COLUMBIA, Mo. – The prestigious Missouri School of Journalism is partnering with the University of Missouri School of Law to host a symposium on the First Amendment, and it will feature a variety of perspectives — from liberals to far-leftists.
The Price Sloan Symposium for Media, Ethics and Law will take place on Sept. 15-16 and “focuses on free speech on college campuses” with a variety of roundtables, lectures, and a keynote debate between CNN political commentator Sally Kohn and CNN political commentator Kirsten Powers, according to the school’s website.
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The event kicks off Sept. 15 with opening remarks at Hulston Hall from Kansas City mayor Sylvester James, who is a big fan of Obama, and continues the next morning at Missouri Theatre with the keynote debate.
“The symposium, which focuses on free speech on college campuses, will feature roundtables and lectures to discuss legal issues related to free speech, law, culture, social science perspectives and student press issues on college campuses,” according to the MU website.
“Focus has turned to the First Amendment as schools across the nation struggle with freedom of expression on their campuses. The symposium aims to provide clarity on these issues to students, faculty and the general public.”
The keynote debate, which will be censored from the media, provides two liberal perspectives on the First Amendment, but nothing from the conservative perspective.
Powers is a former Democratic Party staffer turned political pundit who filled the role of Fox News’ resident liberal until jumping ship to CNN in late August.
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She also writes for liberal publications like The American Prospect and Salon.
Kohn is a liberal lesbian political commentator for CNN who also previously worked for Fox News.
According to the MU website:
Assistant Professor of Journalism Brett Johnson will speak as part of the second roundtable on social sciences. The first roundtable will focus on law and culture, and the third will focus on student press. To gain a broader perspective, the roundtable participants come from a variety of backgrounds including journalism, law, politics and computer science.
Johnson’s research focuses on contemporary issues in mass communication law and on trends in how norms of freedom of expression are changing in a world dominated by networked communication. His work has been published in the journals of Communication Law & Policy and First Amendment Studies.
Other speakers include law professors, journalism faculty, attorneys, social scientists and other media and culture commentators.
Johnson and his colleague Stacey Woelfel were featured in another article on the MU website in November 2015 in which they seemingly downplayed an incident in which a journalism department official threatened student reporters covering a protest on campus.
That incident included a video of Missouri School of Journalism’s Melissa Click calling for “some muscle” to keep reporters from the university quad where protestors were gathering to complain about racial injustices.


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