Morgan Bettinger was just a regular college student — until one unlucky encounter with a Black Lives Matter activist brought her whole world crashing down. She was branded racist and forced to defend herself for years against a country determined to destroy her. The only problem: none of the accusations were true.
Hate crime hoaxes like the type perpetrated against Morgan have become an all-too-common part of American life. We all know the big stories: Jussie Smollet and his hired attackers; Bubba Wallace and the garage door noose; Michael Brown and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” These stories faced hyper-scrutiny in the public eye and have been thoroughly debunked. It’s the little people like Morgan who don’t get obsessive media coverage — and have far less opportunity to clear their names.
The Daily Caller is determined to rectify this with our latest documentary, “Demand for Hate,” which exposes the rise of hate crime hoaxes in America today. Our investigative team takes a deep dive into Morgan’s story and shows the real damage that occurs when our cowardly leaders fail to stand up for the truth.
“Demand for Hate” is available to stream exclusively for Patriots subscribers. Catch a first glimpse below.
Morgan, like thousands of other college students in the BLM era, was just a normal kid caught up in a sea of radical leftist activism. When she got into her dream school, the University of Virginia, she thought she was going off to a place that valued free expression and open inquiry. She thought she would spend four years getting a rigorous education that would prepare her for law school and future career. She didn’t know that she had entered a campus that would come to reject all of these in the name of social activism.
The Daily Caller’s own Kate Anderson, who covered Morgan’s story since the beginning, breaks it all down.
EXPOSED: The Origin of the Morgan Bettinger Case
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On July 17, 2020, there was a rally for Black Women Matter, a feminist offshoot of BLM, with hundreds of protesters blocking a street near campus. A dump truck was blocking part of the intersection to keep cars from heading down the street when Morgan got stuck driving home from work. She got out of her car and started talking to the truck driver about how she was thankful he was there to prevent the cars from turning protesters into speed bumps.
But the protesters in the street told a different story.
A UVA student activist Zyana Bryant said that Morgan threatened protesters, saying that they would “make good f–king speed bumps.” She tweeted a video of the incident to her thousands of followers and it quickly went viral, but the comments she accused Morgan of saying were conspicuously absent.
Almost immediately, Morgan became a target of vicious harassment online, as the incident came to the attention of university administrators and local media. She didn’t even realize what was going on until a friend texted her, “Are you okay?” It was then she saw the flood of hate pouring in.
Bryant launched a campaign She was called a “Nazi,” a “racist,” and “coddled little white girl” who “promotes domestic terrorism.” Activists uncovered who she was, and spread her personal details publicly online. Students ostracized her, refusing to sit in a class with her — even virtually. Local journalists started going after her as well, uncritically reporting Zyahna’s account. A local outlet C-VILLE Weekly called Morgan’s alleged comments an “especially chilling and violent” threat. UVA’s student council president suggested she should be expelled, and even one of her professors condemned her, going so far as to suggest that she should be arrested.
University leadership offered little support to Morgan, saying only that they would investigate the matter fully. But Morgan could not get a fair trial under the circumstances. She was never even allowed to tell her side of the story.
After witnesses failed to corroborate the incident, the university investigators rightly determined that there was no evidence Morgan said what Bryant accused her of. Even if she had, it was simply a hypothetical statement, not a threat, the university correctly determined.
But in response to Bryant’s agitation, UVA submitted the case to another panel made up of students — the first time she was permitted to tell her side of the story. The student panel agreed with Morgan’s version of events, but nevertheless determined she was being insensitive about the issues BLM was supposedly fighting for. Punishment came swift and severe, in what political scientist Wilfred Rielly called the “most egregious” hate crime hoax he’s ever seen.
Morgan was sentenced to 50 hours of community service, leftist re-education classes, and put on probationary expulsion. If anyone complained about her, she would be expelled for real. While she eventually graduated, she still had the disgrace of expulsion on her permanent record. Meanwhile Bryant went on to have a feted career, securing a prominent partnership with the skincare company Dove.
Standing up to hate crime hoaxers like Zyahna Bryant is about more than any one individual. Morgan spent the prime years of her life defending herself against a college, media and society that would sacrifice her in the name of “justice.” By telling her story, we aim to reclaim a semblance of truth and fairness that used to be critical to our understanding of that word.
Watch “Demand for Hate” now to learn more about Morgan’s story — and how, after years of fighting, she finally found justice.
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