It is chilling when the Media chooses sides and clings on for dear life. As a veteran of another high profile Media Hoax, I can explain some of their "tricks."
Usually the side they choose is linked immediately to an historical metanarrative..often one that has great emotional resonance to a group of people. I am NOT disparaging these metanarratives or the historical reasons they exist. I'm pointing out that making an accusation of a crime FIT into old grievances, hurts and wrongs...helps the media begin its process of shaping a case and pre-convicting one side. To that end, the Duke hoax was immediately linked to the Metanarrative of White Men of Privilege raping poor Black women. This was referenced constantly. In this case, it is White Men killing innocent Blacks because of Profiling.
So now we bring all the anger at past profiling and racial disparity and we dump it on this Watch Captain in Florida. He can subsequently do no right in the media and the "victim" becomes immediately "perfect."
To that end, we need pictures. Let's take an old picture of a mean looking GZ and use that. OOPS cannot use any recent pictures of TM where he is pretending that Gang banger look...because the public will not embrace him if we do. So the media finds a picture of him at 13 years old...a CHILD'S picture...no stubble, no gold teeth...a child's picture. And a beautiful child who...yes, does look like a popular President.
So they use that old picture for weeks. This is NOT the face GZ saw that night...it's a child's face. But the Media is about building outrage. Profiling THIS innocent child? How ridiculous, readers fume. (including ME, at first.)
Now we constantly reference the Skittles....a child's treat. Later we hear this 17 year old has an illegal drug in his system but that is WELL after the image of a 13 year old child with Skittles is seared in the publics brain.
The media Image Making and linking to the emotional Metanarrative sets the stage.
Now the mechanics. Any unflattering info about TM must immediately be downplayed or ignored...the changing of schools in mid-year, the three suspensions, the Facebook page, how LONG till they are mentioned and in what context? Where is info placed...beneath a headline ravaging GZ...who has every possible grudge holder interviewed for dirt and reported with zeal. GZ is demonized...by cutting the 911 tape and running it cut many times...by denying his injuries...by finding an "expert" that identifies the screams as TM's...when we are never told that TM's FATHER SAID they were NOT his sons Screams.
Headlines are a tool as well. Today ABC has a headline :
WITNESS BELIEVES GM INTENDED TM TO DIE!!!!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/trayvon-martin-witness-believes-intended-kid-die/t/story?id=16380864
Read the article and you also see at the end that the WITNESS at the scene supports GZ's story AND has TM beating him with Martial Arts Style...but the Media LIKED this quote for a headline...to smear GZ some more...made by a woman who apparently thinks that GZ KNEW he was going to be beaten to a inch of his life and therefore premediated the whole deal. She suggests he could have shot a peson straddling him and beating him...in the LEG! Could someone explain exactly HOW to implement that? Maybe diagram the mechanics when someone is straddling you? That is so ridiculous and DUMB that it is appalling that this is considered relevant at all. That "witness" is giving a NON FACTUAL OPINION that no one can PROVE...but it is the Big Headine. Why? Because the media knows many folks just SCAN headlines and do not actually read. So this headline feeds anger...makes it harder for GZ to get a fair trial. And many will never READ the full context of this Witness' statement at all. Mission of fomenting more hate...ACCOMPLISHED!
Which is the whole idea...because the Media has chosen "a side" before they know the evidence. In fact they are CREATING False evidence to inflame potential jurors and force weak political DAs to file weak cases the Law does not support. Nifong. Corey. Placating public opinion first and foremost. Public opinion fueled by a rabid biased press...inciting for Mob justice. Based on their often later proven FALSE evidence. You cannot unring a Bell.
And if Race is part of the case...The Media is glad to use that to infuriate as well. Subsequently, we have the media reporting on racial slurs that later , much later...they admit were never spoken. That is RECKLESS. Knowing the implications, the hurt, THAT CHARGE should never be made unless it is 100 SOLID. But the Media is like excited gossipy Neighbors...OMG...OMG ...say anything then check it later!!
They initally call GZ "White"....to fit the Metanarrative of "Whites Killing Blacks Because of Profiling"....then when GZ's heritage is unfortunately MIXED...they invent the term "White Hispanic." Then, horrors, he has Black Heritage, Black friends, has mentored Black children. But this is DOWNPLAYED. Instead, the Congressional Black Caucus is interviewed for quotes about TM being "shot like a dog." etc. This is all part of making this case so RACIAL...that defending GZ in any manner makes one a RACIST. This is a useful "Shut-UP" tool that the media uses. If you don't see Crystal Mangum as Sister Survivor raped by three White Men of Privilege JUST BECAUSE she has no LAX DNA and every orifice is chock full of OTHER male DNA...then you are a RACIST! Or you hate women and love rape!
This is terribly unfair. It is possible to respect folks of all races but base one's opinons on FACT not emotion or allegiance. A Black friend who says GZ is not a racist should be allowed to speak and shown the same respect by the media...as any of us would wish. It takes bravery.
If you read about GZ's injuries, read the Law and say, as Harvard Professor Dershowitz says...there should never have been charges...the editorials and media spin is that you are racist, or a gun-nut. How do they do this....by quoting in articles "experts" who analyze people who do not agree with them...as possessing these evil qualities. How many of these erroneous emotional "quotes" are ever retracted or corrected by the Media in later articles? Have you seen articles about the exaggerations made by these Congresspeople about this case? Why not? Does the Media have no responsibility to the truth?
Once the Media sets the hysteria going...witness statements change. The young boy who saw G on top is "corrected" by his Mother. Dad "corrects" whose voice he heard screaming. Because it becomes scary to oppose the Media in full outrage. Then they report death threats by the Black Panthers and our Government tolerates those threats. Gee, any witness, any reader...now gets the point to shut up or go with the Media Mob.
Of couse, we have the Entertainment Ghouls...who exploit these tragedies for ratings...another "media." How often they show their ignorance of the evidence is STUNNING. But they feel NO OBLIGATION to be INFORMED. They exist to pander emotion...push hatred...convict in the public's mind before trial. It is a barbaric profession. Lawyers who go on TV and push slander, lies and misinformation for RATINGS and personal enrichment. And they are quoted as if they are "serious media." Remember NG's wailing about how the Duke accusers fingernails were brutally ripped off?
Lee press on nails. She did her nails in the bathroom...the OTHER stripper testified to that.
Now we have an array of disgruntled old girlfriends, Middle Easterner work associates...blah, blah. The Media takes their every word as GOSPEL...they are the embodiments of perfect truth. No one who smears GZ could ever be lying, have an agenda or a grudge. After all, it's only those who SUPPORT GZ who MUST be liars, racists, or all of the above.
We live in an age where Media credibility is near ZERO...but we love to believe them when their VENDETTAS fit our opinions.
