Press The Meat, Con't

Missouri GOP Attorney General and US Senate candidate Eric Schmitt is going after the University of Missouri's college newspaper for printing fact checking articles, to see if the paper and its faculty advisers are in violation of the state's law banning "critical race theory" in public education.

 

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has filed an open records request seeking correspondence between two journalism professors connected to the University of Missouri and the executive director of a fact-checking group.

In a move that appears to be unprecedented in Missouri, Schmitt, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, filed a request in June asking for three years of emails sent and received by the professors while they worked at the Columbia Missourian.

Most correspondence generated at private media firms is not subject to the state’s open records law, but the Missourian could be because it is attached to the University of Missouri, which is a public entity.

The Missourian is not overseen by university officials, but most of its staff are students who are working for credits toward a journalism degree. The professional editors work as university faculty members.

David Kurpius, dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, said the school has hired outside legal counsel to determine which emails could be released to the attorney general. Some records, such as those that identify students’ personal information, are protected by federal law.

Jean Maneke, an attorney with the Missouri Press Association, said the request puts the university in “unchartered territory” because most public institutions do not have journalists attached. She was unaware of any similar requests in the past.

“There’s no clear instructions for what they should do when faced with these kind of parameters,” Maneke said.

The request was first reported by the Missourian, which discovered it after filing an unrelated open records request.

Schmitt’s spokesman, Chris Nuelle, said in a statement that the attorney general is “simply trying to get to the bottom of the fact checking process.” He declined to answer further questions.

Schmitt previously used open-records laws to seek copies of handouts, emails and other resources that address race from school districts as part of a push targeting “critical race theory.” He also opened a “transparency portal” to allow parents to see his efforts.

In the latest request, Schmitt is seeking any email correspondence starting June 15, 2018, sent to or from Mike Jenner, Tom Warhover, who previously worked with the Missourian, and Aaron Sharockman, the executive director of PolitiFact.

 

Schmitt wants to destroy the paper and almost certainly imprison the former faculty advisers.

I repeat, Schmitt wants to throw people in jail for fact-checking the GOP.

He will not be the last to start imprisioning journalists, and journalism school faculty.

This is what fascists do, of course. President Biden was correct in his assessment.

And even worse, here in America, journalists are being murdered.

Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, one of Nevada’s most accomplished and trusted journalists, was found dead with stab wounds outside his home Saturday morning.

German, whose work in Las Vegas spanned more than three decades, made a career of breaking big stories about everything from organized crime and government malfeasance to political scandals and the Oct. 1 mass shooting.

“The Review-Journal family is devastated to lose Jeff,” Executive Editor Glenn Cook said. “He was the gold standard of the news business. It’s hard to imagine what Las Vegas would be like today without his many years of shining a bright light on dark places.”

Las Vegas police responded to the 7200 block of Bronze Circle, near North Tenaya Way, around 10:30 a.m. Saturday after a person called 911 saying a neighbor was dead on the side of the victim’s house, according to Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Dori Koren.

Police found German, 69, with stab wounds outside of his home. Police believe he was in an altercation with another person on Friday in the late morning that led to him being stabbed.

“We believe the altercation took place outside of the home,” Koren said.

“We do have some leads. We are pursuing a suspect but the suspect is outstanding,” Koren said.

Koren said the stabbing is believed to be an isolated incident and that there is no threat to the public.

Cook said German had not communicated any concerns about his personal safety or any threats made against him to anyone in the Review-Journal’s leadership.

 

MAGA fascists have spent years calling journalists "Enemies of the State".

 

Now journalists are being murdered.

 

Again, this is what fascists do.