I’m always reluctant to use sporting analogies, especially American ones. But after witnessing what happened yesterday at the Victoria University Free Speech Symposium held in Wellington, I find it impossible not to compare this much anticipated event to the infamous game-fixing of the Baseball World Series of 1919. I’m not suggesting the VUW symposium involved bribes or corruption of any kind. The carefully choreographed proceedings and the overwhelmingly left-leaning panel meant there was absolutely no way the proposed “contest of ideas” would ever have any chance of appearing free or spontaneous.
