http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41882-2002Jul21.html Student Gadfly Runs Afoul of American U. Taping of Tipper Gore Brings Sanction By Amy Argetsinger Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 22, 2002; Page B03 Even before the big dust-up at the Tipper Gore appearance, Ben Wetmore was a gadfly of some notoriety at American University. The poli-sci major from Texas had elbowed his way into the ranks of student government but ended up getting impeached after a dispute with fellow legislators. Then he started a Web journal devoted to criticizing and lampooning campus leaders -- particularly President Benjamin Ladner, whose stately home and car Wetmore took to photographing and posting on his site as evidence of what he saw as administrative extravagance. "He's kind of like a Matt Drudge, but more immature," a fellow student politician said of Wetmore. Wetmore had a pretty shaky relationship with the administration by April 8, when the former vice president's wife went to speak at the campus. Wetmore brought his video camera, suspicious that Gore was drawing a large fee and reasoning that "there should at least be a record of her being here," he said. Midway through her speech, campus police officers approached Wetmore and demanded that he hand over the tape. After a scuffle, he was arrested and sent to a campus disciplinary panel, which placed him on probation and removed him from his elected office as dorm president. Among the charges: theft of Gore's intellectual property by videotaping her speech. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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