Flashback: Bryant Gumbel Insists MLK's Adultery Should Be Censored: 'Print the Legend'

NewsBusters ^ | August 25, 2013 | Tim Graham

[2ndDivisionVet]

This weekend's promotion of the legend of Rev. Martin Luther King offers a reminder that the liberal media can blatantly state that it is their job to "print the legend," and not report on a historic figure's flaws.

In the fall of 1989, King's longtime lieutenant Ralph Abernathy wrote a book titled "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down." Abernathy told the tale that Rev. King committed adultery with two women on the night before he was murdered. Bryant Gumbel, then a co-host of NBC's Today, lectured: "When the truth collides with a legend, print the legend." Our November 1989 newsletter MediaWatch reported the exchange:

Bryant Gumbel, in the Dan Rather tradition of respectful interviewing, recently assaulted Rev. Ralph Abernathy for his new book, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. Attempting to downplay Abernathy's revelations of Martin Luther King's sexual adventures, Gumbel first taped, but never used, an Abernathy interview without once discussing the sex controversy.

Then, after black leaders began renouncing Abernathy as the 'Judas' of the movement, Gumbel conducted a live interview on the October 17 show which focused entirely on those four pages. He repeatedly tried to get Abernathy to renounce or apologize for his accounts, running over the next two planned segments in order to get enough time to continue his line of questioning.

When Abernathy noted that King's exploits were "common knowledge," Gumbel retorted, "It would better stated, perhaps, to say that it was common accusation." He claimed that those pages "just as easily could have been left out...one could argue that your writings prove nothing." Abernathy explained that he included the unflattering sections because, "our Bible tells us very, very clearly, 'he shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free'...

[jmaroneps37]

“When the truth collides with a legend, print the legend.” Except, of course, when defaming a White Republican.

[vetvetdoug]

Ping

[riverdawg]

“Concerning Mr. Jefferson, I feel certain it is the truth because it happened in my family.”

Some recent scholarship on the Jefferson-Hemmings relationship points to Thomas Jefferson's nephew, who lived near Monticello and was a frequent guest there, as the most likely father of the Sally Hemmings children usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

[riverdawg]

The FBI tapes also reportedly caught King boasting “I am the king of the p$%#@y eaters.”

[Joe Boucher]

What about his plagerism?..

[longfellow]

and look what the mob had on Hoover. That’s the black pot calling the kettle gay.

[Peter Libra]

Interesting that you mentioned the plagiarism attributed to Dr King. I went to my copy of “Hoodwinked” by Jack Cashill which is also on-line. It appears that one has to be careful about using this work without permission, perhaps I have it wrong though.

I went to Wikipedia and then found a repeat of Dr King's usage. It was a Dr Jack Boozer, who had published lengthy dissertations previously. Unfortunately for Dr King there wasn't a prayer of an excuse. Certain other liberal favourites had managed to offset charges of plagiarism, by saying proof readers had forgotten the sourcing etc.

As far as the liberal press and media are concerned, they are locked into an Orwellian world of their own creation. Each know it all pundit or columnist is absolutely terrified of falling foul of a general consensus. How they do seize on any conservative for any transgression THEY perceive is committed!

Please excuse the ramble.

[Joe Boucher]

Proof readers fault?
Ok,