Jack & Jill Politics

h/t @johnvmoore on twitter who sent me his piece at Windy City Watch:

This is classic FOX NEWS. Before you read the FOX NEWS article can you tell me the name of Dr. Martin Luther King’s niece? Also, before you read the article can you tell me what she does and why her comments on Senator Harry Reid are relevant other than the fact that she is Dr. King’s niece?

I ask these questions because FOX NEWS found a Black person, who is related to a really famous historic and heroic Black person, Dr. Martin Luther King, who is calling Sen. Reid out and it has decided that her opinion of him was newsworthy.

<snip>

Well after reading this article I learned her name, Alveda King, however I still didn’t learn anything about her and why her opinion was so relevant, so I had to go to Wikipedia to find more about her. After reading the entry on her I learned that she is a senior fellow at a conservative think tank and a former Georgia state legislator. She is also anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage.

Not that this is surprising. All media organizations suffer from an intense and often damaging addiction to racial spokespersonhood. Aided and abetted by public figures who rush to apologize to folks like Rev. Al Sharpton, it’s just easier for a reporter on deadline to substitute the opinion of “established leaders” for a more complicated assessment of community opinion, if such opinion even exists. However, Fox has to put its own sloppy, right wing, half-baked twist on this universal tradition. In a perverse way, I’m proud of them.