Post-Dispatch Transcribes Breitbart Smear While Videos Prove Exact Opposite

Sadly, Tim Barker at the Post-Dispatch dutifully transcribed a smear job from professional con man Andrew Breitbart today by linking to Big Government and failing to point out that the videos were edited to create completely false narratives:

He has been under fire along with a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for their teaching of a shared class dealing with labor unions, politics and society. The issue popped up after the biggovernment.com website published a pair of videos edited from some 30 hours or classroom lectures.

Unbelievably, despite the fact that I sent Barker links to videos that prove that Big Government was lying as early as Monday, Barker does not say a word about the blatantly dishonest edits from Big Government. For example, Big Government (and Dana Loesch) repeatedly claimed that Judy Ancel told the class "Violence is a tactic. It's to be used when it's the appropriate tactic," while the full videos clearly showed that she was quoting a person from the movie At the River I Stand to promote class discussion. Her full quote:

ANCEL: The one guy in the film, one of the guys who had been one of the young, um, SNCC types, said

[crosstalk]

-- he represented the kind of thinking that went into this student on the coordinating committee and then later probably -- well, coinciding with the Black Panthers. You know, he said violence is a tactic and it's to be used when it's appropriate, when it's an appropriate tactic. Whether -- they never come back to him to ask him what he thought of the window-smashing in that march or whether or not that was done by them or others or provocateurs. We don't know that.

Why do so many modern day reporters find it so difficult to simply point out the truth?

Clarification

A silly blog post at 24th State is claiming that the UMSL students we interviewed about an incident last Saturday were "bearing false witness." Here's what the post had to say:

Up first was an anonymous woman who used charged language to assert that Sharp tried to violently enter the classroom, but was held back by Giljum, who was trying to protect his students.

They then claim that Adam Sharp's video proves the student wrong. Actually, the description of the student's claims from the 24th state blogger (probably Ben Evans) was false. What the student actually said is the following:

I heard this commotion in the hall, and I looked over to a fellow student and the fellow student asked me "did you see what happened?" and I said "No, what is going on?" He said "it sounds like a fight's out there," and that's when Don came in and what trying to keep the man out...now this man appeared to be crazy because he was trying to come through the door. Don was trying to keep the man out of the classroom and was shouting at the man "Stay out!" And the man tried to come through the door, the man put his hands up like he was going to try to block the door to keep it open while he had a camera in his hand and he was taking pictures of us. And at that point I was just so shocked at what was going on... that this crazy man was trying to get into the classroom...Don was trying to protect the students and keep this crazy man out of the classroom and we were just all in such shock that finally Don got the door slammed. He came in and said they're trying to get in...and thats when Judy, I guess, a police officer came into their room...

Now if the student had said that Sharp "tried to violently enter the room," as 24thstate suggests, then I could see why they'd say that the video shows that the claim was false. However, what she said was that Sharp tried to enter the room, looked crazy, and held a hand up like he was going to try to block the door from closing, and there's nothing in his video that shows that any of those claims are false. In addition, his own video shows that he did film students inside the classroom and posted the video on youtube without their permission. So 24th state is, as usual, clearly wrong.

At Activist Hub, we have described Sharp's behavior in various ways, based on what we heard from the interviews. At times, we've said that he tried to get into the classroom or tried to "barge in" on the class. Again, the video seems consistent with these claims: Sharp appears to be following Giljim into the classroom until Giljim slams the door. On the other hand, the suggestion that Sharp tried to "break in" to the room does at least seem to be inconsistent with the video, although even this claim might be true if he was holding his hand out like he was trying to stop Giljim from closing the door. Anyway, the main points remain the same:

Sharp went to the UMSL campus specifically to pester the instructor and students. In fact, the public announcements all stated that Giljim was not even going to be in class.

Sharp was trespassing on the UMSL campus in a building that's supposed to be restricted to students, faculty, and staff.

Sharp appeared to be trying to follow Giljim into the classroom.

Sharp filmed students in the classroom.

Sharp pestered students as they left the classroom.

Sharp's friend Ben Evans dared students to "take a swing" at him as they were waiting outside the police station to see what happened.

All pretty clear examples of obnoxious behavior from the tea party, after they were already caught lying about the content of the course.

Exclusive Video! Tea Party Tries to Provoke Violence At UMSL!

We posted an interview on Monday about an altercation at UMSL where Adam Sharp reportedly trespassed into a restricted building and attempted to harass students and faculty. Both students mentioned that as they were waiting outside the police station to see if Don Giljim was OK, they were approached by a tea partier (later identified as Ben Evans) who was baiting them to "take a swing" at him. We've obtained exclusive video that shows this to be true.

First, here are shortened clips of the students explaining what had happened. The first student wanted to remain anonymous for the time being:



Here's the second student, Kevin:



And here's the exclusive video showing Ben Evans of the St. Louis Tea Party saying "I'd love to see you take another swing:"



Of course, just because the tea party goes out of their way to try to provoke violence doesn't mean that it's OK to be violent. In fact, that's exactly what they're looking for. But this does show quite clearly what their intentions are when they try to pester students and faculty at a college campus. All of this is the stuff they leave out of their highly edited version of events.

Hubbard, Nasheed, Brown, and Hughes Sell Out

Pathetic "legislators" Penny Hubbard, Michael Brown, Jamilah Nasheed, and Jonas Hughes sold out their constituents, the Democratic Party, and the people of Missouri by voting for a gerrymandered redistricting map that all-but-ensures a 6-2 Republican congregation from Missouri for the next 10 years, despite the fact that 40-50% of the states population votes Democratic every election. Their crossover votes, combined with the fact that Republican legislators know better than to sell out their leadership on important issues like this, provided exactly enough votes to override Jay Nixon's veto. Hughes from the Kansas City area was the newest member to join the ranks of shameful sell-outs, and he had previously said the following:

"Are we going to just give in to gerrymandering without even putting up a fight?" said Rep. Jonas Hughes, D-Kansas City. "We just simply give in and rollover. If that's what's become of Missouri's Democrats then perhaps we deserve that. Perhaps it's time to just rollover if that's what we're going to do."

I guess Hughes decided that it was time to rollover if that's what he was going to do.

Of course, this is what happens when progressives don't have a strong infrastructure around to elect good candidates. The fact that Penny Hubbard beat progressive James Morris is disgraceful for anyone who cares about the values of the Democratic Party. So if we elect weak, self-interested legislators, it will always be easy for Republicans to pick off opportunists with the promise of Wingnut Welfare for Life. Even if all of these legislators lose their next elections to actual democrats, Rex Sinquefield probably has a director position waiting for them at the Hawaii branch of the Show Me Institute.

Ultimately, all we have as Democrats and people who oppose the abuse of power and money is our values. And if we elect schmoozers, big talkers, wheel-greasers, or whatever without knowing that, at heart, they are good and trustworthy people, we will continue to lose.

Exclusive Interview: Breitbart's Provocateurs Trespass at UMSL To Harass and Intimidate Students(AUDIO)

Early last week, Dana Loesch and Andrew Breitbart's websites started pushing a story claiming that professors at UMKC and UMSL were encouraging their students to use violence and industrial sabotage to further political ends. The videos immediately looked sketchy, with strangely edited clips cobbled together. Though the bureaucracies of the universities and the unions slowed down a response to the attacks from well-known con artist Andrew Breitbart, UMKC professor Judy Ancel released a statement documenting that the videos were maliciously edited to put words into the mouths of the professors. On Friday, Crooks and Liars and Media Matters both released video that clearly demonstrated that the story being pushed by Loesch and Breitbart was completely fabricated via creative chop-shop editing.

In order to distract people from the fact that they were busted lying, St. Louis tea party provocateur Adam Sharp, who's blogged on Breitbart's sites before, apparently trespassed on the UMSL campus on Saturday to harass students and instructor Don Giljim. Sharp attempted to film students in their classroom, pestered them as they walked out of class with questions like "do you condone violence," and was arrested and charged with trespassing. Don Gilgim was also taken to the police station because there was an altercation, and as students waited outside of the police station, another tea partier approached them and began taunting them and daring them to "take a swing" at him. This is after a week where the tea party violated students' privacy by putting videos on YouTube showing comments made for the purpose of classroom discussion.

Needless to say, the students felt victimized by this assault on their ability to learn in a safe environment without being harassed by extremists. We were able to get two exclusive interviews with students from the UMSL class who witnessed Adam Sharp's attempts to barge into their classroom. I think both of them do an excellent job laying out just how disturbing it is that the tea party is now trying to harass students and professors on college campuses and interfere with people's ability to learn and speak freely. Though the students chose to remain anonymous for this interview, one (Kevin) will be available for media requests, as well as other students from that class. The first student we interviewed is studying for finals and trying to recover from the major disruption in her life caused by the tea party invasion of her classroom, and she prefers to remain off-the-radar for the next several days.

Please check out these interviews which (1) further debunk the lie that the course taught students to use violence as a tactic or engage in industrial sabotage, (2) detail Sharp's incredibly creepy behavior of trespassing and trying to barge into a college classroom, and (3) document the tea party blatantly trying to provoke attacks from college students who were just trying to learn:

First Interview


Second Interview (Kevin)


I should note that I heard that instructor Don Giljim was charged with damaging Sharp's camera. I certainly do not condone violence, even against people who are doing everything in their power to provoke it. Sharp invaded the sanctity of their classroom in order to create a story that distracts from the fact that Breitbart and Loesch were caught lying, and he just might be successful.

Activist Hub Radio 5/1/11 Second & Third Segments

Adam and I interview two students about there experiences in the class. And the incident this Saturday morning where right-wing blogger Adam Sharp attempted to force his way into a ongoing class. For precautionary measures our first interview was conducted anonymously.

First Interview


Second Interview

Activist Hub Radio 5/1/11

This week Adam and I discuss the "Breitbarting" of a Labor Studies class at the Kansas City and St. Louis branches at the University of Missouri. We play and discuss two videos clips from Professor Judy Ancel and Don Giljam. Please listen to the second and third segments of our show for the interviews with the two UMSL students.



Please listen to the second and third segments of the show here.

Also we are on itunes so please subscribe Activist Hub Radio on Itunes.