Former CNN CEO escorts hysteric anti-Israel protester out of Tulane event, students now demanding he resign from professor role

A pro-Palestinian protester was escorted out of a panel discussion by an esteemed professor after disrupting the event, triggering calls from some students for the professor to step down from his position.

The incident, which was filmed and posted to Instagram on March 13 by the radical group Tulane Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), involved student Rory MacDonald of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, who stood up and started yelling in condemnation of Israel in the middle of what SDS said was a “Tulane-sponsored panel with Halliburton and ExxonMobil.”

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MacDonald was then escorted out by a man who, according to WDSU, appeared to be Walter Isaacson– a 72-year-old Tulane professor and renowned author and biographer, who has served as the CEO of CNN, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, and an editor of Time Magazine. As seen from the video, MacDonald kept shouting anti-Israel messages as he was being led out of the room.

In its Instagram post, SDS claimed that Isaacson “assaulted” MacDonald, whom they referred to as “them” since MacDonald is a man who identifies as “transgender”: “Isaacson, an audience member, grabbed Rory and cursed at them, battering them and leaving them with bruises on their arms and scratches on their back.”

According to the SDS post, MacDonald alleged that Tulane lets students “live in fear on campus. Now, that has escalated to allowing a student to be assaulted by a member of the faculty.” SDS said it is “calling on Tulane University to denounce Professor Isaacson for assaulting a student.”

“SHAME ON YOU, WALTER ISAACSON. RESIGN,” the post concluded. Other anti-Israel groups have also condemned Isaacson. 

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Tulane’s SDS posted another Instagram video on March 16 showing students performing a “die-in,” chanting anti-Israel slogans and calling for boycott and divestment from Israel.

This January, a Tulane student protested against pro-Israel students who made a display about victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel by chalking “FREE PALESTINE” in front of them on the ground, as Campus Reform reported.

Campus Reform has contacted Isaacson and Tulane University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.