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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| How the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy |
| 2013-07-21 |
| A week after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin, the backlash continues, with nationwide protests and calls to boycott Florida. President Obama spoke some undeniable truths when he noted that the African-American community’s reaction must be seen in the context of a long, terrible history of racism. But there is another context too: that of an ideology-based, media-driven false narrative that has distorted a tragedy into a racist outrage. This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed heritage that included white, Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an honorary white male steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he once had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a neighborhood about 20 percent black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenant’s son getting away with beating a homeless black man. This narrative has perpetuated the lie that Zimmerman’s history of calls to the police indicates obsessive racial paranoia. Thus, discussing the verdict on the PBS NewsHour, University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb asserted that “Zimmerman had called the police 46 times in previous six years, only for African-Americans, only for African-American men.” Actually, only six calls—two of them about Trayvon Martin—had to do with African-American men. At least three involved complaints about whites; others were about such issues as a fire alarm going off, a reckless driver of unknown race, or an aggressive dog. In this narrative, even Zimmerman’s concern for a black child—a 2011 call to report a young African-American boy walking unsupervised on a busy street, on which the police record notes, “compl[ainant] concerned for well-being”—has been twisted into crazed racism. Writing on the website of The New Republic, Stanford University law professor Richard Thompson Ford describes Zimmerman as “an edgy basket case” who called 911 about “the suspicious activities of a seven year old black boy.” This slander turns up in other left-of-center sources, such as ThinkProgress.org. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #8 the 3rd. brigade 82nd. airborne took over Detroit in 1967. |
| Posted by: bman 2013-07-21 23:10 |
| #7 Exactly the reason the Mrs. and I moved to Idaho...Here in the Treasure Valley (aptly named), the vagaries - indeed vulgaries - are minimized. Cabela's was most helpful with my recent purchase and I was able to take it home the same day, with a free box of the correct size, shall we say. |
| Posted by: Warthog 2013-07-21 22:17 |
| #6 Another reason I'm moving to the suburbs. (Near, but NOT IN a city, And self sufficient) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-07-21 18:00 |
| #5 The death of Martin has little if anything to do with the foundational issue. Dozens of black youth and young men are slain each week in places like Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Birmingham, LA, etc. What is being challenged here is the foking Rule of Law! Tribal anarchy cannot survive in a nation where the Rule of Law is upheld. Fairness and equality are merely crutches or excuses for the upsetting of western culture and the desire levels of social chaos. The anarchists will not rest until America is turned into a gang and drug infested, African Congo-like blood feud. Worst Case: Conditions are nearly right for a violent city(s) takeover. Under the current regime there will be no National Guard or 82nd Airborne retaking of the city(s), it's hospitals, energy resources, or prisons. Separatists will negotiate with the Regime in Washington for redress, payments, compensations, and new lands [off limits reservations]. New rules of law and police enforcement will approved and established. Government mandated population shifts will take place and property ownership within the effect areas and border regions will be dissolved. Think it can't happen? Sorry, it's been happening slowly for decades. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-07-21 17:06 |
| #4 they are already suffering a financial backlash. A personal would be next |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-07-21 16:47 |
| #3 A backlash against the press who is spreading the lies and never correcting them is what is needed. Something along the lines of tar, feather and maybe even ropes for the editors who consciously make the decisions to do this. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2013-07-21 16:42 |
| #2 The thing which is still mind-boggling to me is that every single blessed thing we were initially told through the national media about Martin/Zimmerman turned out to be wrong. Every single blessed thing, except possibly that Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer, and had a gun. Everything else was proved to be an outright lie by what came out at the trial. So what are we left to think about this modern-day attempted lynching? My daughter is thinking that a backlash against the professional black agitators insisting on the 'poor little innocent Trayvon, brutally murdered by an angry white racist narrative' is forming. Certainly, people like us are getting damn sick and tired of being polite about the pathologies in the 'thug-life' subculture and being called racists anyway. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2013-07-21 15:17 |
| #1 This slander turns up in other left-of-center sources, such as ThinkProgress.org. ThinkProgress = George Soros |
| Posted by: Mikey Hunt 2013-07-21 12:50 |