Right-Wing Media Bemoan University Of Missouri President's Resignation: His Only Crime Was “Being A White Man”

Written by Katie Sullivan

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Right-wing media sharply criticized the resignation of University of Missouri President Timothy M. Wolfe after a wave of protests over racial tensions erupted on the university's flagship campus. Several conservative media figures attacked the protesters, calling them “thugs” and a “mob,” and claimed that Wolfe was “forced to resign” for the “crime of being a white male.”

University Of Missouri President Resigns Amid Protests Over Racial Tensions

University Of Missouri President Resigns After Protests Over “A Series Of Racist Incidents.” The president of the University of Missouri system, Timothy M. Wolfe, resigned on November 9 “amid a wave of student and faculty protest, primarily over racial tensions, that all but paralyzed its flagship campus.” According to The New York Times, "[a] series of racist incidents in the last few months spurred calls for change," and protesters said Wolfe “at first did not take their complaints seriously, and that his later responses were not strong enough or swift enough”:

Amid a wave of student and faculty protests, primarily over racial tensions, that all but paralyzed its flagship campus here, the president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday, urging everyone involved to “use my resignation to heal and start talking again.”

[...]

A series of racist incidents in the last few months spurred calls for change, and protesters said the president at first did not take their complaints seriously, and that his later responses were not strong enough or swift enough.

In September, the president of the Missouri Students Association, Payton Head, who is black, posted on Facebook that a group of men had yelled racial slurs at him, and said it was not the first time he had suffered that kind of abuse at the university.

In early October, the Legion of Black Collegians, a student group, was rehearsing a homecoming event, when a white man walked onto their stage and used racial epithets about the black students. When activists tried to confront Mr. Wolfe days later at the Homecoming Parade, he avoided them, leading to accusations that he was dismissive of their concerns.

Later that month, someone used feces to scrawl a swastika in a university building. [The New York Times, 11/9/15]

Right-Wing Media Dismiss Racial Tensions, Lash Out At Protesting Students: “Mob,” “Thugs,” “Douchebags”

Rush Limbaugh: University Of Missouri President Resigned For “Committing The Crime Of Being A White Male.” On the November 9 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, host Rush Limbaugh claimed that the protests by students and the boycott by members of the football team over racial tensions at the University of Missouri “may be the end of college football as we know it” and that the president resigned for “committing the crime of being a white male.” Limbaugh said, “the major problem is that there are too many white people at this place. And they apparently are not nice enough or considerate enough to the 10 percent of the people there who are black”:

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well that may be the end of college football as we know it. It just might be. It just could be. Only time will tell, but if you think this is the end of something, you don't know liberalism. This is the continuation of something.

[...]

The Ben Carson story continues to explode or percolate. Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live Saturday night, eh, not that big a deal to a lot of people. And then we have a Republican debate coming up tomorrow night on the Fox Business Network. But what's happening on the American college campus, the vaunted academy, to me takes the top spot in the stack of stuff today. For those of you who are just now getting attuned to what's happening during the day, the University of Missouri's embattled president has resigned. His name is Tim Wolfe. He just quit, just resigned because of committing the crime of being a white male.

[...]

On campus at the University of Missouri, I did not attend, a family did, but I'm not a member of the alma mater there. Now if you haven't been following this story, this is a social justice warriors story. Some of the students at Mizzou have been calling for the president of the university to resign.

[...]

The pressure on the university president, I guess it really began, a student began a hunger strike with a list of demands. None of them specific. If you go through the list of demands here and the complaints, you don't find anything specific. You find the major problem is that there are too many white people at this place. And they apparently are not nice enough or considerate enough to the 10 percent of the people there who are black. And so there has to be some changes. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/9/15]

TX Radio Host Michael Berry: Mizzou President “Pandering” To “Thugs” Who Refuse To “Shut Their Mouth[s] And Play Football.” On his November 9 show, Texas radio host Michael Berry said football players at the University of Missouri who pledged to not play until the president resigned should “shut their mouth[s] and play football.” He also accused the former president of “pandering” to “thugs” by resigning from his position:

MICHAEL BERRY: So now the president of the university has resigned. Now, think of the message this sends. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. The football players at the University of Missouri. The football players decide who the president will be? An institution of higher learning. You're doing research on molecular biology that may lead to a cure for cancer. You're doing aeronautical research, you're doing chemical research, molecular biology research. You're educating how many thousand people? And you're letting a few thugs decide who you're president will be?

Good, you do have a problem. But it's far bigger than the creative shaping of poop by somebody on your campus. You got a major problem with your priorities. If you can't reign in a few football players to shut their mouth and play football, else they lose their scholarship? You've got a real problem on your hands. You've got a problem of culture. You've got a problem of priorities, and you've got a problem of pandering.

And let me tell you something. As Neville Chamberlain became the illustration of what is wrong when you pander to a bully, there will be no peace in your time at the University of Missouri. This will not be the last time this group of thugs flexes their muscles. You can rest assured on that. When you pander to a bully you empower that bully, you feed that bully. He will grow bigger and stronger. And bullies are only effective when they have power to exercise. There will come another day and you will face off against that bully in a bigger battlefield. You've just made a huge mistake. [KTRH, The Michael Berry Show, 11/9/15]

Gateway Pundit: “MOB WINS!” After University Of Missouri President Resigns Amid Racial Tensions. Jim Hoft, a blogger at the right-wing website Gateway Pundit, wrote that Wolfe “was pushed out by Democratic lawmakers and the race mob who complained about institutionalized racism on campus” and that “the mob wants a quota on minority hiring and more money into minority efforts at the college” (emphasis original):

Missouri President Tim Wolfe resigned this morning amid campus race protests.

Several Mizzou black athletes announced late Saturday they would boycott all future football games until President Tim Wolfe resigns.

They are upset about the way the school's president has handled racial incidents on campus and that he defunded Planned Parenthood.

Wolfe was pushed out by Democratic lawmakers and the race mob who complained about institutionalized racism on campus.

The mob wants a quota on minority hiring and more money into minority efforts at the college. [Gateway Pundit, 11/9/15]

RedState Contributor: Protesting Football Players Are “Cowardly Liberal Lazy Douchebags.” RedState contributor Leon Wolf wrote in a November 9 blog post that the football players who joined the protest against the University of Missouri president are “cowardly liberal lazy douchebags,” not “brave change agents”:

The sports media - who are uniformly worse at their jobs and more sickeningly liberal than their news media counterparts - have been breathlessly reporting on the fact that thirty black Mizzou football players are allegedly going on strike over racism on campus. This is being presented as an act of courage likely to foster social change, rather than as the act of lazy cowardice that it is.

Here are a few key points to illustrate why the story is not as the sports media would have you believe - these are not brave change agents, but lazy cowards.

[...]

At the end of the day, this isn't a courageous strike against racism. It's a lazy strike against practicing for a bad football team. The fact that the media isn't reporting it this way is evidence of the media's own laziness. [RedState, 11/9/15]

Ben Shapiro: "'White Privilege' Means Getting Fired For Your Race." Ben Shapiro, editor at Breitbart News and DailyWire.com, railed that "'white privilege' means getting fired for your race" and that “the left just declared at University of Missouri that white people must be fired for being white”:

[Twitter, 11/9/15; Twitter, 11/9/15]

Fox's Todd Starnes: Protesters Were A “Mob Of Race Agitators.” In a series of tweets, Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes criticized the push to oust President Wolfe, claiming that he was “run out of town by a rampaging mob armed with torches & pitchforks” and that the protesters were a “mob of race agitators.” Starnes also argued that Wolfe was only guilty of “being a white man”:

[Twitter, 11/9/15; Twitter, 11/9/15; Twitter, 11/9/15]

Fox's Andrea Tantaros: University Of Missouri President “Was Forced To Resign” Because He Didn't "'Acknowledge His White Male Privilege.'" Fox News host Andrea Tantaros claimed that Wolfe “was forced to resign” because he refused protesters' demands that he “acknowledge his white male privilege”:

[Twitter, 11/9/15]

HotAir's Jazz Shaw: “The Inmates Are Running The Asylum At Mizzou.” Jazz Shaw, an editor at the conservative blog HotAir, tweeted that "[t]he inmates are running the asylum" at the University of Missouri and that “parents sending tuition money there deserve what they get”:

[Twitter, 11/9/15]