On his MSNBC show (10/15/11), Chris Hayes went through the NBC archives to look at Martin Luther King’s appearances on Meet the Press. He was struck by the tone of the questions King was asked–and the show put together this clip reel (apologies for the ad you’re likely to be forced to watch before the clips play; it’s mercifully brief):
So that was a segment from a FOX NEWS training video?
(Apropos that it was accompanied by a Gulf Coast tourism ad … sponsored by BP.)
Somewhat OT, but I was curious if any of Mr. King’s anti-war message made it onto his memorial. It would be a real shame if this part of his legacy had been expunged for fear of offending the same misguided patriotism which he was offending when he lived, giving them a sort of posthumous victory.
No, Doug! That was from the great days of American news, when the mainstream media boldly spoke truth to power and didn’t confuse their opinions with the facts! Why can’t they be like that today?
(Sarcasm alert, for the irony-impaired.)
The hat on the 1960 woman reporter is downright scary, by the way. Looks like she’s either wearing her brains on the outside of her head, or a coral reef has settled there.
Now I know where some of my friend’s parents got the false idea that Martin Luther King was a communist — from Meet the Press! Yikes.
There goes the golden age of journalism.
And yes, it does look like that woman wore her shower cap to work.
At the time, racial and sexual equality — hell, any kind of equality — were considered communist ideas.
So much for what some believe was the golden age of America journalism. Looks like yellow journalism to me, with a bit of red baiting thrown in.
And I’ve been reading/hearing messages from the Mean-Stream Media (including our local PBS reporters) that the Occupy Wall Street movement is being co-opted by the Communist Party. Do we still have a communist party in this country? And if so, how is that so terrible, given that the Chinese Communist Party in Bejing is holding so much of our national debt? Conservatives have no heart-burn transferring our R&D capacity, technology, manufacturing base and wealth to the CCP, and the corporate-controlled media NEVER says a discouraging word about that!
In 1999, when the King family sued the Federal, state and Memphis governments in Federal court for killing MLK, no US media dared cover the trial. The only US writer who attended was James Douglass, an author. The “alternative” media did not cover it, either. How many people know that the King family fought for James Earl Ray to get a trial, something he never had, and told him in his prison cell (after some years of reflection) that they knew he didn’t do the crime.
King’s effort to join together civil rights, peace and economic justice is what got him killed.
for more information:
An Act of State:
the execution of Martin Luther King, Jr.
by William Pepper
“For a quarter of a century, Bill Pepper conducted an independent investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He opened his files to our family, encouraged us to speak with the witnesses, and represented our family in the civil trial against the conspirators. The jury affirmed his findings, providing our family with a long-sought sense of closure and peace, which had been denied by official disinformation and cover-ups. Now the findings of his exhaustive investigation and additional revelations from the trial are presented in the pages of this important book. We recommend it highly to everyone who seeks the truth about Dr. King’s assassination.”
— Coretta Scott King
“Dr Pepper, a trusted associate of my father in the anti-war movement and a dedicated follower of his teaching, has conducted exhaustive research and shed new light on all of the critical questions including the extent of the involvement of government intelligence agencies, military units and organized crime in the assassination, the motives behind it, and the individuals who ordered and participated in it.”
â┚¬“ Dexter King
I live in the south. I think I’m going to dress up as a communist for Halloween and REALLY scare my neighbors! But then I know what their costumes will be. Big white sale at the mall!
Carol Crown, you made me laugh!
Mark, I truly don’t know about the rest but you are right on about what got MLK, Jr., killed. When he started to go after the war and to expand his justice work to embrace poor white workers, the powers that be could no longer tolerate his presence.
I hope some day FAIR expands its analysis about media bias to look at the political assassinations of the 1960s, and why the media – corporate and alternative – do not address the significance of the military coup of November 22, 1963.
What would the legacy of “the sixties” have been if Kennedy had been allowed to end the Cold War, nuclear arms race and War on Viet Nam?
Kennedy called for an end to the Cold War at American University on June 10, 1963, one of the most important speeches in US history. Curiously, this initiative got better media coverage in the Soviet Union than the United States.
On September 20, 1963, Kennedy gave a speech at the United Nations that amplified this shift, calling also for converting the Moon Race to a global cooperative effort with the USSR, but this policy change was undone immediately after Kennedy’s trip to Dallas.
The political autopsy of America starts in Dealey Plaza and an important, related chapter is the Lorraine Motel (where MLK was killed).
—
”Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity–in the field of space–there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man’s first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries–indeed of all the world–cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries. ….”
“Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world–or to make it the last.”
— President John F. Kennedy, September 20, 1963 speech to the UN calling for an end to the Cold War and converting the Moon Race into an international cooperative effort, two months and two days before he was removed from office.
Alternative news did cover parts of the trial as in Democracy Now. There may have been others but I don’t recall who.
King and kennedy were not saints.Just flawed men like the rest of us.The press today would of flayed them alive for the womanizing alone.Marks idea that JFK would of solved so many problems is not believable.My guess is he would not of made it through a second term.His health alone was so dibilitating.King was an unknown entity.The powers that be worried about his use of his power.Would he use it to ignite race anger, or diffuse it.Their ham fisted interview was born of that.Of course we are all geniuses….in retrospect
Only the good die young! The more things change the more they stay the same.
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