PBS aired two specials, Looking for Lincoln and The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln , both of which were pro-Booth and anti-Lincoln. The former uses hearsay evidence to impugn Lincoln's character by alleging that he used the n-word in daily conversation, whilst providing no hard copy evidence. The latter simply volunteers that Booth was somewhat agitated about Lincoln's last speech without volunteering details. Paraphrasing, Booth was alleged to have said that Lincoln was proposing n-word citizenship and threatening that Lincoln just gave his last speech. Doris Kearns Goodwin Bowdlerized Booth's word, without identifying it as a paraphrase, into "negro". Thus, the combination of the documentaries may lead viewers to the felonious conclusion that Lincoln was a bigger bigot than Booth. I don't have a problem with people not employing hearsay evidence against Booth, but they should extend the same courtesy to Lincoln. It appears that there is one standard applied to Democrats (Booth), and a more stringent standard applied to Republicans (Lincoln).
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