Sen. Robert Byrd Sainted by Mainstream Media
Human Events
Since Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.) died early Monday, the mainstream media hascanonized him for standing up for coal miners and workers rights, despite his long-term racism and membership in the Ku Klux Klan.
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| Photo – WashingtonLife |
Much like the MSM did when Sen. Ted Kennedy died last summer, the obituaries are full of the senator’s legislative accomplishment and dedication to the working man, making him more saint than man.
To remember the 92-year-old “longest serving senator” fairly, takes looking at his life as a whole.
• Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1940s and held leadership positions in the group. He later said the KKK was the “albatross” around his neck.
• In protest of President Truman’s efforts to integrate the military, Byrd wrote a letterto segregationists Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D.-Miss.) that he would never fight in the armed forces “with a Negro by my side.” He also wrote that he’d “die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels.” (1945)
• “The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia,” Byrd wrote in a letter to a KKK leader (1946).
• Byrd opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act, going so far as filibustering in the senate for more than 14 hours. (1964) He later claimed his biggest regret was voting against this law.
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| Photo – CBS |
• He voted against the nomination of liberal Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice (1967). He also voted against the only other black justice, conservative Clarence Thomas (1991).
• Byrd claimed that he only stopped thinking whites were superior to blacks after the death of his grandson. “I came to realize that black people love their children as much as I do mine,” he said (1982).
• He advised young people to go into politics but advised: “Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t get that albatross around your neck. Once you’ve made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.” (1997)
• When asked about race relations, Byrd told Fox News’ Tony Snow: “My old mom told me, ‘Robert, you can’t go to heaven if you hate anybody.’ We practice that. There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I’m going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.” (2001)
Knowing his racism, would the MSM have written such glowing obituaries for Robert Byrd if he had been a Republican? I doubt it.
