After watching the Zimmerman trial unfold in Florida it has become glaringly obvious there are indeed vigilantes in the Sunshine State who are dangerous to the public and who need to be brought to heel.
Their names are The Associated Press, CNN, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other co-conspirators who should be indicted by public opinion.
From the beginning of the controversy, the mainstream media decided that George Zimmerman is guilty and it’s their job to use all the resources available to major media in the U.S. to make sure he is convicted.
The dictionary definition of vigilante is: “any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by avenging a crime.” The difference between the dictionary vigilante and the Zimmerman vigilantes is that at least in the dictionary there was a crime.
Since the Martin shooting lacked motive and evidence on the part of Zimmerman, the media manufactured a case against him and helped create pressure to indict Zimmerman on trumped-up charges.
It started when AP reported that Zimmerman was white, using the logic that German last name = white guy = oppressor. When Zimmerman was found to be Hispanic, The New York Times invented the new racial classification of “white Hispanic.” Which is fair, since the Times always referred to President Obama as a “white black man.”
Where there was evidence, the media doctored it to incriminate Zimmerman. ABC and NBC claimed that he had no injuries from the fight with Trayvon Martin and broadcast blurry photos to undermine Zimmerman’s story. The actual high-resolution photos showed Zimmerman’s broken nose and head injuries.
NBC altered the tape of the 911 call that Zimmerman made to make it appear that he targeted Martin because Martin was black. CNN distorted a portion of the same call to make it sound like Zimmerman used a racial epithet in reference to Martin, when he was actually talking about the weather that night.
And media outlets too numerous to count used a photograph of Martin that was seven years out of date to make it look like a burly, glowering Zimmerman had shot a slight, smiling altar boy.
And just when you thought it could get no worse, that the media’s animus and bias had finally reached an end — CNN broadcast George Zimmerman’s social security number on national television.
It’s time to put an end to the myth of an unbiased, even-handed mainstream news media. As George Zimmerman has found out to his sorrow, if you have the bad luck to be involved in a controversy that goes against the media’s accepted wisdom and internal bias, the electronic vigilantes will not rest until they have hunted you down.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Click Here Now.