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Mizzou Mob Tramples First Amendment

Communications prof caught on video calling for 'muscle' to bully journalists
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRlRAyulN4o?rel=0&w=525&h=330]

You have to watch this video clip. It shows a brave student journalist, photographer Tim Tai, holding his ground against a mob of Social Justice Warrior fanatics. He tries to tell them that he has a First Amendment right to be there photographing their protest, which was happening in a public place, but they refuse to listen, and bully him — at the end, physically.

One of the bullies is Prof. Melissa Click, who teaches, get this, in the communications department at the university. She can be heard in the beginning ordering the photographer away, and instructing the students to drive him off. From her faculty page:

Dr. Melissa A. Click earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research interests center on popular culture texts and audiences, particularly texts and audiences

Melissa Click
Melissa Click

disdained in mainstream culture. Her work in this area is guided by audience studies, theories of gender and sexuality, and media literacy. Current research projects involve 50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children’s television programs. Melissa is Vice-Chair of ICA’s Popular Communication Division and is Chair of the committee hosting the Console-ing Passions conference at the University of Missouri in April 2014.

So you have on this video a college journalist having to school a communications Ph.D. in the First Amendment. I suppose this Social Justice Warrior Queen was too busy studying Lady Gaga and Fifty Shades of Grey to pay attention to the Constitution of the United States.

This is the kind of fanatic that the University of Missouri board has capitulated to. They gave in to a student mob, instigated in this instance by a radical professor, that shoves a journalist off of public land, where he has a perfect right to be.

The University of Missouri ought to be standing with Tim Tai and his colleagues, and against the thuggish Melissa Clark and her mob. So should the faculty and students there. Honestly, a communications professor urging a mob to shut down a journalist. At the end of the video, before a wall of students shoves photojournalist Tai out of the way, Click is heard shouting, ““Hey who wants to help me get this reporter out of here. I need some muscle over here!”

It beggars belief. She ought to be fired.

Also prominent in the video ordering the student journalist away is Janna Basler, who is assistant director of the office of Greek Life and Leadership. Watch the video. She behaves like a thug. The whole lot of them do.

Where are the campus police, protecting the journalists here? What is wrong with the University of Missouri?

Here is another result of this shakedown: new diversity policies announced by Mizzou:

“The board of curators will not tolerate hateful activities on our campuses – period,” said Cupps. “We are taking additional measures beginning today to ensure that our campuses are free of acts of hatred, so that our campuses all embody a culture of respect.”

Today the board announced a series of initiatives to be implemented over the next 90 days to address the racial climate on its campuses, including:

A first-ever Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Officer will be appointed for the UM System. Accountability and metrics will be established for the position going forward;

A full review will be initiated of all UM System policies as they relate to staff and student conduct;

Additional support will be provided for students, faculty and staff who have experienced discrimination and disparate treatment.

Additional support will be provided for the hiring and retention of diverse faculty and staff;

In addition, the board announced its plan to ensure effective next steps through an open communication process that invites perspective from across the system. These steps are to:

Create a diversity, inclusion and equity task force to develop both a short- and long-term strategy, plan and metrics for the UM System based on an inventory and audit of current programs, policies and practices.

Establish campus-based task forces to develop diversity, inclusion and equity strategies, plans and metrics.

Ensure that each UM System campus has a Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Officer reporting to the chancellor;

Launch a diversity, inclusion and equity leadership training and development education program, which includes the board of curators, president and administrative leadership, followed by broader faculty and staff training.

Specifically, on the MU campus:

There is a process in place to identify external diversity, inclusion and equity consultants to conduct a comprehensive assessment of diversity and inclusion efforts on campus.

There will be mandatory diversity, inclusion and equity training for all faculty, staff and future incoming students.

We will continue the comprehensive review of student mental health services to ensure that students are referred to the most appropriate resources for their needs.

Let’s re-read this part, shall we?:

“The board of curators will not tolerate hateful activities on our campuses – period,” said Cupps. “We are taking additional measures beginning today to ensure that our campuses are free of acts of hatred, so that our campuses all embody a culture of respect.”

Bull. The board of curators is quite happy to allow disrespect for the First Amendment, for student journalists, and, you watch, for anybody else who stands up to this SJW mob. Cowards, the lot. And now they’re mandating political re-education for “all faculty, staff, and future incoming students.”

Why would you want to study at a place like that?

(Thanks to the reader who put me onto this development.)

UPDATE: Look at the Twitter exchange about the First Amendment between sociologist Tressie Cottom and David Simon, a former journalist and creator of The Wire. Both of them are liberals. Simon defends the First Amendment in the Mizzou journalism spat; Cottom takes the opposite side. The reader who sent this to me called it a “brewing liberal civil war,” and added, “Needless to say I’m with Simon, and so are many of us who call ourselves liberal.”

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