NY Times Lets Obama Set Agenda for Selma Remembrance
Read the headline and examine the picture of The New York Times’ front cover after political leaders commemorated the 50-year anniversary of the march at Selma, and you’d think the whole event was all about Barack Obama. The Times highlighted his quote, “We know the march is not yet over,” in the headline, and the photo of the event featured a white-shirted Obama linking arms with Rep. John Lewis, who was at the original march. Obama’s speech linked what happened 50 years ago to the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Yet the Times’ coverage all but ignored the GOP presence at the march. George W. Bush was in the front line of marchers, but The Times cropped him out of the picture. The media lambasted GOP leaders for skipping the march, though Bush and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy were there. One notable absence was Hillary Clinton, who decided it was more important to attend a Clinton Global Initiative event in Florida than commemorate a seminal moment in the civil rights movement. The Left tried to co-opt the event for two purposes: First, to smear Republicans who stayed home. Second, to mold the civil rights narrative for political ends. And, as always, the New York Times helped them do it. More…