Race Issues

Almost all of today's conservatives believe that their predecessors in the 1950s and '60s should not have opposed the civil-rights movement. Plenty of liberals counter that the right's wrongness on racial matters is by no means a thing of the past. This week, three Daily Kos writers advanced that idea. Laura Clawson asserted on Monday that "for a hundred years after the Civil War, white…

It doesn't take a special occasion for Chris Matthews to smear conservatives as racist, but the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have a Dream" speech was too good for the Hardball host to pass up. During special coverage of Wednesday's festivities, Matthews smeared "half the country" as opposing the chief executive because of the color of his skin, not the political and…

Memo to the Corrections Department at the Los Angeles Times: The following sentence is utterly unhistorical. “Since Democrats led the passage of civil rights legislation that marchers pushed for in 1963, Republicans have struggled to recover with black voters”. Civil rights legislation of the 1960s was favored more by Republicans than by Democrats, so how did Democrats “lead the passage”?…

In remarks that are sure to dismay the race-baiting crew at MSNBC, President Obama admitted in an interview yesterday that he does not think that his conservative critics are racially motivated. Obama made those remarks in a very flattering discussion with PBS NewsHour hosts Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff after he gave an address commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I…

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, Jeff Pegues spotlighted the lack of GOP speakers at the 50th anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech: "Noticeably absent from this event, the GOP...the two most senior Republicans in the House...were invited to speak but declined." However, Pegues failed to mention that the event organizers didn't make much of an effort to get…

On Thursday's MSNBC Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd laid blame for Republicans not speaking at Wednesday's anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington on the GOP, rather than event organizers: "...the Bushes couldn't go, there were health reasons why neither President Bush could go and speak. Other Republicans leaders were invited to speak and they politely declined. In hindsight, do you wish…

Numerous commentators have noted that Wednesday's celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington seemed like a Democratic campaign rally. Adding to the criticism was Fox News's Howard Kurtz writing Thursday, "[A]t times it seemed to be a production of MSNBC":

This week, CNN provided extensive coverage of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington, hosting many of the original civil rights activists for interviews. The appearances became chances for Democrats to shill for liberal policies, and sometimes the rhetoric descended into the ridiculous and inflammatory. Here are the five worst moments from CNN's coverage Saturday…

In an interview with California attorney general Kamala Harris during live MSNBC coverage of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, host Andrea Mitchell fretted: "I talked to Jesse Jackson earlier about all the voter suppression efforts, and what's happened since the Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act. What can be done, from your perspective –…

"Fifty years after Martin Luther King delivered his landmark 'I Have a Dream' speech at the Lincoln Memorial, which will be celebrated at a public ceremony Wednesday in Washington, African-American progress in the political arena has been spotty," Peter Nicholas and Neil King Jr. of the Wall Street Journal noted in a page A4 article on Wednesday headlined "Uneven Election Success for Black…

Douglas Brinkley predictably fawned over President Obama's apparently "very beautifully written" address marking the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, mere moments after he finished delivering it: "I think it's one of the great speeches that Barack Obama's ever delivered." [audio available here; video below the jump] Scott Pelley turned to Brinkley during CBS'…

ABC provided immediate and enthusiastic praise for Barack Obama's speech, Wednesday, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" address. Anchoring live coverage, he praised, "President Barack Obama, playing the role of teacher and preacher and president today." Stephanopoulos then began to link Obama and King. He allowed that Obama insisted in his speech, "No…

For Chris Matthews, every day is a good day to attack President Obama’s critics as racists, but the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington was an especially opportune time. During MSNBC’s live coverage of the festivities on Wednesday morning, Matthews unleashed a tirade against the president’s opponents, saying that racists were at least honest about their beliefs in the early 1900s.…

Within moments of President Obama finishing his address at the 50th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington, the liberal media began with fawning and gushing guaranteed to last for at least a week. Take for example NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd who on MSNBC actually said, “I thought it was a very post-racial speech” (video follows with…