As surreal moments in the media business go, this one ranks up there.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav appeared at his alma mater, Boston University Saturday to deliver a commencement speech. He was already making a somewhat odd caricature of himself as a TV biz captain-of-industry type -- think Alec Baldwin as 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy -- by recounting a lesson he learned at the foot of late GE executive turned polarizing modern capitalism icon Jack Welch.
That's when things got really weird.
With striking Writers Guild of America picketers positioned outside the stadium, the graduating students started heckling Zaslav with chants like, "pay your writers," forcing the executive on numerous occasions to pause his speech.
We're not necessarily trying to further humiliate Zaslav, who seemed to caught in the crossfire of a surprisingly spry moment of labor unrest in the media business. But it is notable given that this story is grabbed headlines on Monday morning, and debut of WBD's vaunted streaming rollup, Max, happens on Tuesday.
Video from Zaslav's speech is embedded in the tweets below:
David Zaslav giving an asinine commencement speech while getting heckled with “Pay your writers” should be Max’s next big reality show. pic.twitter.com/Sh59VVBbNvMay 21, 2023
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav got heckled and booed throughout the commencement speech he gave today at Boston University. Chants included “We don’t want you here,” “Pay your writers” and “Shut up, Zaslav.” pic.twitter.com/7EUHFQdU5iMay 21, 2023
