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good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight as colleges become so-called safe spaces for students are they also becoming unsafe for ideas?

more and more conservative lecturers are being met with picket lines, angry mobs, even monthly cough cocktails. we followed one prominent right-wing speaker to a university in utah where he tells us he believes political correctness is spiraling out of control. here's my "nightline" coanchor dan harris. >> united, we'll never be defeated! >> reporter: equal lunch ccolle have become an angry reflection of a divided country. on this night police and protesters out in force at the university of utah. all because of this baby-faced 33-year-old father of two. >> let's be real about this, look at me. i mean, do i look like a physical threat to anybody? do i seem like a physical threat to anybody? last time i was in a fight, i was 14 years old, two years younger than everybody else and getting my ass kicked. >> reporter: ben shapiro, editor-in-chief of the conservative "daily wire" and host of a popular podcast downloaded millions of times a

week. he's at the center of a nationwide debate about whether conservative voices are being stifle td by protesters on american college campuses. just today at the university of florida, tensions flaring. during an event featuring the white nationalist richard spencer. in february at the university of berkeley, former breitbart commentator milo yiannopoulos shut down after protesters threw rocks a and molotov cocktails. last month when ben shapiro spoke at the university of berkeley local authorities spent over $500,000 on security. it's amazing they had to essentially lock that place down for you. >> and the headlines were nuts. headlines like, berkeley braces for shapiro visit. really? was i the one smashing atms? >> reporter: three hours before he's supposed to take the stage at 7:00 here in utah, shapiro says there are reports of possible violence.

>> i'm hearing rumors there may be some people who try to bring weapons which would be ridiculous and awful. i don't want to be killed at my lectures. >> reporter: a fellow conservative podcast host claims he captured this undercover individual video of self-described anti-fa members talking about knifes and their car where they allegedly had guns. he says this speaks to liberal hysteria on machine campuses. your view is this is political correctness run amok? >> the furthest extension of political correctness. when you say something, it's not me disagreeing with you, it is me destroying your identity as a human being in a way that is akin to violence. >> let me read from the statement that the folks who want did shut you down put out. ben shapiro has openly called transgender people mentally ill, betrays the great gay rights movement, a conspiracy to root out god-based institutions, recent

recently defended conversion therapy -- >> there's a bunch of things that are not true. i'm not aware of any defending conversion therapy as effective, but i don't see evidence it is effective. i see gender dysphoria as a disorder. that's not an insult to people suffering psychological disorders. you are not doing service to people suffering from a mental disorder to humor them that their mental disorder is reflected in reality. >> reporter: it is important to note the american psychological association does not define being transgender as mental illness. gender dysphoria applies when a person suffers physical distress. it's a natural phenomenon, they're committing suicide because people are mistreatmenting them. >> i'm not for mistreatment but i don't think me suggesting you're not a woman is mistreatment of you. >> reporter: whether or not you agree with shapiro, whether or not you think he's engaged in hate speech, here's little doubt

his speech is protected by the first amendment. >> he won't let a jewish guy come to a campus and say what he wants to say, peer wooer in america respect that's ridiculous. >> reporter: professor david rigobi, who teaches a class onfully come of expression here, tells us many college students today do not understand that speech is protected unless it directly incites violence. >> this is a public institution. it's a government entity. they have to guarantee the free speech rights of everyone, including shapiro. >> reporter: we find the leader of that group that has vowed to shut tonight's event down who makes a startling admission. >> i don't think he should speak. >> but that couldn't doesn't comport with the first amendment. >> i don't care. >> you don't care? >> i don't care. >> why not? >> i don't think that's a relevant document right now. >> reporter: the constitution is not a relevant document? this thinking may help explain the increasingly violent protests against conservative speakers on campus. by shortly after 7:00 p.m. here

at the university of utah, ben shapiro is backstage ready to go on after his security team sneaked him into the building. one irony is that while he's hated by many on the left, he's also hated by the self-described alt-right. >> i've been very, very outspoken against the alt-right, i've said the alt-right is a garbage movement composed of garbage ideas that has nothing to do with constitutional conservatism. >> reporter: shapiro fiercely critical of donald trump. he publicly quit his last job at breitbart news when a female colleague was allegedly manhandled by trump campaign manager corey lewandowski and shapiro thought breitbart failed to have her back. >> i quit under very public circumstances. because breitbart had been turning itself into a trump propaganda arm and the alt-right for then candidate trump. >> what kind of blowback have you received? >> aside from the 7,400-odd anti-semitic tweets i received, death threats in the mail, death

threats on my phone -- >> reporter: which is why shapiro finds it hard to believe protesters call him a white supremacist. >> shapiro go to hell! >> that is the stupidest thing i've ever heard. i keep hearing this. wondering, was the yarmulke that gave it away? >> reporter: he's interested in politics for as long as he can remember. >> i found a paper at 10 or 11 talking about the clinton impeachment. >> reporter: shapiro went on to start his nationally syndicated column at age 17. his parents had to sign the contract for him. he graduated ucla at age 20, put out two books by age 21, and graduated harvard law at age 23. as shapiro takes the stage in utah, it immediately becomes clear that all of his time on elite campuses apparently did little to temper his conservative views. in particular what he calls america's culture of

victimization. on stage he inserts himself into some of the most heated debates in our divided country. from police shootings to the nfl kneeling controversy. >> is racism real? >> yeah, of course racism is real. but i don't think institutional racism is necessarily real. so yes, of course there are racists. racist cops who shoot black guys for no reason should go to jail and throw away the key. but this idea put out there by broad statements about america being discriminatory, racist country, i don't know how that helps anything. i don't think it's actually true. >> isn't that to ignore our history? it's inarguable that slavery existed, and after that jim crow. >> you want to talk about jim crow and slavery, of course. the question is what is the remedy now? to blame people who are living today who had nothing to do with jim crow and slavery? i didn't hold slays, did you? >> reporter: as shapiro holds forth inside the lecture hall, outside scuffles break out in the crowd. >> the hierarchy of victimhood goes if you're lgbt and q, we

suggest you are at the very top of the victimhood hierarchy. then black folks. then hispanic folks. then women. then jews. then asians. and then way down at the bottom, white straight males. >> does it ever strike you as somewhat off to be in a room kind of making light of victim culture and having this kind of hearty laughter, looking around and seeing the vast majority of the faces are white? >> no, because i said the exact same thing in front of faces that are not white. >> i know, but it's not that you change your message, just that it seems to resonate mostly with white people. >> i don't think that that's true. i think that -- i wish i were invited to more crowds that were more racially diverse that would be great. >> reporter: no one got hurt but two protesters got arrested. even as a man caught in the white hot center of the madness that is american politics today, he says he is optimistic. >> we're at such a divided and venomous time in this country, you're in the middle of it, do you have any optimism it will get better any time soon?

>> yeah, i think there's going to be a backlash. there's going to be a strong backlash for people who are tired of it. and want to stand up for basic rights that we can all agree on. >> reporter: for "nightline," this is dan harris in salt lake city, utah. next -- ♪ i gotta have faith >> inside the private life of the george michael. the sign history always kept the faith with his fans. ♪ i gotta have faith faith faith ♪ afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking.

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for international celebrity george michael was intensely private. but tonight we're getting new insight into the man behind the music. here's abc's t.j. holmes. ♪ freedom >> reporter: one of the most iconic songs of the '90s. ♪ freedom >> you're striving to make something every time you're in the studio half as good as a record like that. it's the mona lisa. >> reporter: it was actually the music video for "freedom 90" that marked a career highlight for george michael. >> george pitched it to me in l.a. in a nightclub called roxbury's. "you're the leader of the gang, unless you say yes, the rest of the girls won't." >> reporter: the story of how five supermodels came to lip synch the hit told in the documentary "george michael: freedom." >> you look like you're singing it, can you act like you're singing along to it? when i had just learned it. oh my god, let's just have fun,

and that's what it ended up being, fun. >> reporter: chock full of interviews with celebrities who knew and loved him. >> he's god's gift to the world. >> reporter: the film covers his life and career, made before his untimely death from natural causes last christmas at age 53. >> i'm aware of the need for persona. and my actual persona, i'm not really prepared to give. >> reporter: the notoriously private star codirected with his lifelong friend and songwriter david austin. would he have been promoting this movie? >> no. he made the film, narrated the film, that's about as far as he got. he was one person that he just -- you know, he just didn't -- celebrity wasn't for him. >> reporter: the project was intended to be released alongside the 25-year anniversary reissue of george's second solo album "listen without prejudice" which he refused to remote. the track "freedom 90" from that album a symbolic line in the sand for george. >> with the burning of his

jacket and the significance of it. it had a lot to say. >> i got the impression, that chapter's closed, i'm done, i'm done being a public figure pop star, i just want to make music. ♪ >> reporter: his exit from the limelight would lead to a highly publicized battle with record label sony. >> george michael is today asking a high court judge to declare his recording contract null and void. >> i think he was very honest about his court case with sony, which he had never spoken about before. there's a massive reveal it in, he says he wished he'd never done it, wished he'd never gone to court with sony in the first place. >> i will never know if sony and i would have ended up in court had anselmo not become ill. >> reporter: anselmo felipe pa, one of george's few true loves. learning months into their relationship that he was hiv positive. >> in front of his 160,000 people, there was this guy over

on the right-hand side of the stage that fixed me with this look. it was so cute. i was so distracted by him. i stayed away from that end of the stage for a while. the moment i looked at him, i got a feeling that told me i was going to know him very well and that he was going to be a part of my life. ♪ somebody to >> reporter: his 1992 performance of queen's "somebody to love" sung to honor lead singer freddy mercury, who died from aids-related complications, also a tribute to anselmo. >> anselmo was the first time i think i really loved someone selflessly. >> reporter: anselmo passed away the following year, 1993. and george's beloved mother would follow in 1997. how important was his pain to his success? >> he says in the film that, you

know, back in the day, the grief that he felt having lost his mother and having lost his partner, i think he felt that he would -- like for example, older was an album that followed "listen without prejudice." he openly says that without having felt that kind of pain, he would never have been able to have made an album like "older." ♪ don't you think i'm looking older ♪ >> reporter: the showtime documentary looks at the questions of race and music raised by george's work after his debut album "faith" -- >> george -- michael! >> reporter: won in soul and r&b categories at the american music awards. >> i've been a lover of soul music since i was a kid. >> he picked up these two awards in categories that were traditionally for black artists. and the problem with our industry, they do love to pigeonhole people. >> he uniquely achieved breaking into the r&b/soul charts that few white performers ever got. >> i think there was an attempt to kind of steal black heritage

in what i'm doing, all that's happening is i'm trying to make good music. >> reporter: that iconic album will be reissued today. for a new generation of fans, his enduring legacy. in a rare interview with abc news in 2008, george michael shared his view that fame and beauty are fleeting, keenly aware his time here would someday end. >> i don't inhale any of that -- it's dangerous. what i really am is a writer. and, you know -- i i looks are much to begin with, but whatever they are, they'll fade. my brain will go. eventually it's all gone but the songs are still there. >> reporter: songs like his classic ballad "father figure." ♪ i will be the one who loves you ♪ ♪ till the end of time

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♪ with the alaska airlines visa signature card you get a companion ticket every year. so why not take someone that you see all the time. someone like, i dunno, me? i mean i always spell your name right and put a little unicorn in your foam. no pressure but i really need to get out of here. they've been playing the same playlist for three months and i'm pretty sure you're not supposed to eat scones for dinner this many days in a row. mexico, hawaii, costa rica, i don't really know. i'm a quick packer. ♪

finally tonight, there are dozens of people still hospitalized in the wake of that las vegas shooting. tonight we wish all of them a speedy recovery. and we're not the only ones. here's the heartwarming moment that a prominent pop star reached out to one of her biggest fans, katrina hannah. >> hi, katrina, this is miley. i've heard about you from so many wonderful people, so many friends, contestants on "the voice." they said you were a huge fan. i wanted to let you know that i am thinking about you all the time, sending all good, healing, peaceful vibes to you and all your family and your friends. i hope you feel better soon and just want to let you know you'll be on my mind and in my heart.

see ya. >> kind words. how cool is that? it was the late utah businessman and leader of the mormon church joseph b.wurtland who said, kind words not only lift our spirits this the moment they are given but they can linger with us over the years. thank you for watching abc news. as always we're online at abcnews.com and our "nightline" facebo

♪ that one. this. that one. ♪ ♪