Saturday, April 30, 2011

Release the Labor, Politics and Society Tapes

Earlier this week, Big Government broke the story about the University of Missouri Labor Studies department teaching violent union tactics. Since the original video above was posted, four more have been released (herehere, here, here, and here). While this story has gained traction online with coverage from tea party blogs, it was largely ignored by the MSM until Thursday morning. A CBS affiliate in St. Louis, KMOX, noted the story. In their reporting, KMOX included a statement from Ameren UE condemning the comments of Don Giljum. Giljum, one of the lecturers in the Labor, Politics, and Society course, used to be the business manager for a union that represented Ameren workers.

Since then, the KMOX story has been updated with a statement from the University which reads in part:
The University of Missouri-Kansas City continues to review approximately 18 hours of unedited video from the Labor, Politics and Society class. From the review completed to date, it is clear that edited videos posted on the Internet depict statements from the instructors in an inaccurate and distorted manner by taking their statements out of context and reordering the sequence in which those statements were actually made so as to change their meaning.
The Kansas City Star has also entered the fray. The KC Star's coverage reads in part:
The video has [Judy] Ancel, who directs UMKC’s Institute for Labor Studies, telling her class: “Violence is a tactic, and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.”

Other snippets show [Don] Giljum, of Local Operating Engineers 148, describing tactics, such as “strategically placing a screwdriver near equipment” and circulating literature about “plant sabotage,” that he and union buddies used to force plant shutdowns.

But university officials, who have spent the week reviewing much of the “18 hours of an unedited video of the Labor in Politics and Society class,” say the website videos are obviously bogus.

“It is clear that edited videos posted on the Internet depict statements from the instructors in an inaccurate and distorted manner by taking their statements out of context and reordering the sequence in which those statements were actually made so as to change their meaning,” UMKC Provost Gail Hackett said in a statement.
At this point we know that there's about 18 hours of unedited video and the University is still reviewing it. We also know that Don Giljum resigned some time this week presumably as a result of Big Government's coverage. If the unedited tape genuinely shows that the videos "are obviously bogus", then why did Giljum resign? If the videos posted to date actually "depict statements from the instructors in an inaccurate and distorted manner", then the unedited video in the possession of the University should exonerate both Giljum and Ancel. Does the KC Star have aspirations of being Mizzou's waterboy next fall? Why didn't they demand the video tapes instead of rubber stamping the University's press release?

The truth is in the unedited tapes and for that reason the University should release them.

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