Debra Saunders writes”>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/debrasaunders/ds20011224.shtml”>writes on what happens when you dare heckle “people who buy ink by the barrel. Especially if the speaker is Sacramento Bee Publisher Janis Besler Heaphy.” Heaphy, you’ll remember, was the California State Univeristy-Sacramento commencement speaker who got shouted off the stage for attempting to turn a graduation ceremony into a soapbox for her critique of the Bush administration. Heaphy was none too pleased with the reaction she received, and has since allowed her newspaper to be used as a forum for criticizing the criticizers. Columnist Daniel Weintraub, for instance, scolded the hecklers while defending Heaphy: “She was mildly critical, her real purpose was to raise questions.” (Here’s one she might have asked herself: Is my polemic going to play well, or should I just, y’know, congratulate the graduates and wish them well in flowery language?)

But, of course, Ms. Heaphy didn’t bother to question herself first — and now her paper is going after the student “hecklers” for stifling her speech. As one parent of a graduating senior aptly noted, however — when audiences criticize publishers, they’re hecklers. When they drown out conservatives, they’re “protesters.”

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