Student heckling of David Zaslav speech was ‘cancel culture,’ Boston University president says

Boston University President Robert A. Brown said he apologized to Warner Bros Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav, who was booed by students and other supporters of the Hollywood writers’ strike as he delivered a commencement address.

In a Wednesday article published by the university publication BU Today, Brown wrote that the protests earlier this month were a form of “cancel culture.”

Graduating students and protesters on May 21 heckled the CEO with jeers, including chants of “pay your writers,” as he spoke about lessons he learned throughout his career.

“Our students were not picking a fight,” Brown wrote. “They were attempting to implement the cancel culture that has become all too prevalent on university campuses. … The attempt to silence a speaker with obscene shouts is a resort to gain power, not reason, and antithetical to the mission and purposes of a university.”

Zaslav has become a lightning rod for writers’ complaints about the media companies they are striking against. During its now month-long walkout, the Writers Guild of America has railed against TV and film companies and the lofty salaries and stock awards their top executives earn.

The WGA argues that if companies can afford to pay executive compensation packages worth tens of millions of dollars, then they can afford to meet their demands for increased pay and conditions. Studio executives say their profits have been ravaged in recent years by changes in the entertainment business model.

A Times analysis showed Zaslav’s compensation was valued at nearly half a billion dollars over the five-year span between 2018 and 2022.

Brown said there were protesters both inside and outside the graduation ceremony. He described it as an “unruly affair.” The protesters were a minority of the 23,000 people assembled on Nickerson Field, he wrote. However a handful of students shouted obscenities at Zaslav.

“The willingness to spoil the occasion for these literally thousands of guests to not only make a point, but also literally prevent the speaker from conveying his message, was painful and embarrassing to witness,” Brown wrote.

Writers have been picketing multiple targets, including studio headquarters and live productions, in a bid to ratchet up pressure on the members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios.

As they picketed the graduation ceremony, an airplane flying over the ceremony carried a banner that read, “David Zaslav — Pay your writers.”

Zaslav received an honorary degree in addition to serving as the university’s commencement speaker. The executive studied law at Boston University in the 1980s before become a top leader at NBCUniversal and Discovery before the 2022 merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia assets, including Warner Bros., CNN and Cartoon Network.

Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment Wednesday.

“I am grateful to my alma mater, Boston University, for inviting me to be part of today’s commencement and for giving me an honorary degree,” Zaslav said in a statement after his address. “As I have often said, I am immensely supportive of writers and hope the strike is resolved soon and in a way that they feel recognizes their value.”