ORIGINAL PIECE

Bill Anderson at LRC asks the crucial question about the media’s role in creating a frenzy that probably had the opposite effect it was intended to have:

“Why did Corey even file second-degree murder charges when it was clear that the state could not meet that threshold of evidence? My belief is that the mainstream media made it more likely, as journalists of supposedly reputable organizations literally made things up out of whole cloth and then put the lies on the Internet and in the airwaves. The frenzy that the media worked up made it easier for Corey to look like a crusader for justice rather than the dishonest opportunist that she really is.

As I noted at the beginning of this article, I do not know what happened in that encounter, other than Trayvon Martin was shot dead. At some point, Martin and Zimmerman tangled and it looks as though Zimmerman was getting the worst of it, which led to the shooting. What I do know, however, is that Corey’s people did not come close to presenting evidence that matched their rhetoric and the poisonous rhetoric that American politicians and journalists have been spewing.”

Personally, I have avoided reading or thinking too much about this case because I saw it as an intentional provocation of the mass mind. However, by doing so, by over-charging in the first place, they ended up losing the case.