CNN Tonight host Laura Coates previewed the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington on Friday by welcoming The Beat Goes On director Mario Van Peebles and executive producer who promptly used the occasion to push not only left-wing agendas, such as abortion, but to spread fake news about how Florida Republicans make it “illegal to read about an enslaved person.”
Coates began by declaring, “You have been in so many great moments as well, and following and documenting the power of the image of what we have seen with the March on Washington.”
For Van Peebles, the images are necessary to combat the would-be mind controllers, “My dad and I always talked about how, you know, the modern-day colonizer doesn't put chains on your body, the chains are on your mind. And the first step to freeing your mind is controlling your imagery, the image of what you imagine you can be.”
Van Peebles also waxed poetic by recalling, “one of my favorite King quotes is where he says, “we all have to learn together, learn to live together as brothers and sisters in harmony, but we perish together as fools,” which means that everyone has to be involved in problem solving.
After using his racially and politically diverse family as an example, Van Peebles returned to the partisan mud-slinging, “But it forces you to look at the totality of humanity and say, I'm not interested in just what the problems are. We know there's darkness. We know that it was illegal to teach enslaved people how to read. Soon in Florida, it may be illegal to read about an enslaved person.”
Before anyone could call out “fake news,” Van Peebles implicitly added abortion, gun control, and more fake news about voter suppression to the list of things to be concerned about, “So, we know you have problems of education. I know my daughters might not have the same freedoms that their moms had. Just the freedom to vote is being encroached on. You know, the right to go to school and not get shot at. So, we know there's problems.”
Van Peebles then hyped a get out the vote initiative “because too many people like my big-headed son over there don't think their vote matters. They've got to say, ‘I can make a difference and if my vote didn't matter, people wouldn't be trying to squash it.’ So, I want to focus on folks of all demographics, of all races, that are out there trying to turn the lights on for all of us.”
At no point in the segment in Coates correct the record about Florida, alleged voter suppression, or any of Van Peebles’s other attempts to project modern left-wing priorities onto the original March on Washington.
This segment was sponsored by ClearChoice.
Here is a transcript for the August 25 show:
CNN Tonight
8/26/2023
11:50 PM ET
LAURA COATES: But I'm so glad you're here and you're in town, of course, because you've been following this. You have been in so many great moments as well, and following and documenting –
MARIO VAN PEEBLES: Right.
COATES: -- the power of the image of what we have seen with the March on Washington.
VAN PEEBLES: My dad and I always talked about how, you know, the modern-day colonizer doesn't put chains on your body, the chains are on your mind. And the first step to freeing your mind is controlling your imagery, the image of what you imagine you can be.
And one of my favorite King quotes is where he says, “we all have to learn together, learn to live together as brothers and sisters in harmony, but we perish together as fools.”
And in my family, we've got all kinds of folks. We've got white, black, brown. I've got a gay aunt. I've got a Trumper aunt. I mean, every -- so I've got a love with big arms. So, I've always –
COATES: That's a good Thanksgiving table.
VAN PEEBLES: It is. But it forces you to look at the totality of humanity and say, I'm not interested in just what the problems are. We know there's darkness. We know that it was illegal to teach enslaved people how to read. Soon in Florida, it may be illegal to read about an enslaved person.
So, we know you have problems of education. I know my daughters might not have the same freedoms that their moms had. Just the freedom to vote is being encroached on. You know, the right to go to school and not get shot at. So, we know there's problems.
What I want to focus on are grassroots organizations that are doing something to turn the lights on. And that's where the King family comes in and a new company called "Partners in Kind." And we're teaming up to make a multi-part series focused on the boots on the ground, the high heels on the ground, the sneakers on the ground, the folks out there making a positive difference because too many people like my big-headed son over there don't think their vote matters.
They've got to say, “I can make a difference and if my vote didn't matter, people wouldn't be trying to squash it.” So, I want to focus on folks of all demographics, of all races, that are out there trying to turn the lights on for all of us.
