Back in 2008, on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Soledad O’Brien hosted a 2-hour special on the King case. As I recall, it was the only such new programming that year, which was rather predictable, but still disappointing. Considering the quality and investigatory attitude of O’Brien’s program, one was more than enough. In fact, we would have been better off without it.
CNN broadcast her program the evening before the actual anniversary. Recall, at this time, a jury verdict in a civil lawsuit had already been adjudicated in favor of the King family. They had concluded that King was killed as a result of a conspiracy. The media had done all they could to ignore that trial in Memphis. With almost no one reporting on it, except Chuck Marler for Probe Magazine, the MSM sent Gerald Posner out to tour the media in order to denounce the verdict as being irresponsible and not to be taken seriously.
The 40th anniversary would have been a good opportunity to revisit that trial and interview people like Chuck Marler, among others. O’Brien did not do that. Her show was, at best, a limited hangout. And as one reads the review below, even that is being too kind.
O’Brien left CNN after ten years. Prior to that, she worked for NBC for over a decade. She now has her own production company called Starfish Media Group. Incredibly, of late she has made a name for herself as a media critic by going after, of all people, Brit Hume and Chris Cillizza. We will take Robert Parry any day of the week. He aimed much higher, but he also paid a price that she has not.
Looking at her background, it’s fair to say that her upcoming 8 part podcast on the Mary Meyer case will be, at best, a superficial look at the whole Ray Crump/Dovey Roundtree/Mary Meyer affair. Even the likes of Christopher Dickey could not help ponder that case early this year. (The JFK Mistress Gunned Down in Cold Blood) If there was anything new to offer on the case, that would be one thing. But there has been nothing new, except a cheapjack romantic novel by, of all people, Jesse Kornbluth. Before that, there was Peter Janney’s thunderously disappointing Mary’s Mosaic, which the reader will hear about in our upcoming series.
O’Brien’s podcast will stretch over eight weeks. We will match it and then sum it up at the end. If you do not know anything about that case, it’s safe to say that the reader will learn more about it from us than he or she will from Soledad.
