WaPo’s Eugene Robinson Dismisses MLK Niece Alveda King as ‘Figurehead or Puppet’ of Glenn Beck

Appearing as a guest on Friday’s Countdown show on MSNBC, during a discussion of conservative talker Glenn Beck’s "Restoring Honor" rally, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson dismissed Dr. Alveda King – niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former Georgia state representative – as a "figurehead or puppet" of Beck because of her scheduled participation in the rally.

And, even though she and her father took part in the Civil Rights Movement and even endured having her home bombed in the 1960s, Robinson went on to suggest that she really is not one of the "keepers of [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s] legacy" because she is supposedly "estranged from the rest of the King family."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, August 27, Countdown show on MSNBC:

KEITH OLBERMANN: Lastly, Alveda King’s appearance there, Dr. King’s niece and her appearance tomorrow. Is there anything to say about that?

EUGENE ROBINSON, WASHINGTON POST: Just that she becomes a very convenient figurehead or puppet or whatever you want to call her for Beck’s view. She’s a fundamentalist, very conservative Christian. That’s how she would describe herself. She’s estranged from the rest of the King family, and from the keepers of his legacy. She has her own, they believe that gay marriage is genocide, and that’s who she is. And so she’ll be there. And they’ll make a whole lot of the fact that an actual relative of Dr. King is there at the march speaking.