Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos will speak at Cal State Fullerton tonight, in an event sponsored by the campus' Republican group. A crowd of more than 800 is expected.
But his presence on the campus isn't without controversy: more than 5,000 people signed a petition trying to stop it.
Campus police and federal agencies plan to beef-up security with pat-downs, metal detectors. Protestors are expected.
So why this campus? Why this speaker? And why now?
Jeff Cook is the chief communications officer at Cal State Fullerton. He says the campus doesn't vet speakers brought in by campus groups.
"The issue I think at hand is that even hateful speech is in-fact protected speech," Cook tells Take Two's A Martinez.
There are few legal mechanisms; there are few pathways to shut that speech down. And even if there were a legal argument to be made, I think it's likely antithetical to higher education to be in the business of basically censoring the exchange of viewpoints.