The Washington Post has a story today about the planned Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall scheduled for August 28, 2010. August 28th, for anyone unfamiliar with its symbolic meaning is the date that Martin Luther King, a man much demonized in his time by conservatives, gave his “I have a dream” speech.
Beck’s 8/28 rally speech is unlikely to stir the same emotions or employ the same magnificent rhetoric as Martin Luther King in 1963. This is the man, after all, who called for people to leave their churches if they stood for social justice, a cause for which King gave his life. However, Beck claims he will reveal his 100 Year Plan to Restore America at that rally, and if I were a public relations agent for him I couldn’t be more pleased by the Washington Post story.
It’s a classic “let’s gin up a controversy” and “Black v. White” article for which the Post is becoming well known. It makes the African Americans cited in the article sound like bitter, angry, jealous people and manages to paint Beck, if not a saint, as a man who is more sinned against than sinning in this instance. It is, in short, an article designed to push the buttons of white Americans regarding black people and the eponymous “race card” that they supposedly over-play. Here’s some examples of what I mean:
“There will be absolutely no politics involved,” he said. “This rally will honor the troops, unite the American people under the principles of integrity and truth, and make a pledge to restore honor within ourselves and our country.”
Civil rights leaders have denounced Beck’s plans, questioning his motives for choosing the date and place, which they said are historically symbolic of the country’s civil rights movement.
Responding to the criticism on his show June 28, Beck said he believes it was “divine providence” that the rally was scheduled on the anniversary of the King speech. He said he had initially planned the event for Sept. 12 and then realized it was a Sunday. “I’m not going to ask anyone to work on the Sabbath,” he said. He rescheduled the rally for Aug. 28 because it was the best day for the schedules of the people involved, he said.
“It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech. I had no idea until I announced it and I walked offstage and my researchers said, New York Times has already just published that this is [the same day as the King speech] — and I said, ‘Oh, jeez.’ ” […]
Beck’s choice of day and place for the rally “is insulting, is what it is,” Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in an interview Monday. “August 28 is something special. It is a day that means something in American history because it was the demonstration in the United States in support of civil rights.” […]
[Rev. Al] Sharpton, who has planned a march that day to commemorate King’s legacy, says Beck’s rally contradicts King’s legacy.
“For Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to have a march, they have the right to do so. Many of us suspect they are using the symbolism of that day in a way that does not reflect what the day is about,” Sharpton said. “At no point will we interchange. We will not desecrate the march and what King stood for.”
Regretabbly, in my opinion, Beck is already winning this war. This story will be covered by every network and every news outlet extensively, no matter how many people do or do not show up, unlike the anti-war rally I attended in 2005 in which 300,000 people attended, a rally which went largely unreported and unseen on the TV news shows. And the regardless of the manner in which Beck’s rally is described or those of the counter-marchers, I have no doubt that the images our media will show will reinforce stereotypes about African Americans in the eyes of many whites.
Many whites will buy into the snake oil Beck is selling and will see in the images of blacks marching as counter-protesters, regardless of their intended purpose, as interlopers on a day that Beck supporters will believe is their day, not a day for remembering MLK (except as their revisionist view of history permits). The TV images will show, at least to their eyes, angry and dangerous black and liberal interlopers who are ungrateful and “hate our freedoms” for daring to counter-protest Beck’s event.
It would be best if this publicity stunt by Beck and Fox News were relegated to that single channel and its audience of true believers who feel that only they are the Real Americans. However, I do not believe that will be the case. The other networks will be all over this story, and the fact that there will be civil rights organizations holding rallies on the same day will only add to the chance that they will portray this as a Black v. White controversy.
Media reporters will hound members of Congress and administration officials and even President Obama to comment on the “rally” and the “significance of the day” and whether they believe that those who are holding counter-marches and events are justified. Images of Beck and Sharpton will be shown on split screen, and both will be interviewed about the other.
In short, this FOX News created non-event will become a media circus. The cable news shows will give Beck far more attention than he and his allegedly God-given plan deserve. And their 24/7 coverage will allow Beck to portray himself as the victim of a liberal media bias regardless of how he is actually portrayed.
I hope I’m wrong, but after seeing hundreds of thousands of people protesting a war at the National Mall ignored while much, much smaller demonstrations of tea partiers a few years later got the “full monty” treatment from the press corps, I know what our national media prefers to cover, and it has nothing to do with the important issues of the day.
And it will be all good for John McCain.
