On Tuesday's The Lead, CNN's Jake Tapper zeroed in on University of Missouri Professor Melissa Click's attack on a student journalist, after he tried to cover anti-racism protests on campus. Tapper bluntly stated, "I have to say that I found this video shocking — not just this mob of students trying to intimidate this student journalist — but they had faculty help!" The anchor later asked Professor Tom Warhover, who also teaches at Mizzou, "Do you think she should be stripped of her courtesy opportunities?" Warhover replied, "I think that's probably a reasonable response." [video below]
Tapper turned to the University of Missouri professor immediately after a report on two incidents of the protesters intimidating the media — one involving Professor Click, and the other involving a group of student protesters who pushed back a student photojournalist and blocked his camera view. The CNN journalist led with his "shocking" statement. Professor Warhover responded by underlining that Click is "in a different school....She has a courtesy appointment, which is kind of like saying— yeah, you can do come over and do some committee work — but she doesn't teach our students. And I don't think you'd see any journalism professor out there advocating that kind of action, and displaying that kind of disregard for student journalists."
The anchor followed up by asking his guest for his "personal reaction" to Professor Click's attack. Warhover replied, "I was pretty mad about it." Tapper then asked whether she should be "stripped of her courtesy opportunities." He concluded the interview by noting the demonstrators' "list of demands," and asked Professor Warhover if he thought "anything else is bound to happen" in the aftermath of the president and chancellor's resignations.
The full transcript of Jake Tapper's interview of Professor Tom Warhover from the November 10, 2015 edition of CNN's The Lead:
JAKE TAPPER: Let's talk about this with Tom Warhover. He's a journalism professor at the esteemed University of Missouri School of Journalism. He's also an executive editor at The Missourian, the newspaper in Columbia, Missouri. Professor, thanks so much for joining us.
I have to say that I found this video shocking — not just this mob of students trying to intimidate this student journalist — but they had faculty help!
TOM WARHOVER, ASSOC. PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI JOURNALISM SCHOOL: Yeah — and one thing I need to make clear right away, is that that professor is in a different school. So, it's not the school of journalism she in — she's in. She has a courtesy appointment, which is kind of like saying— yeah, you can do come over and do some committee work — but she doesn't teach our students. And I don't think you'd see any journalism professor out there advocating that kind of action, and displaying that kind of disregard for — for student journalists.
TAPPER: What was your personal reaction, if you don't mind my asking?
WARHOVER: I was pretty mad about it.
TAPPER: Yeah, I would think so. Now, as we mentioned, the dean of the journalism school says that faculty members are reviewing this professor who called for the 'muscle' — Melissa Click — and her courtesy appointment, as you just mentioned. Do you think she should be stripped of her — her courtesy opportunities?
WARHOVER: I think that's probably a reasonable response. Keep in mind: that doesn't do anything, in terms of — she's still a faculty member — full faculty member and — in the communications department. So, we have a mass communications department; we have a school of journalism. Some schools, it's all combined; but here, they're totally separate. So — and I can't speak to what that department may or may not be saying or doing about her.
TAPPER: Let's turn to the — the broader issue, because obviously, the students that were seen in this video are just a small percentage of the students that have been protesting for — for weeks about larger issues of racism. Protesters say that the resignations of the president and the chancellor are just the beginning.
Now, I've reviewed their list of demands. One of them, for instance, is increasing the percentage of African-American staff and faculty to ten percent in a couple of years, for example. Do you think anything else is bound to happen from this list of demands?
WARHOVER: I think a lot of things are bound to happen. Whether they tick off the list of demands or not, a lot of things have already happened. And, you know, one of — one of the things I'd — I'd get across is that this — this video that went viral with our student photojournalists is — is the smallest part of a huge day in the life of this institution, which has been here since 1839. I can't — I can't say enough what a momentous kind of shift is — is occurring here.
TAPPER: Yeah — absolutely. Professor Warhover, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.
