It was fascinating to watch the media coverage of Carl Rowan’s death. Right up to his death, Rowan was one of the nation’s most prominent journalists and a pioneer who broke racial barriers down in the new business.
On the other hand, many of the reports I saw were using footage of Rowan outside of a courthouse with lots of people, including fellow journalists, following him. None of the reports I saw, however, identified where this footage was from.
Given the courthouse and the reporters following him, this footage is almost certainly related to events following Rowan’s shooting several years ago of a man who was intent on breaking into Rowan’s home. The only problem being that Rowan was an ardent opponent of private gun ownership who repeatedly wrote columns maintaining that the Second Amendment does not give individuals the right to own guns (Rowan was one of a large number of celebrities who oppose guns but own them or hire body guards to own them — it’s only we uncouth rabble who don’t deserve to protect our homes and persons).
Ironically, although he worked with the Freedom Forum, Rowan was also more than willing to join in the anti-free speech forces who equate some speech with violence. After the horrible bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma, Rowan wrote that “I am absolutely certain that the harsh rhetoric of the Gingriches and Doles … creates a climate of violence in America.”
Although, of course, you’d never find Rowan or other liberal columnists wondering whether something like the U.S. bombing of television and radio stations in Yugoslavia might create an atmosphere where terrorists feel justified in indiscriminately bombing civilians.