Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, David Zaslav got booed while giving his speech at Boston University's graduation ceremony held the weekend.
TMZ reported that Zaslav who was the commencement speaker Sunday for BU's class of 2023, was heckled over the ongoing writers' strike. The heckling began when Boston University President Robert A. Brown introduced the Warner Bros. CEO during the 150th commencement exercises at Nickerson Field. As Brown spoke to Zaslav’s “passion for documenting and sharing the human story on a global scale,” the chants and booing immediately picked up, followed by what would become a constant ebb and flow of calls throughout his 20-minute speech.
That included screams, shouts and chants from the hundreds of seniors seated as 7,000 degrees were conferred in nearly 350 fields of study on Sunday at the event, which started at 1 p.m. ET. “We don’t want you here,” “Pay your writers” and “Shut up, Zaslav” could be heard emanating from the crowd, messages similar to the prepared chants for the picket, including some created by the school’s YDSA chapter members and school students who were inspired by BU hockey chants.
At one point, as the WBD CEO joked about giving students life advice, he garnered even more boos and had to repeatedly stop his speech until the waves of cries temporarily died down. He also discussed finding financial success as a lawyer but not feeling fulfilled because he didn’t love what he was doing, encouraging the crowd to pursue their passion. But when he noted, “I was making good money, I was feeling really great,” the crowd responded with another wave of angry chants and boos.
While parts of his speech concentrated on his work ethic and struggle to find happiness in his professional life in law, the crowd was unrelenting and unforgiving in its reception of his narratives around hard work, working with people, choosing kindness and his pivot into Hollywood. There were also protests outside the venue and some of the demonstrators even made their way into the event.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) are demanding fair wages and a ban on Artificial Intelligence in writers rooms. The strike's been going on for nearly 4 weeks with no end in sight.
