Soledad O’Brien‘s special, “Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination,” premieres tonight at 9pmET (and will be replayed throughout the weekend). It is the first in CNN’s “Black in America” series. The reviews have been mixed:
• The New York Daily News’ David Hinckley writes that the special, “is painful but valuable to watch, because it is packed with solid reporting on a pivotal event in American history.” Still, he disagrees with O’Brien’s assertion at the start of the show that the full story has not been told “until now.” “By the end of the show, she could add, ‘Or even now,'” he writes.
• Barry Garron of the Hollywood Reporter writes that O’Brien, “plays it absolutely straight,” during the special. He calls it, “a thorough and admirable two-hour examination of whether James Earl Ray was the lone killer.”
• Variety’s Brian Lowry writes, “CNN lets marketing supersede journalism in the first installment of its multifaceted initiative ‘Black in America.'” Lowry writes that CNN left out too much in its story, concluding, “Ultimately, though, O’Brien sheds relatively little new light on the matter.”