Selasa, 03 April 2012

Trayvon Martin - A Perfect Storm of Imperfect Journalism

Let me be clear. Calling what has happened with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Trayvon Martin story ‘imperfect’ is like calling a hurricane unsettled weather. The way this terrible tragedy has been handled by most in the mainstream media is nothing short of an appalling travesty.

News organizations have been tripping all over themselves, not to uncover the truth and deliver news to the public but rather, to ‘prove’ their biased version of events. MSNBC acts more like the prosecution than an objective presenter of fact while Fox News has decided to be the defense for George Zimmerman.

That isn’t their role and they have undermined the very credibility of their own profession with this incredible orgy of prejudice and speculation, and in some cases, deliberate misinformation.

Even the venerable CNN is guilty of biased, one-sided reporting which along with the rest of this mess has led to increased racial tensions, misunderstanding of the facts and the undermining of legal rights like the presumption of innocence and due process.

It is highly disturbing to watch respected journalists drop their professional standards down to the same level of pseudo-journalists like Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck, Touré and Al Sharpton. The journalistic standard set in coverage of this story has more in common with the National Enquirer than the legacy of Edward R. Murrow.

The simple truth is that we don’t know what we don’t know and there is much about the shooting of Trayvon Martin that we don’t know………yet. This has left news organizations with an information void that they have rushed to fill with speculative commentary, much of which is slowly being proven to have been wrong as more facts are being released by law enforcement.

How is the public served by a fourth estate that has lost control of its own professional standards to this degree? How does a society benefit from journalism that has been allowed to dissolve into mindless commentary and dishonest reporting?

The simple truth is that it isn’t and we are seeing more and more evidence of that with each passing day. It has become so appalling that television news journalists are now not only arguing with the very people they invite on their shows to provide information but are lecturing each other about who is more sensitive to the race issue. 

With great privilege comes great responsibility and there is not much greater privilege than the freedom of the press.

That freedom has been sorely abused by the coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

The media have engaged in egregious displays of yellow journalism and have trampled anything even remotely related to fair and balanced coverage.

Instead of covering the story the mainstream media has filled the airwaves and newspapers with speculation, biased analysis and accusatory comments. Some have doctored material to support their racial based narrative, including MSNBC which removed part of the conversation in Mr. Zimmerman’s 911 tape. That was the part of the tape that clearly showed that it was the 911 operator who brought up race, not Mr. Zimmerman. 

What we do know is that a young man is dead, the victim of another pointless and tragic violent death in a country with too many pointless violent deaths. We know that the only other person who was present has presented a version of those events in which he claims he acted in self-defense. While it is still unclear whether or not charges will or even should be laid, with each passing day, as more factual evidence is released by law enforcement, his version of events is being somewhat strengthened.

We know that local, state and federal law enforcement are investigating what happened and if there was ever a case which was bound to have a thorough and complete uncovering of the truth, this is it. That isn’t good enough for the media. 

The media have completely disregarded the integrity true journalism demands. They have created a narrative that they continue to cling to with only a grudging acknowledgement of the truth as individual facts are released which contradict that narrative. This is evidenced in the video clip below.

In the first link below you'll see a report about a letter sent by the Martin family's lawyer demanding an investigation into a meeting between State's Attorney Wolfinger and The Sanford Chief of Police. The letter claims that it was at this meeting the two overruled the investigating officer's recommendation to lay manslaughter charges against Mr. Zimmerman.

You’ll notice that the report does not challenge the contradiction between the Martin attorney’s demand for an investigation into that and her subsequent statement that they don’t know if such a meeting actually took place.

Just the other night, Sheperd Smith of Fox News referred to Trayvon Martin as "little Trayvon". Trayvon
was over 6' tall but that doesn't fit the narrative of a small boy being gunned down by a ruthless racist either.There have been unsubstantiated claims that Mr. Zimmerman was stalking Trayon when in fact he was following him until told not to by the 911 operator at which point Mr. Zimmerman was returning to his vehicle when he claims Trayon attacked him. 

Aren’t those the kinds of discrepancies that the media are supposed to challenge rather than ignoring everything and anything that doesn’t support their manufactured narrative? Journalism is about uncovering a story, not creating one. Unfortunately the coverage of the Trayvon Martin story has been a manufactured and manipulated narrative from the beginning.

I don't know what happened that night other than a young man was shot and the shooter claims it was in self-defense. I don't know if that is true or not. I don't know if the shooting was racially motivated, the result of an altercation, fear, deliberate action or carelessness but the media don't know either. That lack of knowledge hasn't stopped the mainstream media from assuming they do know and pre-judging guilt or innocence of the shooter.

Freedom of the press is a cherished constitutional right. The media are quick to protect that right by every means at their disposal as they should. It is more than merely unfortunate that they don’t have the same respect for the legal  rights of due process and presumption of innocence. 

Instead, they have behaved like mindless pigs at the trough and what they have done to their own profession and to the public’s right to know the unvarnished truth is nothing short of a disgrace.

Enhanced video shows that George Zimmerman was injured contrary to earlier media report to the contrary
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/04/02/erin-mattingly-zimmerman-head-injury.cnn

Piers Morgan interview with MSNBC's Toure
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/04/msnbcs-toure-has-racist-meltdown-on.html

Trayvon Martin - A Tragedy Turned Into An Ugly Circus of Opportunism and Racial Hatred
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/03/i-watched-clip-of-l.html



© 2012 Maggie's Bear
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