From the very beginning of this now national story I have retained the same gut feeling. Initially the media rush to judgement reminded me of their 1996 attacks against Richard Jewell. Jewell was targeted by the media as a result of an FBI leak to the Atlanta Journal Constitution ambiguously claiming he was a “person of interest” in the Olympic Park bombing.
Jewell, a security guard, discovered the bomb and evacuated the park saving countless lives, but the media took Jewell from hero to villain in days. He fit their “profile”. NBC, CNN, CBS and the Atlanta Journal Constitution along with the New York Times and New York Post were ridiculous in their advancement of the guilty narrative. NBC anchor Tom Brokaw said on live TV:

“The speculation is that the FBI is close to making the case. They probably have enough to arrest him right now, probably enough to prosecute him, but you always want to have enough to convict him as well. There are still some holes in this case”.

Jewell had nothing to do with the bombing, nothing. Eric Rudolph was eventually arrested, charged, and pled guilty. However, by that time the damage was done. Even though Jewell had nothing to do with the bombing his life was destroyed.
He lost his job, his friends, his family, he had to move away from home out of fear for his life, he was hounded by the media 24/7, the FBI was watching him constantly. In short his life was totally destroyed.
Sure some involved apologized after the fact, and all but one organization settled lawsuits with Jewell (NBC paid $500,000), but by that time his life was in tatters and he was up to his eyeballs in debt to lawyers etc. He died at the age of 44 in 2007.
So yeah, I remember that well. I remember how EVERYONE thought he was guilty. I remember how everyone hated him. I remember my own friends making jokes, calling him horrific names, and I remember thinking how horrible it must have been to be the only one to know your innocence and yet face such vitriolic intentional hatred.

So when this entire Trayvon Martin shooting incident exploded upon the television and print media, I thought about George Zimmerman compared to Richard Jewell. The way the media played this out was, and is, eerily similar. Same intentionally shaped narratives, same rush to judgement, same ridiculous claims of possibility sold as fact etc. George Zimmerman was guilty right from the start of their coverage. They sold:

Once upon a time, a nice young man set off from his dad’s fiancée’s home before the NBA All-Star game to buy some Skittles and Arizona Tea for his stepbrother. Although the lad was seventeen, he looked like a cute twelve-year-old. Along came a burly ex-con racist vigilante who didn’t like the idea of a young African-American male walking around his gated community at night. The cop-wannabe stalked the frightened boy, cornered him, and then shot him. But the racist police didn’t arrest the murderer. The conscience of the nation was stirred. Protests erupted from coast to coast. The gunning down of young, unarmed black males by white Rambos — and the occasional “white Hispanic” — is an all-too-common occurrence in the US of A.

As the Washington Post wrote on March 18th:

By all accounts, Trayvon was a good kid[.] … He had dreams of becoming a pilot. He was good at math. … Trayvon’s English teacher described him “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.”

Zimmerman didn’t stand a chance at fairness against the full weight of the Legacy Media Machine. The same machine, albeit 15 years later, who destroyed the life of 33-year-old Richard Jewell. The same ideologically defined media machine with a new batch of Tom Brokaws’ in the form of Al Sharpton, Piers Morgan, Soledad O’Brien, Ed Schultz, and some guy named Toure’.

Together the aforementioned framers, and a “host” of others, along with skillful producers trained in the manipulative art of audio-video editing began to do their earnest best in showcasing a narrative that fit their pre-determined judgement. George Zimmerman never stood a chance against the sensationalist legacy media, who are not the least bit afraid of getting caught lying. (see NBC once again)
Even though NBC is caught intentionally editing audio footage to make Zimmerman appear racist, and even though ABC admits to selective use of pictures to support their narrative, and even though ABC also admits to manipulating stolen CCTV footage from the police dept, and even though CNN admits to twice editing audio tape from the 911 call to prove Zimmerman used the word “coons”; then “cold”; then “thugs”; they still put the same talking heads on TV nightly to proclaim to the world that it is only a matter of moments before George Zimmerman is arrested and subsequently, regardless of judicial outcome, hung in the public square.
So when I see this guy putting up a website saying:

As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life. […] I have created a Paypal account solely linked on this website as I would like to provide an avenue to thank my supporters personally and ensure that any funds provided are used only for living expenses and legal defense, in lieu of my forced inability to maintain employment. I will also personally, maintain accountability of all funds received. I reassure you, every donation is appreciated.George Zimmerman

Yeah, I’m apt to send him a couple of PayPal bucks just to figuratively say: “man, I have no idea what you’re going through, but it has to really, really suck”. Well, that, and because I remember the tears on Richard Jewell’s face when Georgia’s Governor, Sonny Perdue, finally honored Jewell for his rescue efforts during the attack. It was 2006 and a decade had passed. He died the following year.

So if you want to flip George Zimmerman a couple of bucks to help him manage a life in tatters, you too can CLICK HERE. It doesn’t mean that you think he’s innocent, but it does mean that you cherish fairness without pre-judgement.
A trait horribly absent from the media.

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