Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Over at the Center for Individual Freedom, my new column looks at the cases of Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales and Trayvon Martin, two stories that the media has totally misappropriated in order to advance a preordained narrative. In the process, they've cast caution and journalistic prudence to the wind. From the coda:
It barely merits mentioning that the media has an inherent bias against the quiet, solemn attitudes that these two stories merit. They imagine that by elevating the cases of Robert Bales and Trayvon Martin to metaphors for contentious political issues, they are somehow honoring the dead, and finding meaning where there is otherwise the chaos of ambiguity. In reality, they are diminishing the individual lives lost by subverting them to the needs of an endless news cycle that will forget them as soon as their stories grow stale. The victims of Robert Bales were not metaphors for the futility of the war in Afghanistan and Trayvon Martin was not a martyr for American race relations. They were simply lives cut short for reasons we don’t yet (and may never) understand. If the media has nothing constructive to say about that fact – which it is becoming increasingly apparent is the case – it would be far better for them to remain silent, leaving the deceased to the peace of the grave.
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Jun '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
I suspect that the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case will turn out to be one overly-suspicious black young man coming into close contact with an overly-supicious "white Hispanic" man. And what the mainstream press is busy doing now is reinforcing all the same suspicions that were in the minds of Martin and Zimmerman on that very tense night in Sanford, Florida. It seems, some would like to make the next confrontation a group event.
Dec '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Troy,
Neither facts nor law interest the MSM. Certainly not epistomology or morality. We just saw the great brains of the obamite administration waltz into the Supreme Court totally unprepared to argue their case. A case that involved one sixth of the GNP of the United States and the lives of every man, woman, and child in the country.
Nope, they aren't interested in truth or meaning or just about anything. If they think they can get over on some cheap emotional manipulation they'll give it a try. If they can't they just start their oh so predictable whining.
Maybe someday Americans will just stop buying into their crap. Maybe sooner than the MSM thinks. If you can call what they do thinking.
Regards,
Jim
Nov '11
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
That's a beautifully written paragraph, Troy. The attempts to turn every human occurrence into some grand, meaningful "teachable moment" ironically have the opposite effect; the actors lose their individual humanity in the rush to "change the world for the better".
Aug '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Thanks for saying that Troy.
Thanks to James G for bemoaning the mediocre times we live in.
Serendipitously, there have been two fantastic articles about political DNA, one in Reason and another at American Spectator .
Whether these sprung from an annoyance with the racism of the left, or an honest desire to figure out a human anomaly,who knows ..but.
The important thing is the recognition of the left's obscure object of desire: the myth.
Edited on March 30, 2012 at 2:52amThat , and a masochistic urge for humiliation.
Jun '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Brent Bozell pointed out on Hannity tonight, when NBC reported on the 911 recording, they left out the dispatcher part of this exchange:
911 dispatcher:
OK, is he White, Black, or Hispanic?
Zimmerman:
He looks black.
Too many in the mainstream press are intentionally putting their thumb on the scales of justice.
And regarding:
According to George Zimmerman's brother (on Piers Morgan's show,) the sounds they extracted there were most likely just grunts made by his nervous hyperventilating brother.
Edited on March 30, 2012 at 3:52amMay '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Spare me from ever coming under the bright light of the main stream media, where every life and every event is ground into this week's lurid entertainment. Stories with any hint of a racial angle will always be hung with the title "let's you and him fight," and we always do.
Aug '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
Your latest column is well-worth the read, Troy. And it fuels the question: Has the MSM, with its 24/7 hyped-up story-selling, become a threat to our civility and, perhaps, even to our common sense?
Sep '10
Re: Robert Bales, Trayvon Martin, and Media Malpractice
You should have mentioned the article in exceptionally concise. How do you make your argument so thoroughly with so few words? I think you have done something noone else has done which is to take the racial component out of the equation.