The Martin case is a legitimate local news story, of the type that crops up now and then – in major cities like New York, where I live, we have multiple crime stories a year that involve sensational or particularly tragic facts and – at least at the outset – a significant possibility that injustice will be done either to the victim, the defendant, or both. Such cases test public confidence in the competence and fairness of local law enforcement, and sometimes find both to be wanting.
But the media feeding frenzy over this particular story – one out of the thousands of homicides in this country – in apparent response to a left-wing campaign to keep it in the national news, reflects at best a loss of perspective and at worst a cynical effort to inflame racial division in an election year.
Never forget, after all, that the real enemies here are Mexican immigrants:
Or turning to the present day, if the point is to use crime stories to dramatize real world concerns, what about a story that affects a lot more people than the fairness and competence of the Sanford, Florida police department: incursions into the U.S. by Mexican drug cartels?
No, the leftist media is clearly trying to make the 2012 elections about race, since nobody at all was going to mention the fact that the president is black before Martin’s murder:
The reality is that the Trayvon Martin case is being pushed by left-wing organizations eager to provide a backdrop of racial strife to this year’s elections – a dangerous tactic, given how frequently popular agitation over these kinds of racially divisive stories have led to riots that leave people dead or homeless and local businesses and jobs destroyed. And that while activists on both sides of the aisle often try to get big media to focus on particular crime stories that advance some national political or cultural narrative, the media is much more apt to be receptive to such campaigns by the left than the right.
A) Would that that were so, because:
B) Nearly every major right-wing-fueled “story” of the past four years has been utter bullshit. Or did someone really carve a backwards B into some McCain voter’s face that time?
A.
The Sanford City Commissions justmade a no confidence vote against police chief Bill Lee.
So at least there’s that. I’d say he’s gone.
Oh and speaking of utter bullshit right-wing “news” stories, did you hear of the latest Breitbart Jr. “scoop”? They got a “gotcha” interview with Bono talking about how awful taxes are.
Except it wasn’t Bono it was just some Irish guy in sunglasses they thought was Bono. Hilarious.
oh Shut up you fucking idiot… This is the dumbest conspiracy shit ever. Stay away from computers you stupid cunt, no one wants to circulate your retard theories.
Sweet, somebody pissed all over Ashley’s post-racial cornflakes.
Yeah, somehow pointing out conspiracy “retard theories” coming from on the right is EXACTLY the same as making your own conspiracy theories.
I vote for Lex’s cornflake theory, although the MSM will do their best to ignore the obvious evidence.
Because Martin wasn’t an innocent teen gunned down by a crazy vigilante in a state where that’s entirely legal — no, he’s an abstraction, a symbol, not a person at all!
I’m sure that’s a great comfort to his grieving family.
Hmmm…the McCain supporter who carved a backwards “B” onto her face was also named“Ashley”.
.
I guess soon “Ashley” will have a mirrored “C” oh her other cheek…
Considering all the fluff the conservative news media here runs, they don’t have room to complain.
Considering all the local stories that are **MIS**reporting local events, they don’t have room to complain.
Considering all the crazy ideas that start locally and then taken up by the conservative network for crafting similar laws elsewhere (such as how the Florida Stand your Ground and the Arizona Driving while Latino requiring officers to check the immigration status of anyone “suspicious”) they have no room to complain.
Considering that the Sanford, Florida incident was a combination of someone carrying their firearm and the Stand your Ground and those trying to enact concealed carry permits and stand your ground in other states, this ***IS*** a national story.
the gnews meeedia better be prepared for the swing that is coming.
It seems to me the story really exploded last Friday afternoon with the release of the 911 tapes. Hearing Trayvon screaming in agony, that gunshot, and silence is incredibly gripping – and the kind of thing MSM stations could play over and over. Ordinary, institutionalized brutality doesn’t usually cause much of a stir; if it did we’d have had sentencing reform 20 years ago. It’s when you can put a face to it and there’s a particularly dramatic angle – like that phone call or the video of Rodney King being assaulted – that it grabs the popular imagination. It’s not something anyone can manufacture.
And you know, it doesn’t speak especially well of us as a nation that we’re so comfortable turning a blind eye to appalling levels of injustice. Boring old statistics on their own don’t do much for us; we can only be roused when there’s a visceral hook.
Who the hell is this guttermouth Ashley? Yikes.
I would say the real story of the Trayon Martin affair is indeed the crazy-ass gun laws that ALEC and the NRA were able to push through in FL–and would love to push through in every state. Do we really want to live in a place where it is okay to kill someone, claim self-defense and have the cops wash their hands of the whole affair? I think all the protesters should focus on overturning that law over prosecuting Zimmerman.
Using the same strategy they are trying to get mileage out of to deflect criticism for the Republican war on women makes it kinda obvious dont’cha think? Then again, they have had success with this since the Nixon days so why not just keep doing it.
There isn’t any sexism or racism in America because everyone is equally liable to be murdered in cold blood by racist sexist heros and the media is making sumpin out of sumpin that happens every day. Yeah, that’ll preach.