Earl Ofari Hutchinson and The ‘Friendly Media' Campaign Against Minister Farrakhan

By Demetric Muhammad -Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Jul 8, 2011 - 4:23:41 PM

Earl Ofari Hutchinson
What Hutchinson is doing to Minister Farrakhan is what J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI did to the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Robeson and Marcus Garvey. America claims to be a Judeo-Christian society and should know from the scriptures the fate of nations who crucify inspired warners who emerge from the oppressed. Black leaders walking in Jesus' footsteps have often shared the same fate of Jesus.

Much of the Bureau's propaganda efforts involved giving information or articles to “friendly” media sources who could be relied upon not to reveal the Bureau's interests… the Division assembled a list of “friendly” news media sources—those who wrote pro-Bureau stories. Field offices also had “confidential sources” (unpaid Bureau informants) in the media, and were able to ensure their cooperation. The Bureau's use of the news media took two different forms: placing unfavorable articles and documentaries about targeted groups, and leaking derogatory information intended to discredit individuals.

—Church Committee Report III

(FinalCall.com) - Why is Earl Ofari Hutchinson writing disparaging articles against Minister Louis Farrakhan? Is he on assignment? What is the real agenda? In fashion they call it retro, vintage or “throwback.” But Hutchinson, a former guest columnist in the Final Call newspaper, is opting to be used in the same way journalists and pundits of the past have been used to ridicule and make mockery of voices of dissent during times of war.

What Hutchinson is doing to Minister Farrakhan is what the “scribes” did to Jesus. What Hutchinson is doing to Minister Farrakhan is what J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI did to the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Robeson and Marcus Garvey. America claims to be a Judeo-Christian society and should know from the scriptures the fate of nations who crucify inspired warners who emerge from the oppressed. Black leaders walking in Jesus' footsteps have often shared the same fate of Jesus. And this has especially been the case when these leaders lifted their voices to condemn foreign policies and unjust wars. Dr. King's criticism of the Vietnam War and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad's condemnation of World War II are legendary and both aroused the ire of the U.S. government and even many Negro leaders and writers.

The unwritten rule is that Blacks are always to believe and take at face value the word of their former slave masters without any vetting or fact-checking. Minister Farrakhan, however, does not abide by the plantation rules of the past in this day and time. Instead of Hutchinson using his status and influence to lead a fact-finding mission to Libya (as did our former congresswoman Sister Cynthia McKinney) he allows himself to be used to write “friendly media” articles that unfairly attack The Minister. The Church Committee Report cited above notes that the FBI's domestic surveillance operation it called COINTELPRO “formally” ended in 1971, yet it has been revealed that Homeland Security had been illegally spying on the Nation of Islam as recently as 2009—in the same way that COINTELPRO had done beginning at the end of World War II.

The FBI and its media propaganda against the NOI are unknown to many. But author Mattias Gardell confesses in his book In The Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam that: “much of the information on the Nation of Islam reaching the American public has been produced or channeled by the FBI.”

Professor Gardell goes on to detail the large-scale media campaign in 1959 that the FBI waged against the NOI: “the FBI briefed selected journalists who willingly channeled the view of the bureau to the American public.” Leading magazines were utilized to vilify the NOI in the eyes of the public, namely, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Saturday Evening Post and local newspapers.

In 1962 the FBI utilized the same strategy Hutchinson and his FBI employers are trying to use against Minister Farrakhan. The Bureau at that time used documentaries and other media to depict the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a way to claim that he was guilty of having “fraudulent character” by airing in the public his dignified and high-level living conditions that included personal security, spacious accommodations and luxury automobiles. The goal was to communicate the idea that the Hon. Elijah Muhammad was not sincere in what he was teaching and that he was only after money. This is the exact strategy employed by Mr. Hutchinson when he claims that Minister Farrakhan's support of Muammar Gadhafi is based not on principle but on money.

At the root of Mr. Hutchinson's criticism of Minister Farrakhan is the philosophy that American Blacks must never become geo-politically astute so that they become empowered to make strategic alliances with the international community of Blacks in the Diaspora. Libya is in Africa and our ancestors came to America from Africa to be enslaved. And for Africans to be made slaves it was deemed essential that they be disconnected in every meaningful way from Africa, where they were free, independent, cultured, educated, civilized and industrious. Blacks therefore have been denied and kept from having what may be considered a traditional immigrant experience inside America. The immigrant experience in America is one of small groups uniting to support one another to become economically and politically strong through entrepreneurship and an enlightened self-interest. Most immigrant communities maintain strong ties to the land of their origin and are able to, in many cases, send money home to those countries to support family who remain behind. Not so for Blacks in America. We are at every turn made to have hatred and embarrassment for our motherland—Africa.

In 1978, National Security Council Memorandum-46 was created to outline the recommendations and objectives of the U.S. government towards BLACK AFRICA AND THE U.S. BLACK MOVEMENT. It is significant to note that 1978 was the year Minister Farrakhan began, in earnest, to rebuild the Nation of Islam after it suffered an apparent death blow because of COINTELPRO efforts in 1975. It has always been the stated and public mission of the Nation of Islam to unite Blacks in America with Blacks around the world. The idea of the unity of Black America and Black Africa was etched into the minds of the millions of readers of the Nation of Islam's national newspaper Muhammad Speaks by its masthead depicting the outstretched hands of the Black brother in America clasping across continents the outstretched hands of the Black brother in Africa. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad traveled abroad and made many friends in Africa and the Middle East for his people. Minister Farrakhan has traveled even more extensively abroad, made strategic alliances, and has served the Islamic world as a voice coming from the West to revive the spirit of speaking truth to power. In fact, to the degree that there is any legitimacy to the televised demonstrations among the masses in the Arab world, the legitimate dissent can certainly be traced to the inspiration of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. In Egypt, there was even a call for a Million Man March against Mubarak before he left office.

Hutchinson's meanderings pose as unbiased analysis, but they come straight from the COINTELPRO playbook for “friendly media.” His article shares the intent and goal of the infamous NSC Memorandum-46 that among other evils called for “Specific steps [to] be taken with the help of appropriate government agencies to inhibit coordinated activity of the Black Movement in the United States” with Black Africa. Under the heading RECOMMENDATIONS, Memo 46 recommends that “Special clandestine operations should be launched by the CIA to generate mistrust and hostility in American and world opinion against joint activity of the two forces, and to cause division among Black African radical national groups and their leaders.”

Under the heading THE RANGE OF POLICY OPTIONS, Memo 46 depicts a shocking train of thought. Strategies mentioned include: “to perpetuate division in the Black movement and neutralize the most active groups… to inhibit the emergence from within the Black leadership of a person capable of exerting nationwide appeal… to impede durable ties between U.S Black organizations and radical groups in African states…”

Minister Louis Farrakhan's success has to a large degree foiled these policy options particularly because of his strategic alliance with Muammar Ghadafi. He borrowed money from a Black African nation to promote economic development and entrepreneurship in the Black community. Minister Farrakhan also has emerged as the Black leader with nationwide appeal, a fact borne witness to by the 1994 Time magazine poll where nearly 70 percent of those polled had a favorable view of Min. Farrakhan. He also has not allowed himself or his movement to become neutralized. On the contrary, Professor Gardell admits, “Black Islamic nationalism has become widely popular among Black urban youth, and Farrakhan exerts an influence with these youths that far exceeds the actual membership of his organization.”

I appeal to Mr. Hutchinson not to be on the wrong side of history by opposing the only man that we can truly point to that is the inheritor of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr as America's moral conscience. Avoid the trap that has been set uniquely for influential Blacks in all professions that calls for so-called “good” Blacks to condemn the so-called “bad” Blacks. Think for your self.

(Demetric Muhammad is in the student ministry class of Muhammad Mosque 55 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is also the author of “In the Light of Scripture” and “A Complete Dictionary of the Supreme Wisdom Lessons.”)

The Final Call