Fox News Hires Alveda King

Fox News president Roger Ailes today announced the hiring of viciously anti-gay activist Alveda King.

“Alveda has brilliantly carried the legacy of the King family to the next generation and has been a source of inspiration for many Americans," Ailes said in making the announcement. "Her passion and mission for social change will be a valuable contribution to our network.” King is a prominent anti-abortion activist and serves as director of African-American outreach at Priests for Life. She has also courted controversy by speaking out against LGBT rights, proclaiming in 1998 that "God hates homosexuality" and comparing gay marriage to genocide in a 2010 speech.

Alveda King has been married three times and has had three abortions, but she's somehow against same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. She also bandies herself as Dr. Alveda King, even though hers is merely an honorary degree from a tiny Catholic school in rural New Hampshire. King has participated in many anti-LGBT campaigns, perhaps most notably when she robocalled against same-sex marriage for a Maryland hate group.

African-American Pastors Group To Honor Judge Roy Moore With MLK Award

Via press release:

Today, the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) announced that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore would receive their first ever “Letter from Birmingham Jail Courage Award” in recognition of Justice Moore’s principled stand in defense of traditional marriage.

The group was moved to honor Chief Justice Moore following his defense of Alabama’s statutory and constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Moore’s actions were based on the fact that the federal court does not have the power to redefine marriage in direct opposition to legal tradition and the clearly expressed will of the people. His courage and conviction persuaded CAAP that Chief Moore was the ideal honoree for the inaugural presentation of an award inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous letter.

“Chief Justice Moore is an example for all of us,” stated Rev. William Owens, President of CAAP. “By making a principled and persuasive stand for marriage, Chief Justice Moore has singled himself out as someone who is ready to defend our most cherished values and help lead this new civil rights movement. By his words and courageous actions, he has helped preserve marriage, the family, justice, and the spirit of democracy. This is what it means to be a ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail Courage Award’ recipient. We hope that his example inspires others to take similar action to defend marriage in their own communities.”

The group announced that they plan to present the Letter from Birmingham Jail Courage Award to Justice Moore in a special ceremony in April.

RELATED: JMG reader Keith reminds us that CAAP is a NOM front-group.

NOM Exploits MLK For Money Beg

"In 1963, something happened that changed the civil rights movement. For the first time, six major organizations working on civil rights issues came together to support what they called the 'March on Washington' to demand the passage of pivotal civil rights legislation. My friends, it's 1963 in the fight for marriage. And it is time we march. I can't promise you that we will have a historic speech like Dr. King's 'I have a dream' speech, nor can I promise you 250,000 people will come to Washington, but I can promise you this: we will march for a true and just cause, for the civil right of Americans to enjoy the benefits of natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman, the foundation of society and the cradle of civilization. And I can also promise that this year's march could be as important to the cause of marriage as the 1963 March on Washington was to the cause of civil rights. Please help us make this critically important march a success by giving a donation right now." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, in his seventh money beg in ten days.

American Family Association: Roy Moore Is A Modern Day Martin Luther King

Liberty Counsel: Anti-Gay Businesses Are Honoring The Legacy Of Martin Luther King

"As we remember today the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are inspired by his courage to combat injustice that had become imbedded in our culture and our law. Marriage as the union of one man and one woman was not created by government or religion. It is rooted in natural law. Today, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is being lived out by bakers, photographers, florists, ministers, county clerks, and owners of wedding venues who have lost their businesses, been forced to pay exorbitant fines, been threatened with jail, and made to choose between the natural created order of marriage between one man and one woman and judges who side with same-sex couples." - Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, in a press release issued yesterday.

NBA's MLK Spot Features Jason Collins

Happy MLK Day From The GOP

The party that fought the establishment of Martin Luther King Day in multiple states today celebrates. The MLK holiday is still officially shared with Confederate General Robert E. Lee Day in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

NRA Spokesman: MLK Might Not Have Been Killed If He'd Had A Gun

Via Mediate:

The NRA tends to stay silent in the immediate aftermath of a high-profile shooting incident, but the organization evidently felt enough time had passed since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in 1968 that they could put out the video below connecting the civil rights leader to the push for less restrictive gun laws. To mark today’s holiday, the NRA enlisted its hip, young, black “commentator” Colion Noir to deliver a video message about how much King loved guns. Noir shifts his message to gun control, pointing out the fact that he was granted a concealed handgun license, while historical record shows that King applied for one and was denied. “Let’s not forget, the first forms of gun control were created to keep people like me from having guns,” he says, invoking his shared race with King. But even though he “surrounded himself with people with guns,” as Noir explains, it didn’t stop him from being gunned down by his assassin James Earl Ray from across the street while he was standing on the balcony of his hotel room. Noir does not address how a concealed weapons permit would have helped King in that particular situation.

PETA: Eating Meat = Human Slavery

PETA, as they so often do, has caused quite the firestorm with today's co-opting of Martin Luther King Day. "The fate of animals today is similar to that of humans who were subjected to slavery and other civil rights injustices—they, too, are tortured, abused, and neglected as humans once were and sometimes still are. More than 63 billion animals are slaughtered every year in the United States for the food industry, without even a thought to their feelings or needs." The right wing site Townhall is directing readers to a photo of MLK eating meat.

Sarah Palin "Honors" MLK

Details.

Quote Of The Day - Brian Brown

"The struggle for civil rights in America as envisioned by Dr. King is ongoing, and I am personally very honored and proud to be able to call some of its greatest leaders my close friends and allies: people like Bishop Harry Jackson, Bishop George McKinney, Bishop David Hall, Pastor Eugene Rivers and so many others. And of course, there is Dr. King's own heroically pro-life, pro-marriage niece, Dr. Alveda King.  The true legacy of the Civil Rights movement cannot be praised too highly. I say the true legacy of the Civil Rights movement because these great men and women know, as well as you and I, how that legacy has been hijacked by those who try to claim it for the purpose of redefining marriage and imposing a radical redefinition of the family on our society. They know — as we all know through simple common sense — that this hijacking is a travesty and an insult." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, declaring that Martin Luther King would have opposed same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.

Here's just three of the inconvenient facts missing from Brown's message: 1) "Heroically pro-life, pro-marriage" Alveda King has had three divorces and three abortions. 2) MLK's widow, Coretta Scott King, was an ardent supporter of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.  From her famous 2004 speech to the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force: "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream, to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." 3) The chief organizer of MLK's historic 1964 March On Washington was Bayard Rustin, an openly gay black man who last year was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

On Yesterday's Fast Food Strike

O'Reilly Apologizes For Claiming No Republicans Invited To MLK Celebration

Headlines Of The Day

Every site in Teabagistan has spent the last 24 hours denouncing the MLK celebration because "the only sitting black US Senator," who happens to be a far-right conservative, wasn't invited to speak. As it turns out, Scott had already told organizers that he would be out of town yesterday. That doesn't necessarily mean he would have been on the list of speakers, but it certainly undercuts the claims that yesterday was just another "Democratic dog-and-pony show of race hustlers," as Breitbart and others in the right wing-o-sphere have characterized it.

“Thank you for extending to Senator Tim Scott the invitation to the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28th. Unfortunately, the Senator will be in South Carolina during this time, so he will be unable to attend the event. Please do, however, keep him in mind for future events you may be hosting.”

Right Wing Slams MLK Celebration

Hit each headline for the links.