Matt Ortega

Earlier this year, this nation was dealt a huge blow with the passing of Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Even after Dr. King’s death in April 1968, Mrs. King continued her late husband’s efforts to advance the nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace with The King Center. Mrs. King advocated women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights (including same-sex marriages), was anti-war and opposed the death penalty.

The memorial for Mrs. King was held in Lithonia, Georgia and several prominent dignitaries showed, including former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President Bush and the First Lady, Laura Bush, also attended, along with “three governors, three plane loads of Congress members, celebrities, gospel starts and leading figures in the civil rights movement.”

During the memorial, several speakers made headlines with comments about the war in Iraq, the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina and the National Security Agency’s surveillance program.

Dr. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King:

“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there [standing ovation]… but Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978:

“It was difficult for [Dr. King and Mrs. King] personally — with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretapping, other surveillance and as you know, harassment from the FBI.” [...]

“We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — those who were most devastated by Katrina — to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans.

The media went crazy with charges such as “Democratic pep rally” and “Democratic convention” - familiar charges surrounding late Senator Paul Wellstone’s funeral several years ago.

However, as Media Matters notes, such claims were absent during the 2004 funeral of former President Ronald Reagan:

But many of those same media figures accusing speakers of politicizing the King funeral did not show the same aversion to the politicization of the 2004 death of a figure of a different political stripe: former President Ronald Reagan. Nor did they apparently think it worth noting that the Reagan funeral included no Democratic speakers, but a long roster of Republicans, including President Bush, who was running for re-election and was reportedly trying to attach himself to the Reagan legacy. [...]

While the media have devoted substantial coverage to Carter and Lowery’s purported politicization of the King funeral, the June 11, 2004, funeral for Reagan did not provoke similar scrutiny, despite clear political overtones. For example, the media largely ignored the fact that no Democrats were invited to speak at either the funeral at the National Cathedral or at a ceremony held on Capitol Hill two days earlier. (President Clinton had even delivered a eulogy at former President Richard Nixon’s funeral a decade earlier). [...]The King funeral, by contrast, included speeches by two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents, as noted above.