RIDE THE MIZZOU MOBIUS LOOP!

“Photojournalism Student Tim Tai Wins 2 Awards in National Hearst Championship.”

—Headline, University of Missouri School of Journalism Website, June 24, 2015. As the Website notes, Tai received a $1,500 scholarship for placement as one of the six finalists, and additional $1, 000 for “Best Single Photograph” in the competition, with a photo the site captioned, “Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, sheds a tear during a vigil for her son on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. The vigil later turned into a march protesting Brown’s death. Photo: Timothy Tai.”

Flash-forward to yesterday:

“Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here,” the media professor then hysterically exclaimed to the assembled mob. “I need some muscle over here!”

* * * * * * *

“You need to back up if you’re with the media!” a voice in the background yelled to the journalists trying to document the protest. “You need to respect the students! Back up!”

“I am a student,” Tim Tai, a student photographer trying to cover the protest, responded.

After Tai protested that the crowd was trying to push him, several people in the crowd laughed, tried to cover the camera with their hands, and responded, “Okay, then we’ll just block you.”

“You don’t have a right to take our photos,” one of the protesters asserted, apparently unaware that he was on taxpayer-funded public property that is by law open to the press.

Later in the video, the crowd aggressively started pushing the reporter around in an attempt to get him to stop covering their behavior.

—“Meet The Mizzou Media Professor Who’s Trying To Ban Media Coverage,” Sean Davis, the Federalist, yesterday.

And speaking of Ferguson:

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