George Will is mentioned three times across the excerpts of The Bob Zadek Show, each time in passing and never as a guest. The excerpts contain no interview with Will, no extended discussion of his writings or positions, and no biographical information about him. He appears only as a name invoked by Bob Zadek in the course of arguments about immigration, the war on terror, and campus speech.
Immigration
In the closing thoughts of a 2011 episode on immigration reform, Bob Zadek listed Will among a group of figures whose positions on immigration he was attempting to characterize. Zadek said that Ron Paul “sort of agrees” with opening the borders and that Gary Johnson agrees with it “quite a bit,” then said of Will that it is “hard to discern his position.” Zadek added that the Democrats do not have a clear position on immigration and that the issue transcends party affiliation Immigration Reform Is Broken (2011).
The mention comes at the end of a monologue in which Zadek argued for open borders. He said that objective data supporting a restrictive immigration process is hard to find, that the data is inconclusive, and that opposition to immigration must therefore come from “some uglier root.” He described his own view as “let them all in” and said that fixing illegal immigration by making all immigration legal would make the problem of illegal immigration go away. Will is named only in the list of figures whose positions Zadek was assessing; the excerpt does not state what Will’s position is, only that Zadek found it hard to discern Immigration Reform Is Broken (2011).
War on terror
In a 2013 episode on whether war provides a rationale for extra-constitutional power, Bob Zadek invoked Will hypothetically while discussing how the public might come to feel that the threat of terrorism has declined. Zadek said that the only way the public will feel that way is if government takes the lead, and that there is not going to be an article by George Will declaring in the Washington Post that the War on Terror is over. Zadek went on to say that such a declaration cannot come from the media, from Cato, from Reason, or from any organization other than the government, and that real leadership would be for the government to say the war has been won and to dismantle the temporary apparatus and return to normal life War – A Rationale For Extra-Constitutional Power? (2013).
The reference is to Will as a newspaper columnist whose hypothetical article would not by itself change public perception. The excerpt does not state Will’s own views on the war on terror, nor does it report anything Will wrote. The point Zadek was making concerned the government’s role in shaping public fear and reassurance, not Will’s commentary War – A Rationale For Extra-Constitutional Power? (2013).
Campus speech
In a 2015 episode with Jonathan Rauch on attacks on free thought, Bob Zadek raised the subject of limitations on open debate at colleges and universities. He said it seemed to him that the limitation on free speech on campuses is led more by progressives, and he asked what it is about progressive thinking that produces what struck him as an unprogressive attitude. In posing the question, Zadek said that George Will had been banned from a college campus recently and added that Will is “no radical.” He grouped this with “others like it” Jonathan Rauch on the New Attacks on Free Thought (2015).
Rauch responded by reframing the question, saying that to him it is not a question of what it is about progressives that lends itself to a desire to regulate speech, but what it is about majorities. Rauch argued that in most societies where a dominant majority holds a dominant point of view, that majority will often try to use the instruments of law and culture to repress alternatives, both for political gain and out of a well-intentioned belief that the safety and security of society depend on having certain ideas in place. He said that in American universities at the moment there is a left-of-center consensus, and that when there is broad consensus on issues such as race, gender, and class on campuses, majorities begin to think that no decent person could disagree with them, and then to treat disagreement as monstrous Jonathan Rauch on the New Attacks on Free Thought (2015).
The excerpt does not name the college or university that banned Will, does not give a date for the incident, and does not describe the circumstances of the ban beyond Zadek’s statement that it happened recently. Rauch did not discuss Will’s case specifically; he treated it as an instance of a broader pattern of majoritarian suppression of dissent Jonathan Rauch on the New Attacks on Free Thought (2015).
Across episodes
The three episodes that mention George Will — the 2011 immigration episode, the 2013 war on terror episode, and the 2015 free speech episode — each invoke his name once, in a different context, and the excerpts show no development or continuity in how the show treats him. In 2011 Zadek could not discern Will’s position on immigration; in 2013 Zadek used Will hypothetically as a columnist who could not end the war on terror by writing; in 2015 Zadek cited Will as an example of a non-radical figure banned from a campus. No guest in the excerpts discusses Will, and no excerpt reports his views in his own words.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not contain an interview with George Will, nor any extended discussion of his writings, his career, or his political philosophy. They do not state his position on immigration, the war on terror, or campus speech, except insofar as Bob Zadek says his immigration position is hard to discern. They do not name the college or university that banned him, the date of the incident, or the circumstances. They also do not identify his occupation, his affiliation, or any title beyond Zadek’s reference to him as a newspaper columnist in the hypothetical 2013 example.