While Fox News clutches its collective pearls over Oprah Winfrey’s “racial comments” and continues to point a finger at Barack Obama for having associated with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, they really should (but almost certainly won’t) take a look at the guy presented to viewers as a character reference for George Zimmerman. I posted about Frank Taaffe’s dubious history the night On The Record trotted him out to defend George Zimmerman’s behavior in shooting and killing the unarmed Trayvon Martin. Now Mother Jones has looked into Taaffe’s past and let’s just say he makes Jeremiah Wright look like a choirboy.
In just two of the many damning paragraphs included in Mariah Blake’s exposé in Mother Jones is the following:
Taaffe was hardly the ideal person to be weighing in on a case suffused with racial angst—or commenting on criminal-justice matters, period. A Mother Jones investigation has found that the 56-year-old New York native has a lengthy criminal record that includes charges of domestic violence and burglary, and a history of airing virulently racist views. Just last Sunday, he appeared on The White Voice, a weekly podcast hosted by a man named Joe Adams, who has deep, long-standing ties to white-power groups and has authored a manual called Save The White People Handbook. (Sample quote: “A mutt makes a great pet and a mulatto makes a great slave.”)
…(Taaffe’s) comments about blacks’ supposed criminality are thick with irony. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Clerk of Courts, Taaffe has been arrested or faced criminal charges nearly a dozen times and logged at least two convictions. Last year, Taaffe was taken into custody for driving under the influence. He pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of reckless driving related to alcohol use and received six months’ probation. He’s also been charged with battery and two cases of “repeat violence.” (Taaffe told Mother Jones that these were “frivolous” charges filed by “disgruntled” former coworkers.)
You really need to read the entire article to get the full picture of Taaffe's character. Because somehow it was entirely missed by Greta Van Susteren when she interviewed him on July 2. At that time, which was in the middle of Zimmerman's trial, Taaffe spoke of being asked by Zimmerman, shortly before he was taken into custody, to “share with everybody several talking points.” One of those talking points, Taaffe told Fox viewers, was that “a young black male that lived in our community” had committed several burglaries there shortly before Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. The other talking point was that Zimmerman routinely carried a gun, even when he went out to walk his dog, presumably because of those crimes. So clearly, Taaffe and Zimmerman had some kind of relationship, one that’s far more contemporary and relevant than Zimmerman’s African American prom date in high school.
To be fair, CNN has far more to answer for as to why they gave Taaffe such a regular perch during their Zimmerman-trial coverage. But considering how Fox News has all but adopted Zimmerman as their official mascot for reverse discrimination and painted him as a martyr of racial injustice, don’t you think they owe the viewers of the “fair and balanced” network a little more context about the kind of guy Zimmerman pals around with and turns to as a character witness? Not even counting the racially suspect record of his brother, Robert Zimmerman?
Sure they do. But don’t hold your breath for that to happen.
Oh, and let’s not discount that his brother and father both made comments saying they can go after blacks because “They’re the only racists.”
Zimmerman was raised to be a racist, he just turned out to be a violent one. How many people accused him of violent or inappropriate conduct? They said the police got him out, every time. There’s posts on the archives of his social media saying he thinks he’s untouchable.
The last thing he needed (or wanted, when you think about it) was this guy showing up on his behalf. I lierally can’t think of a fictional analogy better than how stupid this was- Not to mention how arrogant they had to be to think we wouldn’t find out.