Journalism is dead

On February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford Florida.  He was 17 years old.  No matter how you slice it, this is a tragedy.  Right, Left, Conservative, Liberal makes no difference.  A young man is dead, a family is grieving, and another man, whether he turns out to be innocent or guilty, must now live with the fact that he has taken a life.

How does this tie into the title?  Simple.  In a volatile and charged situation the Mainstream Media, far from attempting to diffuse the situation, has stoked the fires and inflamed the public.  They did it deliberately by falsifying information, selectively editing audio and video, and ignoring pertinent information all to further and portray a "narrative," as they call it.

First off, I admit that I do not have all of the facts.  No one does as the information is still coming out.  I do not know who was at fault.  Did George Zimmerman act in self defense?  Or did he "hunt Martin down and shoot him like a dog in the street," as suggested by Rep. Maxine waters on the floor of Congress, merely for "Walking while black in a gated community," as Rep. Hank Johnson states?  I don't know.  But what I do know is that we have a tradition of innocence until proven guilty. 

This has not stopped the Left-shilling media from pushing the agenda that all white folk are racist and exist specifically to keep the black community down. 

Lets start with the facts.

Trayvon Martin was walking through a community late at night, hood up in the pouring rain.  George Zimmerman, the local neighborhood watch volunteer, noticed him and, as a man who knew everybody in the neighborhood, did not recognize him.  Fresh from a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood he was suspicious of someone he did not know and decided to keep an eye on him while he called 911.  Zimmerman gave them a description of Martin as best he could and the dispatcher told him to discontinue following.  A short time later, Zimmerman and Martin had a confrontation at the end of which Martin was shot and killed.  Police and paramedics arrived arrived, secured the scene, cleaned Zimmerman up and took him to the police station where he was questioned for 5 hours.

Zimmerman's story is that while on the phone with 911 he followed Martin behind a row of houses.  When the dispatcher instructed him to stop the pursuit he complied and went to the nearest intersection to get street names to give to authorities.  He was on his way back when Martin confronted him.  Martin threw the first punch and quickly overwhelmed Zimmerman and took him to the ground where he proceeded to beat him and repeatedly slam his head into the ground.  Martin reached for Zimmerman's gun.  Zimmerman tried to prevent him while still trying to fend of the physical assault.  Zimmerman shot in self defense.

The story the Media is trying to push is that Right-wing, racist Zimmerman saw poor little Trayvon decided to kill a black man, hunted him down like a dog, and killed him in cold blood.  After which, the "white man establishment" refused to arrest him because he was white.

Lets take the Lib Media narrative from the beginning...

George Zimmerman was a racist white man.  First off, he is not white.  He is hispanic.  And I have heard reports, which I have not been able to verify, that he even had African and Jewish blood in his family tree.  In an attempt to begrudgingly acknowledge this fast while still pushing their narrative, they reclassified him with a new term: White-hispanic.  They had to keep the "white" in there.  Secondly, far from being racist, Zimmerman and his wife used their spare time to mentor and tutor neighborhood black and disadvantage children for free.  And several blacks in the community have stated that they do not consider the man racist and trust completely as the neighborhood watch volunteer.

NBC, to further their agenda, took the 911 call where Zimmerman only gave a description of race when asked, took out the dispatcher's question asking for that information, and strung it together to make it sound like he was racially profiling Martin. 

Actual call:  Zimmermann: "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."

Dispatcher:  "Oh, ok, and this guy is he white, black, or hispanic?"

Zimmermann:  "He looks black."

NBC edit:  "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.  He looks black."

To their credit, NBC has fired the employee responsible, but only after they were caught and received intense pressure.  However, there has been no apology to Zimmerman for the disparaging edit. 

Zimmerman hunted down and murdered Martin in cold blood.  Again, the evidence is not all in so nothing can be said conclusively.  That being said, there are eyewitnesses that state that Martin was on top of Zimmermann and was slamming his head to the ground repeatedly.   The initial police report noted severe lacerations and bleeding about the head and face.

This is where ABC did their part to further the Left narrative.  They produced a video of Zimmerman at the police station that supposedly shows no bleeding or injury.  Now, leaving out the fact that it was noted in the police report, the same people are the ones that think all cops are corrupt and akin to baby killers, paramedics were called to the scene and treated him before police took him into custody.  I am not sure how things are done where you are, but paramedics usually clean up and treat cuts, scrapes, bleeding and other injuries of both victim and suspect, thereby erasing evidence of bleeding.

Again, to ABC's credit they reversed their claim, stating that under "enhanced video," a gash is clearly seen on the back of his head.  However, just like NBC, they did so only after being caught and receiving pressure about it.

Then you have all the little things done to sway public opinion:

The media chose a photo of Martin as a 10-12 year old kid instead of the a current where he is reportedly a 6-foot-plus muscular athlete.  The photo the chose of Zimmerman was as close to a mugshot that you can get and they have all but ignored the one of a smiling, well-dressed working man

The eyewitness that states that Martin was on top of Zimmerman came forward within days of the incident and was only reported by a handful of local papers.  This was ignored by teh national media for almost a month.  To save face after they were pressured into reporting this fact they claimed it as an "new, exclusive development."

Martin's father came forward and said the screaming on the 911 audio was not his son.  However, after getting a lawyer, he miraculously changed his story.

The media claimed Zimmerman was let go from the scenebefore the video came out of him at the station and the police report stating he was questioned for hours.

Lastly, the media reports the neighborhood was your typical upper middle class suburban white community.  In reality, while being a gated community, it is only about 46% white.  The majority of residents are black and hispanic

Under normal circumstances this would be just one more instance of media changing facts to support their previously conceived notions and to sway public opinion.  The situation, though, is far from normal.  The atmosphere around this case has become increasingly charged and volatile.  A responsible media would try to difuse the tension.  Maybe remind the public that people are innocent until proven guilty, or publicly ask people to remain calm until the investigation is concluded.

Instead, they have fanned the flames.  Now, we have retaliation crimes being committed "for Trayvon."  In early march, a 13 year old white boy was set on fire by two black kids.  A 76 year old man was beaten by 6 teenagers after the mention of Martin's name.  And to tip it off, the New Black Panther Party has offered a bounty "dead or alive," to anyone who takes out Zimmerman, a man who has not been proven guilty.

Journalism is dead.  The Mainstream media, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, are nothing more than shills for the Left and whatever agenda they want.  They will apparently go to any length to support that agenda, facts be damned.

If they were really so outraged over this incident, and not just using it to make a point, then where is theri out rage of the fore-mentioned 13 year old victim?  Or the 76 year old man?  Or the recent weekend of violence in Chicago where 46 people were shot and 9 killed in just 3 days?  Or the Uniform Crime Report mention last post that states blacks are involved in 80% of violent crimes while being only 16% of the population and that 90% of black victims has other blacks as their assailants?  When the Left media shows just as much outrage over these and other incidents, I will take thier moral outrage a little more seriously.

I do not know if George Zimmerman is innocent or guilty.  And it doesn't change the fact that a young man is dead.  If it turns out he is guilty of homicide, then throw the book at him! Convict him of murder and give him the chair.  However, as mentioned earlier, we have a trdition of "innocent until proven guilty" and he should be treated as such until then.

Finally, is it not possible that neither party is guilty?  Zimmerman acted to protect his community after a rash of crimes.  Martin, if innocent of any wrong doing, and not knowing why this man was following him, acted to protect himself.  What happened could simply be a tragic accident with no body to blame.  Think about it...


Addition (4/08/12):

More stories where the Left's flimsy "moral outrage" is conspicuously absent...

http://www.katu.com/news/national/7-California-boys-arrested-in-attack-on-teen-145286335.html

http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/04/08/blacks_can_murder_whites_and_it_wont_make_national_news