LA Times, Wash. Post truncated Clinton's civil rights comments

In a January 15 Los Angeles Times article, staff writers Richard Fausset and Janet Hook truncated a January 7 comment by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) on the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, omitting a portion of her remarks in which she referred to President John F. Kennedy. The Times reported: " 'Dr. [Martin Luther] King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,' [Clinton] said, adding: 'It took a president to get it done.' " But as Media Matters for America has documented, Clinton's full quote was:

CLINTON: I would point to the fact that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality. The power of that dream became real in people's lives because we had a president who said, "We are going to do it," and actually got it accomplished. [emphasis added]

The Times also reported that Jarvis Jenkins, a transit system worker who is black, "was not offended by Clinton's recent comment that 'it took a president' to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964," but again did not provide the full quote. The article then stated that Clinton's remark was one "that some critics have found disrespectful toward the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." The article, which contained the subhead "Voters disagree over whether Clinton meant to target Obama with racially charged comments, but say the matter was bound to come up sometime," reported that "[t]he recent firestorm over Clinton's words ... has made for a tantalizing story line in recent days."

Additionally, in a January 15 Washington Post article, staff writers Jonathan Weisman and Anne E. Kornblut also truncated Clinton's comments, reporting that Clinton had "said that 'King's dream became a reality when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,' " which Weisman and Kornblut called "the statement that helped launch the debate over the role of race in the campaign." The article later referred to "Hillary Clinton's statement on the roles of King and President Johnson in passing civil rights legislation, which she capped by saying: 'It took a president to get it done.' " Kornblut also co-authored an article on January 14 with staff writer Perry Bacon Jr. that similarly truncated Clinton's comments, writing: " 'Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,' [Clinton] said, adding that 'it took a president to get it done.' Critics read that as playing down King's importance in the civil rights movement."

Several other media outlets, including The New York Times, have also previously truncated Clinton's comments, omitting her reference to President Kennedy.

From Fausset and Hook's January 15 Los Angeles Times article:

Jarvis Jenkins and Kytu Ivory are two black voters with two very different ideas about the racial tensions that have flared between presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jenkins, a transit system worker, was not offended by Clinton's recent comment that "it took a president" to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- a remark that some critics have found disrespectful toward the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Ivory, however, thinks that those words are part of a concerted effort by Clinton to inject race into the campaign.

But like many other African American voters here, the men could agree on one thing: In a presidential contest featuring perhaps the most viable black candidate in history, it was inevitable that race would emerge. It was just a matter of time.

"They're always going to bring that up," said Jenkins, 53, as he helped tourists navigate a bus station Monday in downtown Atlanta.

"We knew it was coming," said Ivory, a 40-year-old construction worker, speaking in a food court a few blocks away.

The recent firestorm over Clinton's words -- as well as recent comments by her supporters seen as carrying racial overtones -- has made for a tantalizing story line in recent days. It also could influence the votes of some blacks in states such as Georgia, where African Americans are a key part of the Democratic electorate and where primaries will be held on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday.

Lolly Lovett, 49, a funeral home office administrator from Savannah, has had a hard time deciding between the two candidates, but said that Clinton's comments "were the first strike against her" and might make it "a little easier to choose."

Clinton made her comments in an interview with Fox News last week. She was supporting her contention that pragmatic leadership skills like hers are sometimes preferable to soaring oratory like Obama's.

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," she said, adding: "It took a president to get it done."

From Weisman and Kornblut's January 15 Washington Post article:

But earlier in the day, surrogates for each seemed determined to continue waging the war of words.

"Someone said, 'You can't unring a bell' -- well, the biggest bell in American politics just got rung," said James Carville, a Clinton confidant.

Rep. William Lacy Clay (Mo.), an Obama campaign co-chairman, said yesterday that Clinton was "trying to score cheap political points on the back of Martin Luther King's legacy" when she said that "King's dream became a reality when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964" -- the statement that helped launch the debate over the role of race in the campaign.

Rep. John Lewis (Ga.), a prominent Clinton supporter, raised criticism of Obama to a new level. In an extensive interview, Lewis, a King lieutenant and icon of the civil rights movement, called Obama "a friend" but added: "He is no Martin Luther King Jr. I knew Martin Luther King. I knew Bobby Kennedy. I knew President Kennedy. You need more than speech-making. You need someone who is prepared to provide bold leadership."

[...]

Both campaigns agreed they were entering uncharted territory at the presidential campaign level. [James] Carville, a longtime Democratic operative who grew up in the racially charged politics of Louisiana, described the debate as wholly unfamiliar. Other Clinton allies have conveyed similar distress that two champions of civil rights have, in essence, been swept up in allegations of racial insensitivity.

"I'm shaken by the whole thing," Carville said.

The controversy grew from a pair of comments in the run-up to the New Hampshire primary, when Bill Clinton called Obama's claims about his record on Iraq "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," a comment that some black leaders interpreted as belittling Obama, and Hillary Clinton's statement on the roles of King and President Johnson in passing civil rights legislation, which she capped by saying: "It took a president to get it done."