How the mass media plays us

The media plays an almost daily 'gotcha' game with the American people because it can and, in doing so, has changed the very nature of its responsibility to us. The just concluded George Zimmerman trial that was broadcast almost in its entirety to the nation is a perfect example.

As most of you know, the trial was the result of an altercation that took place in Florida between Zimmerman, a racially mixed man and Treyvon Martin, a black teenager and resulted in Zimmerman shooting and killing Martin. What you most likely DON'T know is that the reporting media displayed a pronounced bias in reporting this case and its subsequent trial.

Now I'm a Democrat. I have always been one and I always will be because I agree with the basic values and principles of the Democratic Party. But I'm a centrist Democrat, not a liberal and not a radical. The liberal wing of the media created the parameters of this story as a racially influenced homicide and never deviated from that path. And they did it in several different ways.

Most obvious were the photographs of Zimmerman and Martin that were displayed in practically every American media outlet. The predominant and in most cases, the only photo of Zimmerman showed him in what was described as an orange jail jumpsuit looking surly after being arrested for assaulting a police officer. Zimmerman today is 27 but that photo was taken five years earlier when he was 22, he was wearing an orange polo shirt, not a jail jumpsuit and the charges against him were eventually dropped. In contrast to that image, the predominant photos we saw of the victim Martin were taken when he was 13 or 14 years old, looking sweet and innocent, in either a red tee-shirt or a football uniform. No pictures of him at the age of 17 when he was shot and killed were ever made public.

We've always heard that a picture is worth a thousand words and that was certainly true in this case because the images we were exposed to created a mindset of a mean racially prejudiced predator assaulting and killing an innocent black child. But those images didn't accurately reflect either the victim OR the accused.

What wasn't so obvious is the intra-racial nature of murder in this country. Whites murder whites, blacks murder blacks and Hispanics murder Hispanics. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, between eight and nine thousand blacks are murdered annually and 93 percent of those murders are perpetrated by other blacks. But one example of an inter-racial murder got all the headlines and international scrutiny because that's the way the media wanted it.

So it's no surprise this became a racially motivated case in the hearts and minds of many rather than an unfortunate incident brought about in large part because of Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law. So when the all woman jury declared Zimmerman innocent of all charges, no one should have been surprised at what happened next.

There were protests and disturbances nation wide, Martin's parents said they couldn't believe the verdict, perennial black spokesmen like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton quickly expressed their outrage and Stevie Wonder, an entertainer, said he would never appear in Florida again.

This in spite of the fact that photos taken of Zimmerman at police headquarters immediately after the attack showed him bleeding profusely from the back of the head, seeming to prove his version of the incident that his head was being pounded into the concrete by Martin and that he shot him in self defense.

The other side of the story is that Zimmerman was a member of the neighborhood watch program and called the police when he first spotted Martin walking down the street, a behavior that would suggest he was doing what he was supposed to do. However, the police dispatcher said they would send an officer to the scene and for Zimmerman not to get out of his car or directly confront Martin. He paid no attention to that directive and because he didn't, Martin lost his life.

This case once again shows us the intense feelings many Americans have when it comes to racial conflict. I was disappointed in many of my Democratic friends for their knee-jerk reactions of outrage at the verdict before examining all the factors involved, just like I often respond to my Republican friends when they quote Limbaugh, Beck O'Reilly, or Coulter, not realizing or caring to acknowledge that they are entertainers and not reporters and, consequently will always speak to their base instead of to the truth.

This time around the liberal side of the media did the same thing. I'm disappointed that they did because I have long contended that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Determining the truth in today's polarized world is becoming more difficult by the day and the sources we have always trusted to give us factual, objective information simply can't be trusted anymore.