Putting writers could picket BU graduation after Hollywood CEO chosen as speaker

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Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav’s hefty pay has develop into a rallying level within the ongoing writers’ strike.

FILE - Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers and others strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in a rally at Fox Plaza in Los Angeles' Century City district
Boston College is dealing with backlash after asserting that Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav might be its graduation speaker amid an ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. AP Photograph/Reed Saxon, File

Along with the standard “Pomp and Circumstance,” graduating Boston College college students could hear boos and picket line chants throughout their graduation ceremony later this month. 

BU has confronted backlash since announcing its selection of graduation speaker final week, tapping Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav for the respect amid an ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. 

Because the dispute over working situations and pay stretches into its second week, Zaslav’s hefty compensation bundle — round $250 million complete final 12 months, together with inventory choices — has develop into a rallying level.

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The Writers Guild of America, East known as inviting Zaslav, a Boston College Faculty of Legislation alum, a “poor resolution” in a press release supplied to Boston.com. 

“Boston College mustn’t give voice to somebody who needs to destroy their college students’ capability to construct a profession within the movie and tv trade,” the union mentioned. “The College ought to count on college students, Writers Guild members, in addition to different unions and group teams to picket Zaslav’s graduation deal with.”

A Boston College spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.

A number of Democratic Socialists of America teams — together with BU Younger Democratic Socialists, DSA-LA Hollywood Labor, and Boston DSA — have launched a web based marketing campaign towards BU’s selection of speaker, encouraging letters to school management and commencement caps adorned in assist of the strike. 

“By honoring Zaslav with an invite to talk now, at this vital juncture for the leisure trade, BU is instantly suppressing the longer term revenue of its graduates,” the teams’ Motion Community web page reads. “It is a wholly inappropriate selection, and we is not going to stand for it!”

In line with BU Right now, the announcement that Zaslav can be graduation speaker acquired “tepid applause” final week from college students attending an occasion for the Class of 2023. 

The response on social media was much more spirited. 

“I hope each single pupil graduating from Boston College this 12 months stands in solidarity with the WGA,” author Neil McNeil wrote on Twitter. “Don’t let this man communicate. Boo him off the stage if it is advisable. I’d like to see him heckled off stage.”

In a touch upon BU’s Instagram web page, author Sean Buckley, a college alum, wrote, “I used to imagine BU was a movie and TV program that supported pupil success in Hollywood but it surely now seems to assist the destruction of the trade greater than the employees who preserve it going.”

Originally posted 2023-05-09 17:02:37.