On the March 12 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson misrepresented Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) reference to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a March 4 civil rights speech in Selma, Alabama, and then falsely suggested that Clinton's description of having seen King speak in Chicago when she was a teenager is contradicted by her description of herself as a “Goldwater girl” in her memoir, Living History (Simon & Schuster, 2003). As Media Matters for America documented, Clinton wrote in Living History both that she heard King speak when she was a teenager and that she was a “Goldwater girl.”

Carlson claimed that in her Selma speech, Clinton “recounted that while a high school student back in 1963, she strongly supported Martin Luther King.” In fact, Clinton said:

As a young girl, I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear someone that we had read about, we had watched on television, we had seen with our own eyes from a distance, this phenomenon known as Dr. King.

He titled the sermon he gave that night “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” some of you may have heard it because he delivered it more than once. He described how the literary character Rip Van Winkle had slept through the American Revolution. And he called on us, he challenged us that evening to stay awake during the great Revolution that the Civil Rights Pioneers were waging on behalf of a more perfect union.

Carlson said of Clinton's comments about King, "[I]t's phony, and it's also insulting in the way that inept pandering always is insulting," adding, “Here's a person who wants to be president, wants it badly, but doesn't even know who she is, or worse, doesn't want to tell us who she is.” Carlson cited a March 12 column in which syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak -- as Media Matters for America noted -- falsely accused Clinton of “re-inventing her past” to include King as an influence.

Additionally, on the March 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, host Sean Hannity and Fox News political analyst Dick Morris similarly suggested that Clinton was pandering to her audience by saying -- in Morris' words -- “when she went to Selma ... that she was being lifted up by Martin Luther King.” Hannity responded, “The year before she supported Goldwater, yeah.” Neither Hannity nor Morris mentioned both the King speech and her teenage support for Goldwater were documented in her memoir.

From the March 12 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

CARLSON: But first, another poignant development in the Hillary Clinton for president campaign. Earlier this month, Clinton gave a speech to a primarily black audience in Selma, Alabama, in which she recounted that while a high school student back in 1963, she strongly supported Martin Luther King.

It sounds good, except that as Bob Novak points out in a column this morning, Hillary Clinton wrote in her own memoirs that she supported Barry Goldwater for president the following year. It wouldn't have been unreasonable to support Martin Luther King in 1963, and it wouldn't have been unreasonable to support Barry Goldwater in 1964. But both of them at the same time? That doesn't make sense.

In fact, Goldwater was one of the few Republicans, one of six to join segregationist Democrats in opposing the '64 Voting Rights Act, which was, of course, inspired and championed by Martin Luther King himself. Backing both King and Goldwater is a little like campaigning for both Kerry and Bush. Or, for that matter, Hillary and Giuliani.

It's like smoking pot but not inhaling. In other words, it's phony, and it's also insulting in the way that inept pandering always is insulting.

More than anything, it's sad. Here's a person who wants to be president, wants it badly, but doesn't even know who she is, or worse, doesn't want to tell us who she is.

From the March 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

MORRIS: When she ran in New York, she said her grandfather, step-grandfather was Jewish. When she went to Selma, she said that she was being lifted up by Martin Luther King and the blacks to be able to run for president.

HANNITY: The year before she supported Goldwater, yeah.

MORRIS: And in New Hampshire, she's Catholic.

HANNITY: And in Chicago, she was a Cubs fan, and in New York, she's a Yankees fan.