Trayvon Martin case: Is George Zimmerman being unfairly tried in media?
Loading...
| Washington
Is neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman being unfairly tried on TV for shooting unarmed teen Trayvon Martin? That鈥檚 what some commentators are saying now, one month after the pair鈥檚 fatal encounter in Sanford, Fla.
Mr. Martin鈥檚 death was a shame, Fox News talk show host on the 鈥淥鈥橰eilly Factor鈥 Thursday, adding that circumstantial evidence indicates that Mr. Zimmerman may have jumped to conclusions and racially profiled Martin as someone up to no good.
But Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey is now investigating Martin鈥檚 death, Mr. O鈥橰eilly said, and there鈥檚 no reason Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities should be demanding an arrest prior to the probe鈥檚 finish.
鈥淲hen it comes to the pundits, I鈥檓 angry about the rush to judgment,鈥 said O鈥橰eilly. 鈥淲hen it comes to Trayvon鈥檚 parents, however, they should be cut some slack.鈥
O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 fellow conservative William Bennett, the former secretary of Education, went further in an Friday. Recent revelations have painted a more complicated picture of both Zimmerman and Martin, he wrote, with the former emerging as a part-Hispanic registered Democrat, and the latter as a teen who鈥檇 been suspended from school.
Jesse Jackson鈥檚 assertion that Martin鈥檚 death shows blacks are 鈥渦nder attack,鈥 and Spike Lee鈥檚 tweeting of the wrong address for Zimmerman鈥檚 parents, forcing an innocent couple to flee their home, illustrate a deeper problem in dealing with the case, according to Mr. Bennett.
鈥淢any 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,鈥 wrote Bennett.
This analysis ignores a central aspect of the Martin case, according to critics. If not for the national uproar over the manner in which Sanford police initially treated the killing, there would be no special prosecutor taking a hard look at the facts. Zimmerman might have walked away despite many inconsistencies between his story of the encounter and other evidence.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a tragedy and a shame, and justice needs to be served,鈥 Ms. Winfrey said in a Thursday.
Charles M. Blow, an opinion columnist for The New York Times, on his Friday listed a number of ways in which the Zimmerman family account of what happened does not match up with what鈥檚 revealed on 911 calls and the physical layout of the scene.
Among other things, Zimmerman said Martin was walking behind houses, and coming toward him. Yet Zimmerman was in a car on the street and the houses were conjoined, making it almost impossible to see behind the houses, said Blow. Furthermore, if Zimmerman had turned to return to his car when family members say he did, he would have been inside it long before a fight could have started.
鈥淔olks, this isn鈥檛 rocket science. This is common sense stuff. I鈥檓 not Perry Mason.... We need a jury,鈥 tweeted Blow.
Zimmerman鈥檚 physical condition has also become an issue, as the police tape of his arrival at a station for questioning does not appear to show the broken nose and other injuries that Zimmerman鈥檚 attorney Craig Sonner says his client sustained in the encounter.
Mr. Sonner has said the video is 鈥済rainy鈥, and Zimmerman鈥檚 brother insisted on CNN Thursday that medical details will support Zimmerman鈥檚 story.
Yet the drip, drip of media revelations continued Friday, with the who handled Martin鈥檚 body telling CBS he saw no injuries consistent with a fight, and an anonymous source telling the that Zimmerman had lost a job as a security guard for being too aggressive.