Need any more proof of Fox News' pro-Zimmerman bias? Take a look at the top stories on their websites, FoxNews.com and Fox Nation. On the former, there's a pro-Zimmerman headline, "Pal testifies that Zimmerman said Martin grabbed his gun." On Fox Nation, there's a photo of a thuggish-looking Trayvon Martin with the anti-Martin headline, "Trayvon Martin's Legal Troubles Reportedly Covered Up By Police." By the way, those "legal troubles" involve graffiti and an empty marijuana bag. Neither have anything to do with Martin's behavior the night he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman.
Here are the "heads, Zimmerman wins, tails Martin loses" headlines:
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Kevin Koster commented
2013-07-17 19:16:42 -0400
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Ryan Karl, your post here is as unfortunately challenged as the ones you made in the more recent thread.
I have already discussed Trayvon Martin’s issues at length below, if you’ll please take a minute to actually read what I presented.
Now, looking at the actual reports on Trayvon’s suspensions, and not on social media sites or right wing hit pieces on him, we get a different picture. Trayvon was first suspended in October 2011 after grafitting WTF on a door in the school. A school police officer searched his backpack looking for the marker and found a bag containing some jewelry, a watch and a flathead screwdriver. The officer asked Martin where the materials came from and Martin said he was holding it for another boy he wouldn’t name. Martin was suspended, and the materials were turned over to the local Miami-Dade police. We should note that these materials have never been reported as stolen and nobody has claimed them. We also don’t know if the screwdriver was in fact a burglary tool. All we know is that Martin shouldn’t have been holding them, and for this and his refusal to name who gave them to him, he was properly suspended.
Four months later, in January 2012, Martin was caught at school with an empty marijuana baggie and a marijuana pipe and got suspended again. In February 2012, he was suspended a third time, for being tardy and skipping classes. There has been discussion on social media about Martin being suspended for fighting, but the record doesn’t reflect this. Martin certainly sounds in his texts like he wanted to act tough and ganster-ish with his friends, but I could say the same of half the people I went to high school with back in the day. Some of the sillier moments in my life have been dealing with both high school age middle class kids and middle-aged people from suburbia trying to use rap lingo to make themselves sound cool. I don’t begrudge Martin for doing the same things that I saw many kids doing back in the day. I don’t think it speaks well of his level of maturity, and he sure wasn’t a model student. But as some kind of menace to society? Please.
Now, you’re correct to say that Trayvon’s mother told him to go stay with his father and Trayvon texted that he’d been “kicked out”. But he wasn’t out wandering the streets looking for a place to stay. He was staying in a nice condo in a nice residential area in Sanford with his father and his father’s fiancée. The issue of him being told to stay with the other parent is one typical in divorced households. The mother gets fed up with the son and tells him “Go stay with your father”. I can’t tell you how many middle class kids I knew in high school where this happened at one time or another. Again, this doesn’t make him some kind of menace to society, and it does not justify George Zimmerman shooting him to death.
As you yourself put it, “don’t get it twisted”. I agree. You should take those words to heart.
I have already discussed Trayvon Martin’s issues at length below, if you’ll please take a minute to actually read what I presented.
Now, looking at the actual reports on Trayvon’s suspensions, and not on social media sites or right wing hit pieces on him, we get a different picture. Trayvon was first suspended in October 2011 after grafitting WTF on a door in the school. A school police officer searched his backpack looking for the marker and found a bag containing some jewelry, a watch and a flathead screwdriver. The officer asked Martin where the materials came from and Martin said he was holding it for another boy he wouldn’t name. Martin was suspended, and the materials were turned over to the local Miami-Dade police. We should note that these materials have never been reported as stolen and nobody has claimed them. We also don’t know if the screwdriver was in fact a burglary tool. All we know is that Martin shouldn’t have been holding them, and for this and his refusal to name who gave them to him, he was properly suspended.
Four months later, in January 2012, Martin was caught at school with an empty marijuana baggie and a marijuana pipe and got suspended again. In February 2012, he was suspended a third time, for being tardy and skipping classes. There has been discussion on social media about Martin being suspended for fighting, but the record doesn’t reflect this. Martin certainly sounds in his texts like he wanted to act tough and ganster-ish with his friends, but I could say the same of half the people I went to high school with back in the day. Some of the sillier moments in my life have been dealing with both high school age middle class kids and middle-aged people from suburbia trying to use rap lingo to make themselves sound cool. I don’t begrudge Martin for doing the same things that I saw many kids doing back in the day. I don’t think it speaks well of his level of maturity, and he sure wasn’t a model student. But as some kind of menace to society? Please.
Now, you’re correct to say that Trayvon’s mother told him to go stay with his father and Trayvon texted that he’d been “kicked out”. But he wasn’t out wandering the streets looking for a place to stay. He was staying in a nice condo in a nice residential area in Sanford with his father and his father’s fiancée. The issue of him being told to stay with the other parent is one typical in divorced households. The mother gets fed up with the son and tells him “Go stay with your father”. I can’t tell you how many middle class kids I knew in high school where this happened at one time or another. Again, this doesn’t make him some kind of menace to society, and it does not justify George Zimmerman shooting him to death.
As you yourself put it, “don’t get it twisted”. I agree. You should take those words to heart.
Kevin Koster commented
2013-07-17 18:59:26 -0400
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A few things to quickly clean up here. Hate to see the misinformation get thrown around as though people don’t have the information easily at hand.
Dino, I’d love to see where you get the idea that “every other station is pro trayvon”. Please show statistics if you can find any (not from Brent Bozell or Tucker Carlson please, from a real media analyst) that show networks stating “We’re on the side of Trayvon Martin and we want to see George Zimmerman imprisoned”. I don’t know anyone saying that Zimmerman was in the Ku Klux Klan. There were no black members on this jury at all. There were five white women, mostly older, and one Chicana woman in her 30s. I have seen nothing to say that Black America wants to blame White America for this killing. What I have seen are people angry that an unarmed 17 year old who was committing no crime wound up profiled, followed, stalked and killed while on his way home from the store with some snacks. And regarding the O.J. verdict, I continue to find it interesting that right wingers continue to bring up that verdict – which they hated – while telling everyone else that there’s no reason for any further discussion on the Zimmerman verdict.
Dino, I’d love to see where you get the idea that “every other station is pro trayvon”. Please show statistics if you can find any (not from Brent Bozell or Tucker Carlson please, from a real media analyst) that show networks stating “We’re on the side of Trayvon Martin and we want to see George Zimmerman imprisoned”. I don’t know anyone saying that Zimmerman was in the Ku Klux Klan. There were no black members on this jury at all. There were five white women, mostly older, and one Chicana woman in her 30s. I have seen nothing to say that Black America wants to blame White America for this killing. What I have seen are people angry that an unarmed 17 year old who was committing no crime wound up profiled, followed, stalked and killed while on his way home from the store with some snacks. And regarding the O.J. verdict, I continue to find it interesting that right wingers continue to bring up that verdict – which they hated – while telling everyone else that there’s no reason for any further discussion on the Zimmerman verdict.
Ryan Karl commented
2013-07-17 16:46:57 -0400
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His legal issues also included fighting in school and possession of a burglary tool, stolen jewelry, and a stolen watch. Its not bias when they are stating facts. All the other news stations are just providing conjecture, not based on any evidence provided at all. TM’s own mother kicked him out of the house because of his bad behavior. Dont get it twisted.
Kevin Koster commented
2013-07-04 03:09:24 -0400
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“Frank Burns”, it’s good to see you here. How are things at the 4077?
Regarding your vicious attack on Trayvon Martin and your wild statements about this case, I’m going to assume that you are simply trying for some form of absurdist humor. I’m sure that you wouldn’t be attacking a dead minor and condemning him in any kind of seriousness.
Regarding your vicious attack on Trayvon Martin and your wild statements about this case, I’m going to assume that you are simply trying for some form of absurdist humor. I’m sure that you wouldn’t be attacking a dead minor and condemning him in any kind of seriousness.
doors17 commented
2013-07-02 16:01:12 -0400
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While it’s obvious Fox and the entire right is rooting for Zimmerman, it would also be a ratings bonanza for them if he’s found guilty since they’ll enjoy the many days of going ballistic to fill programming time with.
Kevin Koster commented
2013-07-02 15:16:44 -0400
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Forgot to check the second paragraph of my post – Trayvon Martin was suspended three times, not twice. I had forgotten about the tardiness citation and had edited the other paragraphs but not the earlier one…
Kevin Koster commented
2013-07-02 15:15:17 -0400
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This is just more ridiculous mud throwing by Fox News.
Let’s look at the actual facts they’re trying to spin. A friend of Zimmerman’s testifies that Zimmerman told him the same story he told the cops that “I thought he was going for my gun”. So Zimmerman told the same alibi to multiple people, which we already knew. Where’s the story? Did this “pal” actually see this happen? No – Zimmerman just said it to him. So this is hearsay and nothing that would affect the case.
As for Trayvon Martin’s background, Ellen is correct that this is irrelevant to the case. Trayvon Martin, frankly, was probably not a model student. He had clearly hit a few bumps as a teenager and had been suspended from school, apparently twice. From what I can tell, he probably smoked pot. His social media stuff indicates that he probably liked to talk it up with his friends. But I haven’t seen anything that indicates to me he was any more threatening than a typical white teenager who likes gangster rap and talking tough because they think it makes them look cool. There are plenty of teenage boys who do this, and plenty of 20-30 year old men who do it. Frankly, I think it makes a lot of them look pretty silly, but I’m not threatened by them.
The fact is that Trayvon Martin was not a criminal. He was a kid in school who got suspended three times. The first was for being tardy. In the second case, he was caught spraying graffiti, holding a bag that might have contained burglary materials and a screwdriver, although nobody has ever shown that this was the case or that any burglary ever happened. (Trayvon said at the time that he was holding the materials for a friend – I have a feeling he probably was, and the friend probably did do something, which got Trayvon suspended. But I have yet to hear about a victim or about anything more ever coming of this.) In the third case, he was caught with marijuana materials. None of this sounds like wild criminal behavior, which is clearly why no charges were ever filed. The school chose to handle the matter internally with Trayvon’s parents, which is a better course of action anyway.
So he wasn’t a criminal – he was a teenager who got into some trouble, and whose parents were disciplining him for it.
And all of that is totally irrelevant to Zimmerman’s shooting of him. On the night Trayvon Martin was killed, he was walking to the home where he and his father were staying from the convenience store to watch the rest of the basketball game. He was committing no crime and he was not armed. He had every right to be in that community and was harming nobody by his presence. Had Zimmerman left him alone, Martin would have walked back to the townhouse and enjoyed the rest of the game without incident. Zimmerman injected the problem into the situation by following, stalking and then confronting Martin – treating him as a criminal when Martin was in fact not doing anything wrong. It’s not surprising that Martin was scared of him, and not surprising that Martin got upset and began shouting back at Zimmerman when he was confronted. Under the circumstances, it’s easy to understand how the fight happened, and unfortunately very easy to see how it degenerated into Zimmerman killing Martin.
The key to the story is Zimmerman’s pursuit, stalking and confrontation of Martin, even after he was told to back off. Zimmerman was entirely in his rights to call the police, as he had done on many, many occasions over the prior year, if he thought someone looked suspicious. I don’t think anyone would challenge that, even if he was engaging in profiling. Where Zimmerman crossed the line was when he left the car and ran after Martin and engaged him. Had he not done this, the cops would have come by, they might have interviewed Trayvon, but more likely they would have found nothing, as had happened on many of Zimmerman’s other calls. For all we know, Zimmerman might have encountered Martin at another time and realized he was staying at a residence in the community – which, by the way, would make Martin someone that Zimmerman was supposed to be helping protect.
Let’s look at the actual facts they’re trying to spin. A friend of Zimmerman’s testifies that Zimmerman told him the same story he told the cops that “I thought he was going for my gun”. So Zimmerman told the same alibi to multiple people, which we already knew. Where’s the story? Did this “pal” actually see this happen? No – Zimmerman just said it to him. So this is hearsay and nothing that would affect the case.
As for Trayvon Martin’s background, Ellen is correct that this is irrelevant to the case. Trayvon Martin, frankly, was probably not a model student. He had clearly hit a few bumps as a teenager and had been suspended from school, apparently twice. From what I can tell, he probably smoked pot. His social media stuff indicates that he probably liked to talk it up with his friends. But I haven’t seen anything that indicates to me he was any more threatening than a typical white teenager who likes gangster rap and talking tough because they think it makes them look cool. There are plenty of teenage boys who do this, and plenty of 20-30 year old men who do it. Frankly, I think it makes a lot of them look pretty silly, but I’m not threatened by them.
The fact is that Trayvon Martin was not a criminal. He was a kid in school who got suspended three times. The first was for being tardy. In the second case, he was caught spraying graffiti, holding a bag that might have contained burglary materials and a screwdriver, although nobody has ever shown that this was the case or that any burglary ever happened. (Trayvon said at the time that he was holding the materials for a friend – I have a feeling he probably was, and the friend probably did do something, which got Trayvon suspended. But I have yet to hear about a victim or about anything more ever coming of this.) In the third case, he was caught with marijuana materials. None of this sounds like wild criminal behavior, which is clearly why no charges were ever filed. The school chose to handle the matter internally with Trayvon’s parents, which is a better course of action anyway.
So he wasn’t a criminal – he was a teenager who got into some trouble, and whose parents were disciplining him for it.
And all of that is totally irrelevant to Zimmerman’s shooting of him. On the night Trayvon Martin was killed, he was walking to the home where he and his father were staying from the convenience store to watch the rest of the basketball game. He was committing no crime and he was not armed. He had every right to be in that community and was harming nobody by his presence. Had Zimmerman left him alone, Martin would have walked back to the townhouse and enjoyed the rest of the game without incident. Zimmerman injected the problem into the situation by following, stalking and then confronting Martin – treating him as a criminal when Martin was in fact not doing anything wrong. It’s not surprising that Martin was scared of him, and not surprising that Martin got upset and began shouting back at Zimmerman when he was confronted. Under the circumstances, it’s easy to understand how the fight happened, and unfortunately very easy to see how it degenerated into Zimmerman killing Martin.
The key to the story is Zimmerman’s pursuit, stalking and confrontation of Martin, even after he was told to back off. Zimmerman was entirely in his rights to call the police, as he had done on many, many occasions over the prior year, if he thought someone looked suspicious. I don’t think anyone would challenge that, even if he was engaging in profiling. Where Zimmerman crossed the line was when he left the car and ran after Martin and engaged him. Had he not done this, the cops would have come by, they might have interviewed Trayvon, but more likely they would have found nothing, as had happened on many of Zimmerman’s other calls. For all we know, Zimmerman might have encountered Martin at another time and realized he was staying at a residence in the community – which, by the way, would make Martin someone that Zimmerman was supposed to be helping protect.
truman commented
2013-07-02 14:47:30 -0400
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As the trial proceeds, Vigilante George is being been transformed into Saint George of the Fux Nation. Trayvon Martin is being demonized as a black Al Capone. Demonizing blacks has always been Jabba the Ailes’ strong suit.
If Vigilante George were black and Trayvon Martin were white, the racist turds in the Fux Nation would be massing into a lynch mob by now.
If Vigilante George were black and Trayvon Martin were white, the racist turds in the Fux Nation would be massing into a lynch mob by now.