In the opening paragraph of the Associated Press's widely distributed wire report on Glenn Beck's massive Restoring Honor rally, it noted the demographical makeup of those that showed up at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday.

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King's message.

Although five of the first 12 paragraphs of the article mention Sharpton's much smaller rally, there is no mention that the crowd there was predominantly black.

The AP also didn't mention the degree of tribute Beck's event paid to minorities, while I did.

In fact, Beck was one of the few male, white speakers at the rally. Of the eleven other presenters, only two were white men--St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa and Special Operations Warrior Foundation President Col. John Carney, Jr.

All three of the achievement medals Beck minted were given to minorities (albeit the third medal was accepted on behalf of philanthropist John Huntsman, who is white), in front of a banner of Frederick Douglass.

Naturally, the closing paragraph ends by stating that a person handed out fliers with Obama with a Hitler-style mustache. Possibly three hundred thousand people there with nothing controversial on their person, and the AP--one of the world's premier news agencies--decides to close on a note describing one person with an extreme message.

If Glenn Beck is such a racist, why would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece attend a rally he organized on the anniversary of her uncle's most important speech?

Quite simply, because Alveda King has taken the time to speak to Beck to find out who he really is.

"I am attending this rally to help reclaim America," she told "Good Morning America's" Ron Claiborne today from Capitol Hill. "I'm joining Glenn to talk about faith, hope, charity, honor. Those are things that America needs to reclaim. Our children need to remember to love each other how to honor each other, their parents, God and their neighbors. I agree with Glenn on all of those principles. So that's why I'm here. For me it's principles over politics."

Were he a racist--as many on the Left contend--I doubt very much that King would join him in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, and she certainly wouldn't have said that her uncle would have attended were he alive.

In fact, Beck was one of the few male, white speakers at the rally. Of the eleven other presenters, only two were white men--St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa and Special Operations Warrior Foundation President Col. John Carney, Jr.

All three of the achievement medals Beck minted were given to minorities (albeit the third medal was accepted on behalf of philanthropist John Huntsman, who is white), in front of a banner of Frederick Douglass.

The crowd didn't boo. They did just the opposite--they gave standing ovations to the King legacy. They sang Amazing Grace after hearing Beck tell the story of the slaveship captain-turned-abolitionist who wrote it.

Beck is following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, much to the irritation of the "real" heirs to the King legacy--Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the latter of whom held a counter-rally commemorating the anniversary of King's speech.

But Jackson and Sharpton aren't exactly the messengers of peace and dignity. Jackson is a professional shakedown artist that exploits race to extract reparations from corporations. The reverend admitted to having a love child in 2001, and called Jews "hymies." Sharpton, for his part, referred to Jews as "diamond merchants" at a funeral with signs that read, "Hitler didn't do the job." Shortly after, 20 black men murdered a 29-year-old Jewish man.

Does that sound like men carrying on King's tradition? Beck isn't a perfect messenger himself, as he freely admits. A self-proclaimed formerly suicidal alcoholic, Beck said he reformed himself after he found God.

While Jackson and Sharpton demonize Beck, Alveda King is standing by the conservative commentator and taking lumps of her own.

She's now vilified for her pro-life and anti-gay-marriage positions, even though her opinions on those issues coincide with the majority of the black community.

The source of the anger is the Left's failure to get their heads around the fact that Beck is doing a better job of striving toward King's dream than the so-called leaders of the Civil Rights movement. They've bought into their own narrative that any white person who discusses race must automatically be a racist. White people are scared to death of being so branded, so the race-card players are shocked when someone like Beck, who speaks frankly about race, memorializes King's legacy and leads his fans to follow in his footsteps.

This is a bad thing? I suggest the Left opens their eyes as Alveda King has.