ESPN Casts Ridiculously Wealthy and Privileged Leader of Mizzou Protests as a Humble, Romantic Idealist

November 11th, 2015 7:34 PM

They say the cover-up is worse than the lie. In reality, they’re both the same because one cannot cover-up a lie without in fact, lying.

And covering up what appears to be a lie is exactly what ESPN is engaged in right now. In an ESPN article written by Senior Writer Elizabeth Merrill, she lauds the bravery of Jonathan Butler, the head of the Concerned Students 1950 organization at Missouri, and the student who went on a hunger strike to get former University System President Tim Wolfe ousted.

Merrill describes Butler as “the type of guy who gets something in his head and doesn't back down:”

“He penned his will on an autumn day, his 25-year-old life summed up by his three most coveted possessions. Jonathan Butler had a laptop, a stack of books and a backpack. He bequeathed each of the items to his friends.

Butler had spent more than a quarter of his life as a student at the University of Missouri, a Midwestern campus with a student population that is 77 percent white. And deep inside, he was reaching his breaking point. He'd been called the N-word, had his health benefits cut and witnessed overt acts of discrimination throughout the campus. Those acts seemed to escalate in the year since the Ferguson riots.”

Before going any further I should caution you that the gag factor in this piece is exceptionally strong. Jonathan Butler, contrary to the romantically idealistic and meager picture being drawn for you here by ESPN, is a ludicrously wealthy child of privilege. The son of a railroad executive who made over 8 million dollars last year, and is believed to be worth north of 20 million.

So, in other words, the man who demanded that Tim Wolfe resign while declaring his “white privilege” is more privileged than most any student, black or white, in all of Missouri.

Nor, of course, was his precious healthcare ever in danger. Considering his father could have purchased him his own healthcare company. But what about those “acts that seemed to escalate” in the time after Ferguson?

The acts that “escalated” seem now to have as much credibility as ESPN’s complete misrepresentation of who Jonathan Butler is. There is no evidence of the poopswastika. At least not one that has ever been seen. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that in a day and age where college students take pictures of absolutely everything, that there is no picture of this symbol of excremental racism?

It should.

There is no solid evidence that Missouri Student body President Payton Head was ever called a n***er by a bunch of “guys in a pick-up truck.” A more than significant factor, since just yesterday Head, who somehow managed to get elected as the head of Missouri’s students as a gay, black man, had to delete a Facebook post claiming that the Klan was on the Missouri campus.

Why? Because, like the alleged swastika, he was full of it.

So, why should we believe that this event Head claims to have happened, actually happened?

Without any even passing reference to these inconvenient truths and factors, and, presumably with a straight face, ESPN pens this absurd closing ode:

“Butler walks to his car as the sun rises. By the end of the day, the university will announce the appointment of an interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity. Chuck Henson will begin work immediately, the university says. But by nighttime, there are threats of violence toward black students on social media and more tension. Butler has no plans of backing down.”

Of course, many of those threats have turned out to be absolutely bogus, in addition to the fact that there were also threats made to reporters by school officials protecting Butler and his cabal of cowards who have segregated themselves in a “safe space.” Yet, ESPN didn’t see fit to report that.

Because that would really make the lie known, and the cover-up all the more obvious.