Over 100 Missouri Republican lawmakers want the University of Missouri professor who called for “muscle” to kick a reporter out of a Black Lives Matter demonstration earlier this fall to be fired.
“Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here?” Melissa Click had yelled over ESPN student reporter Tim Tai as he persisted in filming here on public property last November. “I need some muscle over here.”
Video of the confrontation, which was posted shortly after Mizzou president Tim Wolfe’s resignation due to supposed racially-charged incidents, went viral as national outrage over her denigration of the First Amendment was discussed.
“The fact that, as a professor teaching the communication department and the school of journalism, she displayed such a complete disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters should be enough to question her competency and aptitude for her job,” 18 state senators and 99 House members from Missouri wrote in a signed letter to the University of Missouri System administrators. “It should be evident that these actions are inappropriate, illegal and unacceptable for a faculty member of the University of Missouri.”
The lawmakers raised questions about Click’s controversial research projects on topics such as 50 Shades of Grey, Lady Gaga, and Twilight, all taxpayer-funded.
In addition to calling for Click to be fired, the senators also called for the firing of Janna Basler, the Mizzou assistant director of Greek Life who appears in the video to have physical contact with one of the student photographers.
In response to the lawmakers’ letter, more than 100 university faculty members signed a letter showing support for Click, who expressed guilt for her actions soon after it happened.
“The fact that, as a professor teaching the communication department and the school of journalism, she displayed such a complete disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters should be enough to question her competency and aptitude for her job.”
GOP legislators wanting Melissa Click to be fired
“We believe that Click has been wronged in the media by those who have attacked her personally and have called for her dismissal,” they wrote. “We affirm our support of her as a colleague, a teacher, and a scholar, and we call upon the University to defend her First Amendment rights of protest and her freedom to act as a private citizen.”
The lawmakers seem determined to stand their ground. “It’s imperative that the university act swiftly to remove her from her position,” State Rep. Caleb Jones said, according to USA Today.