Monday, January 19, 2015

Martin Luther King Gets Angry About Media Hypocrisy


"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war." 
- Martin Luther King Jr.


One year before his death Martin Luther King Jr. began speaking out against the U.S. attack on Vietnam.  Not only did he defend the rights of brown people in Southeast Asia but he also grasped the economic devastation that militarism brings to residents of both sides of the war.  

"And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor.  

 So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such." 

In addition to his grievances with racism, militarism and economic exploitation King also criticizes the press.



He begins expressing his anger about media hypocrisy around the 7 minute mark:  

"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.  

America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery.  I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, we can't do it this way.  

They applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters.  

They applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation.  Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, Be non-violent toward Bull Connor;.

There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children. There's something wrong with that press! 

What would King say about the media's coverage of today's events?  The press is outraged by police employees violent behavior in America but they justify acts of massive violence by military employees in Iraq and Syria.

Why limit human rights to certain geographic areas?  People should defend against violence in Palestine and Israel, in Ukraine and Russia, in Saudi Arabia and Iran, in Ferguson and New York.

Unfortunately MLK's words still ring true.  His vision of peace and freedom for all will not be fulfilled until people say no to war.  


Hear his 1970 Grammy Award Winning speech ....




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