Media Super Agent Jay Sures Blasts UCLA Student Government Over ‘Dangerous’ Rebuke of Israeli Hostage Event

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Jay Sures, the news industry super agent and University of California Board of Regents member, forcefully condemned UCLA student leaders on Friday after backlash over a campus event featuring a former Israeli hostage.

Sures said he was “disgusted and appalled” by a statement from UCLA’s undergraduate student government criticizing a Holocaust remembrance event that included remarks from Omer Shem Tov, who was taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and later released in a prisoner exchange.

Sures, the vice chairman of UTA, represents news industry stars including David Muir, Jake Tapper, Margaret Brennan, Kara Swisher, Jen Psaki, and Norah O’Donnell.

The student statement, published around the April 14 event, called out UCLA’s Hillel for hosting the speaker, arguing that the speaker choice represented “selective platforming” and would “legitimize and normalize” Israel’s military actions.

In his sharply worded letter, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Sures accused student officials of hypocrisy, writing: “You claim you want balance in programming and more than ‘a single narrative’ from speakers at UCLA. Balance, by definition, inherently involves equal consideration of more than one point of view.”

But by opposing the event, he argued, “your words and actions make clear you have no interest in balance at all,” calling it “the biggest double standard of all.”

While acknowledging that criticism of campus events is protected expression, Sures said “it is not the condemnation itself that is concerning,” but rather “the rush to do so without even considering others’ perspectives that is so disheartening.”

He went on to emphasize that he speaks as an “individual regent” and not “for the board as a whole.”

The university also distanced itself from the student government’s statement against Tov as a speaker, saying the condemnation of a “peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is antithetical to the values of our Bruin community.”

Undergraduate student body president Diego Bollo told the Los Angeles Times that the statement was issued without his involvement and described it as “a lapse in oversight,” adding, “Free speech is a principle I do not compromise on — regardless of the nature or subject of any given event.”

UCLA School of Law Dean Michael Waterstone issued his own statement, writing:

“Legal education and the practice of law require a willingness to question assumptions and engage opposing arguments seriously. This should involve approaching difficult conversations with civility and respect, and careful listening. We must always strive to live out these principles. Multiple individuals who did not comply with these principles at a recent student event were issued warnings and were either escorted out or left of their own accord. There was also protest activity that was not disruptive to the event and consistent with the First Amendment and University policies. While the moderated conversation continued throughout, and the event proceeded to its conclusion, we recognize some disruption, and UCLA School of Law is reviewing all policies and will take necessary steps to ensure student groups can host speakers in an environment of civil engagement. Students should have the ability to challenge content they disagree with, and speakers cannot be limited because some disagree with the content of their speech. Anything less is antithetical to our profession, and commitment to academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas.”

This is not the first time Sures has forcefully weighed in on Israel-related campus controversies.

In an October 2023 letter responding to a UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council statement that criticized administrators for labeling Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack as “terrorism,” Sures called the faculty position “appalling and repugnant,” arguing the university’s characterization was “absolutely justified and necessary because terrorism has no place in our world.”

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