What should you do if you’re a news organization covering an ongoing controversial murder case where the defense makes a website full of material that might poison the jury pool of that trial? Well if you’re CBS Miami, you publish all those materials and put a murder victim’s character on trial. (Warning: This links to an autoplay video)
Great job media: while the legal system tries George Zimmerman for murder, the media is trying Trayvon Martin for black criminality.
Today on #TWiBRadio, we discuss the media’s epic and racially tainted fail during their coverage of the George Zimmerman trial, Michelle Bachmann’s list of reasons she’s not seeking another term (it’s totally not that FBI investigation), and the tale of how I almost died.
Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS
And this morning on #amTWiB, #TheMorningCrew discussed Wal-Mart dumping hazardous waste in California, a Fortune 500 turning a Women’s safe-house into a luxury hotel, and does obesity start in the womb?
Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download| RSS
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hope that any prospective jury members are as disgusted at the defense pulling this as I am. The Zimmerman supporters keep harping on about how Zimmerman was in the right to defend himself because he feared that his life was in danger, ignoring the fact that it was Martin who was the only one who rightfully should have been in fear of his life that night.
Trayvon was the one being stalked by a nut with a gun and bad intentions. He was right to fear for his life and fight for it.
LT
That’s on AUTOPLAY – just to let you know.
kindness
In Florida they think this is a trick question.
Dee Loralei
That report was absolutely disgusting. I get why the defense released the info. I don’t get why the press thinks tainting a jury pool makes good business sense for them. Maybe in cases like this when emotions run high it might behoove us to emulate some of the UK laws about trials and suspects, etc……Yea, I know, First Amendment.
Eric U.
nobody reads newspapers anyway. If they had someone sing the info about Trayvon Martin on American Idol, maybe a significant portion of the jury pool would be tainted
Villago Delenda Est
Puh-leeze!
The kid was black. This means his criminality is/was a given.
Scott S.
@Dee Loralei: They’ll get better ratings and more readers if Zimmerman is acquitted. They want white readers, preferably conservative, preferably racist, because they think it’s a growth market.
Chris
@Dee Loralei:
Imagine the backlash and accusations of conspiracy and taking sides that would fly if it came out (and it would) that CBS was given information about one of the defendants and “suppressed” it.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@LT: I was just about to say. Autoplay is the wrong play.
Villago Delenda Est
@Scott S.:
They’re about as bright about demographic trends as the Rmoney campaign was.
TenguPhule
See, there’s your problem right there. Thinking CBS Miami is actually a news organization instead of Whitecentric Propo.
gocart mozart
Shouldn’t Zimmerman’s sex life and penis size also be relevant?
piratedan
well if only Nancy Grace was on the job, oh wait a minute…..our victim isn’t white, nevermind
well then if only Trayvon was alive to defend against these allegations, oh yeah, he’s not.
wonder if his family can bring suit as its an invasion of privacy.
Amir Khalid
If the judge decides this was a deliberate ploy to contaminate the jury pool with prejudicial information, can she sanction defence counsel in any way?
Yatsuno
This is rhetorical, right?
Fluke bucket
I will wait on the lawyers to chime in but my guess is that this is just a part of giving the very best defense possible for your client. Zimmerman is going to skate. You might as well prepare for that nauseating conclusion.
ranchandsyrup
CBS Miami asked itself, “How will this play in Del Boca Vista?”. Nothing “sells” like scaring the crap out of olds.
rikyrah
Trayvon Martin was
STALKED…
HUNTED…
MURDERED
for the crime of WALKING WHILE BLACK.
He was minding his own damn business when he was hunted by that racist sociopath.
Trayvon Martin went to the store for some skittles and iced tea.
And, for that, he is now DEAD.
FUCK ANY MUTHAFUCKA who remotely ‘tries’ to come up with an ‘ explanation’ as to why Trayvon is dead.
HE WAS FUCKING MURDERED.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
Doesn’t go far enough.
For the crime of EXISTING WHILE BLACK.
This is pretty much Obama’s major malfunction, I might add.
belieber
I fucking hate it when videos auto start when I visit a page. Switch it to manual because it’s annoying as fuck otherwise!
Tom_B
I’d sue the defense team for libel.
Trollhattan
Apparently, Zimmerman has burned throught $400k and is back for some more wingnut welfare. Is this why Bachmann is quitting–too busy to get her fair cut?
nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/george-zimmerman-needs-money-again.html
ruemara
Can’t wait for the resident contrarians to chide everyone for pre-judging.
metricpenny
@rikyrah:
Word.
Petorado
If we apply the Zimmerman defense team’s criteria about retroactively looking for reasons why anyone can be legally shot under “stand your ground” laws to all the other residents of the US, a really huge percentage of us deserve to die. Social media is great: it will serve as proof you had it coming to you when some crazy guy with a gun pops off.
scav
@Petorado: Trial by Combat. GOD has clearly elected the fit by chosing the last man standing and blessing him as justified in all things and righteous in action. Another retro idea whose time has apparently come again as some roll-back the Age of Enlightenment etc.
Chris
@Trollhattan:
Well, at least I know what to do if I can’t get a job that’ll let me pay back my college loans – shoot a kid, blame liberals, run sobbing into Fox News’ arms, and then let the money pour in. As a bonus, they’ll proclaim me a symbol of their “tough on crime” stance precisely because I committed a crime.
A soul is a small price to pay, I suppose.
karen
Maybe we’ll be lucky and Zimmerman will put the gun in his mouth, pull the trigger and blow his brains out.
karen
Wrong question. The question is “When isn’t it?”
chopper
@Petorado:
lol, the ‘Zimmerman Defense’.
“he had it coming! have you read his twitter feed?!”
chopper
@karen:
i guess it depends on whether you’re talking about america or the country i wish america was.
Svensker
@karen:
That’s a really awful thing to say. Seriously.
catpal
yeah media that promotes “attack the victim” is typical garbage media.
This is what the prosecution needs to use to convict Zimmerman of intentional murder.
Zimmerman was Angry at the blacks that he claims got away in the previous burglaries -nhe sounds pretty determined to kill the next black boy he suspects.
they better have a good jury for this trial – that sees past the defense attorney dirty tricks.
Kristin
@ruemara: Saying that this was a sleazy tactic is exactly the same as if Obama had Zimmerman killed by a drone.
Patricia Kayden
“the media is trying Trayvon Martin for black criminality.”
Strictly guilt by association since Martin never committed any crimes during his shortened life.
Citizen_X
Is it even legal for a legal team to publicly defame a victim like that in advance of a trial? I get that’s it’s fair in the course of a trial (as much as the judge allows), but, as Elon says, this reeks of sabotaging the jury pool. Any lawyers want to weigh in?
Mnemosyne
@Citizen_X:
You can libel a dead person all you want, so they’re probably in the clear from that point of view. I don’t know if the prosecution can get some kind of injunction on the grounds of it possibly tainting the jury pool.
ETA: To be clear, IANAL, I took an entertainment law class and know that a dead person can’t sue for libel (or slander).
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Amir Khalid: Once you’ve gotten over the not inconsiderable hurdle of proving it was a deliberate act, sure. However, I have found that, absent a “fuck you, your Honor”, most judges do not enforce sanctions for behavior that is not directed at them personally.
I’ll echo the sentiments above: have the barf bags ready, because no matter what gets brought up at trial Zimmerman walks. There is no fucking way a Florida jury is going to unanimously vote to convict him for doing what most of them secretly want to do.
El Cid
I heard it was okay to shoot black kids in your neighborhood if you had reasonable post-hoc suspicion that he had somehow been involved in boxing.
AxelFoley
@Fluke bucket:
Zimmerman better hope he gets convicted and put in solitary. He will not walk this Earth long if he does skate. Someone will get his sorry ass.
Ted & Hellen
@rikyrah:
And we know this all to be true, without reservation, because you used a lot of ALL CAPS and double spaced your text.
Awesome.
Tone in DC
@Ted & Hellen:
Derp strikes again. Pie filter is a go.
Quaker in a Basement
That depends on which state legislature you ask.
Cacti
@karen:
This. Beat me to it.
When hasn’t it been okay in this country to kill a black male for merely existing where white people live?
Cygil
Here we go again. Round 2: The “needed killing” trolls will come out to say that Zimmerman did the world a favor by ridding the world of a vicious teenage thug hyped up on minute trace amounts of marijuana and skittles, and the “due process” trolls will come out to say that a fair trial absolutely requires the defense to dump irrelevant, prejudicial, and out of context material that has been excluded by the judge into the media in order to influence the jury pool. Hell, it’s just good defense ethics.
Cygil
@Citizen_X:
Is it even legal for a legal team to publicly defame a victim like that in advance of a trial?
IANAL, but I see no reason why disclosing evidence in anticipation of it being excluded at trial in order to influence the jury pool should not fall afoul of this rule.