President Obama kisses Dr. Dorothy I. Height during a meeting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the White House on Jan. 18. In his eulogy Thursday, Obama said Height had been to the White House 21 times during his presidency. 'Took part in our discussions around health care reform in her final months,' he said. (Credit: Pete Souza/White House)
Fox News Channel was the only cable news channel not to carry the funeral service for Dr.Dorothy Height Thursday morning, at which President Obama, Cabinet members, congressional and civil rights leaders were in evidence.
Obama delivered the eulogy.
A Fox News spokeswoman noted to Journal-isms that a Fox News anchor directed viewers to foxnews.com, which streamed the service.
The progressive Media Matters for America noted the streaming, but added:
"Earlier this week, numerous conservative blogs and websites were promoting a story about a team of evangelical researchers who supposedly 'found' Noah's Ark in Turkey," Ben Dimiero wrote. "The story is quite obviously a hoax, and when it made the jump to FoxNews.com, they were ridiculed for promoting it in their 'Science' section.
"This morning, Fox News decided that this ridiculous 'story' merited some on-air coverage, and America's Newsroom devoted several minutes to 'Noah's Ark.' This wouldn't be so notable if it came on a morning during which nothing else of note was going on, but Fox News ran this segment while President Obama eulogized civil rights legend Dorothy Height. Fox noted that the eulogy would be streaming on FoxNews.com, but they chose to devote their TV airwaves to this:
"As we've noted in the past, Fox will use any excuse not to cover various Obama's speeches."
Elsewhere, the service was streamed live on websites such as C-Span2, theGrio.com and BET.com, starting at 10 a.m. EST. Some featured commentary. TV One also aired the 90-minute service live, with Roland Martin hosting. MSNBC also went live.
The main BET channel made do with "news updates" during its regular programming but aired the service on its secondary Centric channel. (A spokeswoman said the number of cable systems carrying that channel "has not been fully determined yet.")
"As an African American, you need role models," anchor Tony Harris said on CNN. "That's what she was, a person you could look to. What a motivational force." Reporter Suzanne Malveaux noted that the audience included not only African Americans, but such notable women as feminist Gloria Steinem, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, longtime Essence editor Susan L. Taylor and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Look at her body of work," Obama said in his eulogy. "Desegregating the YWCA. Laying the groundwork for integration on Wednesdays in Mississippi. Lending pigs to poor farmers as a sustainable source of income. Strategizing with civil rights leaders, holding her own, the only woman in the room, Queen Esther to this Moses Generation — even as she led the National Council of Negro Women with vision and energy, vision and class.
"But we remember her not solely for all she did during the civil rights movement. We remember her for all she did over a lifetime, behind the scenes, to broaden the movement’s reach. To shine a light on stable families and tight-knit communities. To make us see the drive for civil rights and women’s rights not as a separate struggle, but as part of a larger movement to secure the rights of all humanity, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity."
C-Span announced it would air Wednesday night's four-hour memorial service, where Obama was also present, at 8 p.m. EST Friday.
Thursday's service may still be viewed at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/293240-1 BET.com is also streaming the service for those who missed it, anchored by Andre Showell.
