That was before we learned that Zimmerman didn’t know Martin’s race when he made the call, and that race didn’t play a roll in any of the 911 calls the local police had on file.
That was before we discovered that George Zimmerman wasn’t the 240-plus pound bruiser in the five-year-old picture the media used as much as possible, but was listed at a much smaller 170 pounds by none other than the New York Times. That’s a nominal 20 pounds heavier than a teen that stood four inches over him.
That was before we found out that two eyewitnesses placed Martin on top of Zimmerman as the aggressor, and that at least one of them claims it was Zimmerman crying for help.
That was before ABC News attempted to claim police surveillance video disproved Zimmerman’s claim of being injured in what may have been a purposeful deception. The very same news organization was forced to later admit the presence of two lacerations on the back of George Zimmerman’s skull consistent with his claim of self-defense. In the end, details of the beating Zimmerman suffered at Trayvon Martin’s hands were only given a brief mention in the local news.
That was before NBC News was forced to fire a senior producer for selectively editing audio of Zimmerman’s 911 call in a deliberate effort to make him sound racist.
And of course, almost no one knows that on the night he took Trayvon Martin’s life, George Zimmerman willingly consented to take a voice stress analyzer test, a kind of lie detector test used by the Sanford police. He passed it."
- I took the media’s claims at face value and erroneously labeled George Zimmerman a murderer based upon false information that was designed to arrange a lynching.
I won’t get fooled again...
Seriously? I think Bob Owens was already hip to the idea that the media doesn't always deliver the straight story.Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 - by Bob Owens: MSNBC’s ‘Rossen Reports’: More Lying About Guns
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/11/justice/florida-teen-shooting/...
If he's guilty, he should spend life in prison. If not, he'll live his life with the scarlet letter "M". He's fucked either way. Until a few moments ago I had not seen a photo of Zimmerman. Because of what I had heard/read in the media I expected a big white dude. He looks like a pudgy mexican. But that doesn't sell copy, does it?
For a month there was no chance of charges being filed. Then the story got picked up. There are guys who are in prison for 20+ years, then the story gets picked up and prosecution misconduct is discovered. The story doesn't make them guilty or innocent. Though the current story is clearly slanted one way rather than the other. Makes you go: hmmmm. -XC
- Maybe. For a month there was no chance of charges being filed. Then the story got picked up.
That is also a maybe. It could be that the facts of the case were so strong that charges were inevitable, and that the police really screwed up. And there are guys that should have gone to prison but never did, because of police misconduct. Hell, many of them are police. As it stands, there is enough evidence of a crime to bring murder charges. He may be guilty, he may be innocent. The important thing is that it gets decided in a courtroom. Speculating and insinuating that charges were filed baselessly merely to assuage the public is just that, -speculation and insinuation. From what we know, you could make just as 'strong' of a speculative case that the police didn't arrest him when they should have in the first place.There are guys who are in prison for 20+ years, then the story gets picked up and prosecution misconduct is discovered.
NBC already did what they needed to do. They outright fired the producer who edited the 911 tapes: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/07/nbc-news-reportedly-fir... As they should have. NBC also issued the obvious reiterations and reported on them. CNN has issued retractions as well. But all of that is the bare minimum that needed to be done in response to despicable reporting in the fist place, and frankly, THAT is the problem that is not going to go away. Our for-profit media outlets are defined by the need to sensationalize to grab eyeballs. It's all about the bottom line. Fast and loose Newzertainment that covers anything that will make you sit up at attention in 2 minute intervals. I don't think there is any accountability in the mainstream media which is why I don't watch it. I will reference it though. I get my news from a plethora of sources online. The major news outlets are just a few data points of many in this mix.
Your understanding of an issue will always be a function of how much effort you expend studying it.