3
The day a student reporter got shouted down during Q&A at our speaker event
Last semester we brought a controversial commentator to campus and a kid from the student paper tried to ask a follow-up about a funding claim, but three people in the front row just drowned him out with chants for a solid two minutes. The moderator did nothing, and the speaker just stood there smirking. Has anyone else seen a Q&A segment basically get hijacked like that?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
daniel_gonzalez1mo ago
Is getting yelled at for two minutes really that big of a deal?
4
christopherw341mo ago
Samflores is exactly right. That kind of interruption doesn't just happen by accident. People don't spontaneously decide to start chanting at the exact same time in the front row. That was coordinated and deliberate, meant to shut down the kid before he could finish his question. A speaker smirking through it tells you everything about how much they respect open discussion.
Daniel, the length of time matters. Two minutes of nonstop chanting is an eternity in a Q&A. It's not some random heckle that gets ignored after ten seconds. That's enough time to completely break the flow and intimidate someone from ever trying that again. It sends a clear message to everyone else in the room too: ask a question we don't like and we'll do this to you.
A real Q&A isn't about protecting the speaker from tough questions. It's about letting people challenge what they hear. If the moderator won't step in and the crowd can just hijack things, you don't have a debate. You have a pep rally.
4
samflores1mo ago
Two minutes of chanting over a single follow-up question isn't small stuff. That's a planned shutdown of someone trying to do their job.
2