I posted earlier today about the jaw-dropping racial insensitivity of Fox bringing on Mark Fuhrman (again) to analyze the George Zimmerman trial. As it turns out, it was at least a Fox News twofer for Fuhrman today. After appearing on America Live earlier, he also appeared on Hannity tonight. However, whereas Fuhrman has in the past emphasized Martin’s misbehavior, he made a point tonight of casting doubt on Zimmerman’s self-defense story. But not to worry Zimmerman sympathizers. Hannity was as staunch a defender as ever.
As I previously posted the first time I saw Fuhrman presented as a neutral analyst for the case (and still no mention of his disreputable record on race), Fuhrman has referred to Trayvon Martin as a possible “dead suspect” and suggested that Zimmerman is the victim of a racial witch hunt. Earlier today, Fuhrman said that Martin “definitely could have left the scene. He was younger, smaller, quicker and he had a head start” – thereby suggesting that he stuck around to fight Zimmerman.
But on Hannity, Fuhrman offered a different take. It’s worth noting that Fuhrman, a former LAPD detective, is billed by Fox as a “crime scene expert” and is not a lawyer. But you'd never know that from watching this segment. He began by saying the prosecution was “overreaching with intent” before moving on to critique the defense attorney’s “knock-knock” joke that fell flat. Hannity happily let the impression of Fuhrman as legal expert stand.
Maybe that’s because Hannity fashions himself as something of a criminal attorney, too. “The one thing that I think the prosecution, Mark, is gonna have a hard time with is the injuries that George Zimmerman had: a broken nose, lacerations in the back of the head are consistent with the story that he has told from Day One. Obviously, he was punched in the nose and obviously, his head was beaten on the concerete.” As Hannity spoke, we saw photos of a bloody Zimmerman from front and back.
Um, not really. Fuhrman, with his crime-scene expert hat back on, said:
Well, Sean, when you’ve seen a few people in fights and been in ‘em yourself, you will realize that George Zimmerman didn’t have very many injuries. Certainly, he fell backwards and hit his head on the concrete once. His head wasn’t driven into the concrete repeatedly. He had not a broken nose but a bloody nose but he had no lacerations on his face. So I think he got the worst end of a fistfight but his escalation of force to meet the fists of a young man, 158 pounds, that’s on top of him, to shoot him, he eliminated all other escalations of force that he possibly could have used, whether it was a hard object that was anywhere or even striking Trayvon Martin with the gun on the side of the head.
The other guest, a real attorney and former prosecutor, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, agreed. “Even if it turns out that George Zimmerman was injured in the way that he said… even if (Martin) caused those injuries, and I agree with Mark that, you know, to have your head bashed in, more likely than not, you’re going to look much worse than George Zimmerman did."
Wow. That's pretty significant information that I don't believe I've heard on Fox before. And in yet another indication of Zimmerman solidarity, Hannity shut the segment down soon after because Fuhrman had been lost. Apparently, a chat with just a former prosecutor wasn't going to make the grade with "Zimmerman Defense Attorney" Hannity.
To be fair, even while Fuhrman’s comments have been deplorable and his record is itself deplorable, he did note several facts that Hannity has been misrepresenting. He admitted that Zimmerman exaggerated his injuries and likely overcompensated for being on the losing end of this fight. The other guest then went on to note what we’ve been repeatedly saying here – that Zimmerman’s instigation of the situation takes away his ability to say that he was just defending himself.
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on, on all sides of this case, is that the Defense Attorney may have just won the WTF Moment award for the whole trial with his opening statement.