Press Misbehavior Was Part of the Equation at Mizzou
More to the Story with Mizzou Professor
Mainstream Meia Misses Half the Story with Mizzou Professor
What the Video Didn’t Show – the Other Side of the Story with Mizzou Professor
The Rest of the Story about that Mizzou Prof
How a Handful of Bad Actors in the Press Switched the Script at Mizzou
Mizzou Professor Wasn’t the Only One Who Misbehaved
Agents of the Press, or Agent Provocateurs?
Why Were Mizzou Protesters Keeping the Press at Bay?
The Video Didn’t Tell the (Whole) Tale at Mizzou Protests
by Corey D. McLaughlin
I don’t believe I have ever been so disappointed with the press as I have been in the days since Mizzou’s leadership elected to resign.
By now you have probably seen the video of Professor Melissa Click confronting a student journalist and summoning some ‘muscle’ for assistance. What you didn’t see in that six minute video, however, were the events that led to that confrontation.
Last Monday, a black Mizzou student went on a hunger strike to protest numerous long-standing grievances, including but not limited to the mishandling of multiple racist incidents on campus. The next day, a group of student protesters calling themselves ‘Concerned Student 1950‘ formed an encampment in a grassy quad on campus in support of the hunger-striking student in a fashion not unlike the Occupy Wall Street protests that took place five years ago.
Eventually, the Mizzou football team began championing their cause, which opened the flood gates of media attention and quickly paved the way for the president of Mizzou, and then the chancellor, to resign in rapid succession. It took a day or so for the majority of the press to realize that the protest did not originate with the football players, and when they did realize, they descended upon the encampment en masse.
On the day that produced the video of the incident between a student journalist and Professor Click, members of the press were initially welcomed within the protesters’ encampment. But when a handful of the reporters and photographers began entering into and rifling through their tents, as well as harassing, and even attempting to provoke, the group of protesters, they were asked to step back from the encampment.
And so another student group (grad students, this time) stepped up, locked arms, and formed a protective circle around the encampment. After a short time, the press relaxed, and the grad students dispersed, allowing the media full access to the camp again.
But then the original protester arrived. He had ended his hunger strike, and members of ‘Concerned Student 1950‘ were elated. Sensing a story, the press mobbed the encampment once more, fighting to get photos of the emotional event.
Seeing the gaggle of journalists descend on the camp again, the grad students once more locked arms and formed a circle to protect the encampment and the protesters within. For thirty minutes or so, they held firm in the face of some pretty harsh abuse from amateur and professional journalists alike. To be fair, we are talking about a handful of bad actors; it is important to recognize that it was a small minority of the media misbehaving that day. But several members of the press pushed and shoved, harassed and harangued the grad students, desperate to get a photo of the jubilant students. The student journalist that was confronted by Professor Click was part of that action.
After speaking with grad students who participated in the protective circle and were present at the time of the incident, I learned that the journalist in question tried to physically force his way through the circle four separate times during that thirty minute span. Then the cameras started rolling, and the rest, as they say, is history. Click and another faculty member confronted the student, and requested assistance in dealing with another journalist. The conservative press picked up the story, and by the time the mainstream media was reporting on the encounter, Click was tendering her resignation.
As I mentioned at the outset, I am deeply disappointed in the way the media has handled this event. I am saddened that no one in the press had the integrity to tell the whole story, to report the misdeeds of the media as well as those of the faculty present that day. I am disheartened that a professor, who by all accounts is quite excellent at her job, was forced to resign in such an ignoble fashion. And, if I’m being perfectly honest, I am disgusted with the way this entire story has been twisted around to serve political agendas, both in the press and beyond it. My faith in the free press as a watchdog for democracy has been shaken.
