By Christiaan A. Hart-Nibbrig
On February 26, between 7-8 p.m., in Sanford, Florida, 17 year-old Trayvon Martin was shot to death by George Zimmerman, a 28 year-old resident of Sanford.
The facts surrounding the shooting death have still not been established in court, but judging by the media coverage in the weeks and months following the shooting, George Zimmerman racially “profiled” Trayvon Martin and shot him to death because he was black and wearing a hoodie.
This was the narrative picked up by the majority of the “mainstream media,” meaning most of the largest press agencies in the country.
The coverage in the first two months following the incident decidedly pointed toward Zimmerman’s guilt. The pictures of Martin and Zimmerman most displayed nationally showed a smiling, fresh-faced, 12 year-old Martin, and a brooding, guilty-looking Zimmerman in a photo taken from another, earlier domestic incident.
President Obama weighed in on the shooting in the weeks that followed, saying “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) wore a hoodie on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, and referred to “the murder of Trayvon Martin.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton immediately descended on Sanford, and, along with Ben Jealous, head of the NAACP, and led hundreds of people in rallies calling for Zimmerman’s arrest.
A group called “The New Black Panther Party” placed a $10,000 bounty on anyone who made a citizen’s arrest against Zimmerman.
Veteran civil rights leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, proclaimed that “blacks are under attack,” as he joined the protests in central Florida.
All of these news “stories,” and others with the same thrust, also involving other high-profile celebrities like Spike Lee and Oprah Winfrey, were covered extensively by virtually every major media outlet – print, television, digital – in the United States.
The political right, through its principal media source, Fox News, countered with another narrative. Fox and other right-leaning organizations promoted Zimmerman’s justifiable shooting of Martin, whom they said was the antagonist against Zimmerman on that rainy February evening.
Fox News talk show host, Bill O’Reilly, used his program repeatedly to cast Zimmerman as justified in shooting Martin, and blasted Martin’s high-profile public supporters for “exploiting” Martin’s death.
William J. Bennett, former Secretary of Education, wrote as a guest on CNN.com about a “rush to judgment” against Zimmerman: “Many people are not on an impartial hunt for justice but are exploiting this crisis for personal or political gain and claiming that it is representative of larger societal problems,” wrote Bennett.
In recent weeks, new information about the shooting seems to show a very different picture than was reported in the first weeks and months after Martin’s death. Pictures of a battered and bruised Zimmerman immediately after the shooting have emerged, and seem to support Zimmerman’s claim that he was attacked and beaten by the six-foot, three-inch Martin.
The Florida funeral director who handled Martin’s body before his burial said that there were no bruises or other indications of a fight on the 17 year-old.
It has also been reported recently that Martin had drugs in his system, and had been in Sanford because he was serving his third suspension from his Miami high school. Martin was suspended for graffiti, truancy, and drugs. (Marijuana residue was reportedly found in a baggie in his backpack.)
This new information, especially the pictures of Zimmerman, even prompted Harvard Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz, in an op-ed piece appearing in the New York Daily News, to call for a withdrawal of the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman. Dershowitz is also harshly critical of the special prosecutor in the case, Angela Corey, whom he accuses of intentionally withholding key evidence.
Wherever the truth may lie regarding the specific details of the incident, the problem is clearly with the media coverage of the case. Unfortunately, there are no codified “rules” for good, ethical, and responsible journalism. The market and advertisers seem to set the rules.
At the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where this writer received his degree, what was emphasized was not to give the public what it wanted, but what it needed to know.
By trying (and convicting, or acquitting) George Zimmerman in the press well before his trial, the media is giving the public what it thinks it wants – a high tech lynching. The press covers criminal cases like boxing matches, with day-by-day tallies and scoring. Trayvon “won” the first rounds; Zimmerman “came back” in the later rounds.
This is wrong.
In pandering to the tastes and whims of the public, the media, in this case, has made victims not just of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, but of the justice system it ought to protect. The possibility that George Zimmerman will receive a fair, non-politicized and impartial hearing is remote based on the coverage to date.
That is the worst crime of all.
