Muzzle Awards 'awarded' to 50 colleges and universities

This month, the Virginia-based group that recognizes threats to free speech gave 50 college campuses a Muzzle award, which are no honor. Hawes Spencer explains why.

Mark Schierbecker is a student at the University of Missouri.

"The award is well-deserved. The University has fought very hard for this recognition as an institution that muzzles free speech."

He captured this memorable and eventually viral faculty moment:

[audio]: "Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here."

Josh Wheeler, the director of the Thomas Jefferson Center, thought he'd seen it all.

"In the 25 years of giving out Jefferson Muzzle Awards, we've never seen such a concentration of anti-free speech activity."

Wheeler hopes this year's Muzzles will spur campuses to reclaim their historic role as guardians of speech rights. For WCVE News, Hawes Spencer in Charlottesville.

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IMAGES: Melissa Click called for "muscle" to oust a student videographer. (Mark Schierbecker)

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