Discussion: Misdemeanor Assault Charge Filed Against Mizzou Professor Who Confronted Student Journalists

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Discussion for article #245054

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This story says the photographer was working for the student newspaper. I thought he was with ESPN. In either case, assaulting him was wrong.

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As I recall, she also called for help, so there is also felony conspiracy.

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Both–he is (was?) a stringer for ESPN.

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Should’ve shot him. Then she probably wouldn’t have gotten in any trouble.

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PusLimbaaaaaaaah’s favorite FemiNazi…

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What was the reason she wanted him removed?

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WHY can’t this be a ‘learning’ experience and a reiteration of the rights of individuals, the press, etc? Why do we always have to fire, censure, nail everyone that makes a mistake and then have 100 legislators (who should have something BETTER to do than play politics) sign on to fire her?

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The protesters had just learned that the president had resigned. So they were gathering to decide what they should do next. This kid w/ a camera was demanding & pushing his way into their gathering declaring his ‘freedom of speech - freedom of the press.’

She would have been wiser to be more circumspect with him. But his behavior reminded me of the Westboro Baptist Church folks or O’Keefe. Pretty good at drawing a foul!

I heard the kid talk later. In all his babble, he revealed that his main goal was to ‘get her fired’ and ‘make her go to jail’. I don’t see alot of journalism in his behavior.

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Who does she think she is, Donald Trump?

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They were in a public place. She was out of control, and totally wrong in trying to exclude him from one part of the public place.

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In this video Q&A w Mark Schierbeck we learn that, although he talks alot about his ‘rights’ as a journalist, he had zero training in journalistic ethics. Nor any concept that other folks have rights, too.

If you get bored, go to the end when the audience is questioning him. His responses are revealing.

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Can I sit on your picnic blanket? It is a public park, after all.

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Then she very stupidly obliged him.

He sounds like an O’Keefesque little shitstain, but as long as he was on public property and not contravening any specific laws or regs governing the use of video equipment, he had a right to be there.

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Quite a shame that the university and city police do not provide protection for the protesters and then use the justice system to further harass the protesters.

To make matters worse, the journalist was in the wrong here. Journalist’s first amendment doesn’t trump protesters first amendment. You don’t get to disrupt a protest in order to cover it - just like you don’t get to cover a basketball game from center court.

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There was no picnic blanket there. And if you believe that you can, by fiat, simply claim the entire park, your notion of appropriate behavior is clueless and incorrect.

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And the perp was a “journalism” professor…think she would have known about press freedoms…

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A charge of assault seems overkill, and highly political.

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as long as he was on public property and not contravening any specific laws or regs governing the use of video equipment, he had a right to be there

Again, the journalist’s right to be on public property does not trump the protester’s right to be on public property. If he’s interfering with their protest he is in the wrong. The real problem was the lack of protection provided by local authorities. Their failure (or refusal) to establish the boundaries of the protest led to this mess.

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And if you believe that you can, by fiat, simply claim the entire park

Way to shift the goalposts - the entire park - puhleese.

The journalist himself admits he was trying to infiltrate the protesters area.

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