Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman on Saturday, his attorney Mark O'Mara lambasted the news media, comparing them to "mad scientists ... committing experiments" on Zimmerman. Rem Rieder, vice president of American Journalism Review, agrees.
In a column for USA Today, Rieder says the media went through pains to create a false narrative ahead of the trial:
Some of the media's major mistakes stemmed from stories that fit neatly into that widely accepted narrative. NBC News edited Zimmerman's comments during a phone call to inaccurately suggest that he volunteered that Trayvon seemed suspicious because he was black. In fact, Zimmerman was responding to a question when he mentioned the teenager's race. The network apologized for the error.Similarly, ABC News broadcast a story reporting that a police surveillance video showed no evidence that Zimmerman suffered abrasions or bled during the confrontation with Trayvon. Shortly thereafter, it "clarified" the situation, reporting that an enhanced version of the video showed Zimmerman with "an injury to the back of his head."
When it emerged that Zimmerman's mother was Peruvian, some news outlets took to referring to him with the rarely used phrase "white Hispanic," which is kind of like calling President Obama "white black."
Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's lawyer, was brutal in his post-acquittal comments about the press' treatment of his client. Hard to blame him.
