Laura Ingraham Celebrates March On Washington 50th Anniversary With Gunshots And Race-Baiting

Conservative radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham attacked the speakers at the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, at one point using the sound of a gunshot to cut off a sound bite of civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) — a man whose skull was infamously fractured by a state trooper on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, AL, in 1965. Ingraham used the speech’s anniversary to race-bait about black-on-white crime statistics and hosted Pat Buchanan to bemoan the idea that minorities face any higher level of adversity in America 50 years later.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, DC over the weekend to commemorate and recreate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, an event originally dedicated to calling for civil and economic rights for African Americans. CBS News reported that the 50^th anniversary event — part of a week-long build-up to Wednesday’s anniversary — “was sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Martin Luther King III and the NAACP, featured a roster of speakers, including King, Sharpton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. They spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where 50 years ago this month King delivered his famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.”

On her August 26 radio broadcast, Ingraham criticized the event and its speakers, saying the goal “was to co-opt the legacy of Martin Luther King into a modern-day liberal agenda,” and scoffing at the topics speakers supposedly discussed: “From gay marriage, to immigration — amnesty, was thrown in for good measure. We talked about the Voting Rights Act.”

Ingraham ran through a list of African-American crime rates before hosting Pat Buchanan, a prominent racist with white nationalist ties. Buchanan dismissed the idea that minorities suffer any disadvantages in contemporary America, calling the idea “absurd” because “black folks excel and are hugely popular figures in everything from sports to entertainment to athletics to politics. Everywhere you go … So the progress has been enormous.”

At one point during her broadcast, Ingraham began playing a clip of Lewis’ speech from the 50^th anniversary rally, before interrupting the playback of his comments with the sound of a loud gunshot.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/26/laura-ingraham-celebrates-march-on-washington-5/195590

Commentary by The Secular Jurist:  The perverse symbolism of a gunshot stopping the free speech of a prominent civil rights leader is palpable.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by a gunman on April 4, 1968 at age 39.  Laura Ingraham’s hate-filled theatrics was not just racist, it was the worst kind of racism – where the messenger subtly incites violence while cowardly hiding behind disingenuous morality.