of a conservative superstar just in time to save the Obama campaign. It’s not about the “journalism” at all. But even that truth is not the most outrageous aspect of this absurdity. What’s even more absurd is that not only shouldn’t Couric be getting rewarded for her Palin interview, if we lived in a world where journalistic standards still mattered at all, she would have been roundly condemned for it. [...]
I hope to take care of that ignorance (although I can’t do anything about the corresponding liberal agenda) on the day of the awards ceremony. While I was not able to get a ticket, I plan to be at the event handing out copies of “Media Malpractice” to any of the attendees who want to know the facts.
I am sure I will be received warmly. After all, isn’t getting the facts what journalism is supposed to be all about?
Obviously not.
*****Update: I just spoke to John, and he's got another great irony for us. At virtually the same time Katie Couric was receiving an award for disingenuously taking down Sarah Palin, he was getting thrown off a college campus for trying to handout DVDs exposing the truth about these interviews.
Now THAT's entertainment!
