Posted on 07/31/2013 6:11:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
I never thought the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case deserved nearly the attention it got. But reasonable people can disagree about that. What strikes me as unconscionable, however, is the way the supposedly objective media have not only sensationalized a tragedy but at times appear to deliberately bend the facts to fit a desired story line. Maybe it started with the use of pictures of a younger Martin or with the sudden embrace of the term "white Hispanic" to describe Zimmerman in order to more easily paint him as a racist.
NBC News was the most egregious offender on this score. Producers edited Zimmerman's 911 call to make it sound as if he were targeting Martin because of his race. The "Today" show ran audio of Zimmerman saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good ... he looks black." Those ellipses hide the fact Zimmerman said "he looks black" only after the operator asked him to describe Martin. (NBC has apologized, and Zimmerman is suing.)
Any hope that the editorializing would end with the trial was naive. National Public Radio recently profiled Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother. In response to the tragedy and the trial, Fulton has become a civil rights activist, NPR reported.
It was a deferential piece, and understandably so. Who wants to add to the woman's pain? But there's a difference between deference and advocacy. In a speech to the National Urban League, Fulton said her son was killed "all because of a law, a law that has prevented the person who shot and killed my son to be held accountable and to pay for this awful crime."
And how did NPR's Greg Allen put that statement in context? He told listeners: "Fulton is one of many pushing for a repeal of Florida's 'stand your ground' law." He noted that sit-ins have been staged but that the Florida governor remains "unmoved." And that was it.
Allen then went on to report that one of the jurors told ABC News, "George Zimmerman got away with murder but you can't get away from God." We owe that revelation to ABC's interview with Juror B29, a.k.a. "Maddy." The sole nonwhite juror in the case, Maddy made that remark to ABC's Robin Roberts. The quote went viral across electronic and print media.
The only problem: It's not clear that's what she thinks. As Will Saletan of Slate magazine notes, the video was artfully edited to make it appear as if Maddy generated this thought on her own. But when you watch an unedited segment, she's repeating back a statement by Roberts, and ABC News was happy to let the misinterpretation stand.
Letting misinterpretations stand is the hallmark of the media's coverage of this story. For instance, nowhere in NPR's report did Allen mention that Zimmerman's defense team never mentioned Florida's "stand your ground" law. They argued traditional self-defense. The decision not to arrest Zimmerman in the first place wasn't about that law either, despite widespread insistence that it was.
Much has been made of the fact that the judge's instructions to the jury included the phrase "right to stand his ground," without noting that it is part of a standard jury instruction. As prosecutor John Guy declared, "This case is not about standing your ground."
This is not to say that "stand your ground" laws have no conceivable bearing on the Zimmerman case. Thoughtful critics of such laws, including President Obama, worry that they might create a climate in which people are too quick to resort to deadly force.
But that is an airy justification for the media to treat the law as if it were central to the whole controversy. Is it conceivable that NPR would let, say, a gun rights activist's wildly tendentious interpretation of a law stand without some explanation or context? Why should opponents of "stand your ground" laws get different treatment?
I think part of the answer is that the media and civil rights groups want a consolation prize. They didn't get the verdict -- or the story line -- they wanted. But they need to get something positive out of this. I certainly understand why Trayvon Martin's family feels that way. I fail to see why the media should so eagerly oblige.
My observation of a lot of these incidents is
“if a black person FINDS AN EXCUSE to take issue with you, you’re in for a beat down”.
They have an agenda, and they have the Martin-Zimmerman incident.
They should have taken a pass on this one like they do on other cases, because it doesn’t fit.
Pick one that fits the narrative better.
This is not new. They've been doing this since at least 1995, and probably much longer than that (Cronkite's reporting on the Tet Offensive comes to mind...)
Journalists are, by and large, a despicable, loathsome group of people, deserving of utter contempt and distrust.
Sybrina Fulton is this year’s Chindy Sheehan.
The Media and Race Hustler’s Portrayal of the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin Event through Manipulating the Facts to Match their Narrative:
• Slightly-built 8th grader, Trayvon Martin, is walking home in his graduation cap and gown minding his own business, munching on some Skittles candy.
• Aryan Nation member George Zimmerman is driving through the neighborhood looking for young, black men to racially profile.
• Zimmerman spots Trayvon in the dark by the glow of his halo hovering over his sweet, innocent head.
• The skinhead takes chase.
• The young black football star trys to outrun him, but he is trapped by a “No Enter” sign and the speed of the Klansman’s truck.
• Trayvon, faced with certain lynching and death or disobeying the law, makes his stand to defend himself.
• The little angel Trayvon attempts to reason with his attacker, but the illiterate racist Zimmerman will have none of it.
• Zimmerman jumps out of his truck and asks Trayvon, “Any last words?”
• Tryavon’s young, innocent face looks into the eyes of his executioner and replies, “World Peace.”
• The skinhead screams, “White Power!”, as he unloads his fully automatic assault rifle into Trayvon.
• If not for the Republican party’s refusal to limit huge magazines, Trayvon may have survived but that cowardly racist conservative Zimmerman, unfettered by their lack of legislation, unloads hundreds of rounds into the future Nobel Peace prize recipient, Trayvon.
• Then, the psychopath criminal thug, Zimmerman, bashes his fist into his own nose, breaking it, and then lies on his back, pulling the bullet-riddled Trayvon’s body on top of his and repeatedly pounds the back of his head on the sidewalk while yelling for help.
• When the deed is done, Hilter incarnate, Zimmerman, steps back into his gas-guzzling, fossil fuel truck.
• As he leaves the scene, all he can see is Trayvon dying and looking up at his “Bush-Cheney 2004” bumper sticker disappear into the night.
• Given these indisputable facts, the media and race baiters proclaim that Zimmerman got away with murder and the poor innocent victim Trayvon had nothing but goodness in his heart.
“Producers edited Zimmerman’s 911 call”
It was NOT a 911 call. It was a non-emergency number used for the purpose he used it.
It’s increasingly obvious to me that for many in the black community, there are only two colors. Black, and not-black, which explains why they often go after Asians, Hispanics, and Jews in their Knock-Out King games, and in their race rhetoric.
That could explain why they treat each other as if they belong to a “secret soriety”.
The author makes a statement here completely unsupported by evidence.
He might be correct on the thoughtful critics part, but that arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is anything but thoughtful. Except when it benefits him and the rats
O'Reilly is saying that Zimmerman did think that Martin was "suspicious" because he was a black youth and he was wearing a hoodie.
I say that Zimmerman was suspicious only because he knew the owner of the unit that Martin was near and knew that Martin didn't belong there because he knows the circumstance of the owner in the unit. Martin didn't have to be black or wear a hoodie for Zimmerman to know that Martin wasn't a resident of THAT particular unit.
That's why Zimmerman was suspicious of Martin.
-PJ
This idiot gave birth to this hood, but was NOT his mother. She only became his mother when the money came rolling in.
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