Our favorite University of Missouri professor has pled it out. Melissa “I need some muscle over here” Click was charged this week with third degree assault – a misdemeanor. She agreed to do 20 hours of community service and not to get in trouble for a whole year in exchange for a suspended sentence.

Click was charged for touching and pushing a journalist’s camera who was trying to record a demonstration against racism held on the Mizzou campus back in November. If Click had elected to go to trial she could have received up to 15 days in jail and a $300 fine. Overall the plea agreement seems fine – if we view it in a vacuum. But the implications of what this professor did in her position as a role model to impressionable students remains quite disturbing.

The irony of the situation cannot be exaggerated. Click is a communications professor. One would think she would embrace the importance of portraying conflict in a fair and honest manner. Instead, her approach to communications appears to be how to skew the message to reflect favorably her personal opinion about a situation. Anything that detracts from the message she wants to send gets squashed – literally. From her actions, it can be assumed she is far better at teaching her students bias toward social justice causes rather than objective reporting.