Every “media freedom” outlet in the country should be up in arms about this, helping John Ziegler pay for a lawsuit, shouting from the rooftops against this blatant and disgusting and downright frightening abridgement of the First Amendment. Watch this video for yourself. Now THIS is authoritarism run amuck. In it, Ziegler good-naturedly tries to wait outside a hall, with camera in tow, while Katie Couric is given the Cronkite Award for supposed excellence in journalism. (We’ll set aside the obvious note that this is like naming Frankenstein as the next “Miss America.”) And there, outside a gathering of journalists, this journalist is handcuffed and dragged rather roughly across a sidewalk, for no good discernible reason, because he was laughing and as unthreatening as a dachsund puppy.

Watch it for yourself. Feel your blood boil. This is quite literally the sort of thing that calls for a public rebuke from the highest levels of both journalism AND government. For that matter, I wonder what Ms. Couric thinks of this. If she has even an ounce of integrity, she too will denounce the treatment of Mr. Ziegler. Fat chance.