Abstract
The New York Times Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent was only three minutes into his speech to new graduates at Rockford College in Illinois when some students - angered by his critique of US strategy in Iraq and the Middle East — rushed the stage and tried to drown him out with shouts and foghorns. Some students staged a silent protest at the back of the hall. Another student threw her graduation cap and gown at the stage in anger. Hedges' microphone was twice cut off and he had to be escorted from the building by security before the event finished. Rockford College was once famous for its liberal traditions; its most famous alumni was Jane Addams, pacifist and 1931 Nobel Peace Prize-winner.