Martin Luther King Still Silenced

Jeff Cohen, a keen observer of media monopolies and media bias (and founder of FAIR), wrote how that on the anniversary of his assassination, Reverend King is still being silenced. King’s work on poverty and militarism has been especially whitewashed out of the official history, even as they stand as his ultimate conviction in the year before his death. Cohen masterfully rebukes the corporate media, noting how 40 years ago, “they denounced King’s critical comments; today they simply silence them.”

Here’s a sample from his commentary:

If King had survived to hear the war drums beating for the invasion and occupation of Iraq — amplified by TV networks and the New York Times front page and Washington Post editorial page — there’s little doubt where he’d stand. Or how loudly he’d be speaking out.

And there’s little doubt how big U.S. media would have reacted. On Fox News and talk radio, King would have been Dixie Chicked…or Rev. Wrighted. In corporate centrist outlets, he’d have been marginalized faster than you can say Noam Chomsky.

One suspects King would be marveling at the rise of Barack Obama and the multiracial movement behind him. But would he be happy with Obama and other Democratic leaders who heap boundless billions onto the biggest military budget in world history?

In 1967, King denounced a Democratic-controlled Congress for fattening the Pentagon budget while cutting anti-poverty programs, declaring: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

~ by admin on April 5, 2008.