Aussie College Baseball Playa Killed By Bored Teens In Ok Narrative

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Then again, a neighborhood watch captain does have some responsibilities.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Those responsibilities are to watch and report -- to the police, who apparently are more aware of their legal boundaries and the public's civil liberties. A wannabe like Zimmerman simply got off on carrying a gun and playing cowboy.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

As was his legal right. Perhaps an insanely stupid law but still one that is on the
books in Florida.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

It's the perfect set-up for someone who can't wait to shoot somebody.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Which is exactly what Zimmerman was doing when Trayvon jumped him.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

At some point they knew it wasn't a can of iced tea, right?

They knew after the crime scene photos were released, didn't they?

But, they still referred to the iced tea afterwards. This article is from June 21st, 2012, and is by Lizette Alverez an Timothy Williams.

Alvarez wrote the Times original iced tea lede on March 16th:

So, as far as the Times is concerned, the iced ta narrative is still in place.

An op-ed contributor mentions in on July 11, 2013:

The Times never corrected the narrative. They were invested in it.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I'm guessing getting facts right wasn't your forte when you were in the business.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

And, the can of iced tea's inclusion in the narrative is important for a couple of reasons.

First, it's continued use after it was clear that it wasn't tea shows that the narrative was already set in place and wasn't going to be disturbed. It shows how little new reporting was done on the story after May 18th, 2012.

All the new "reporting" simply relied on the old reporting, which included "a can if iced tea" as was written on the original narrative, written by PR professionals, and pitched to Charles Blow and others.

The other reason it's important is because it calls into question the entire narrative itself.

This wasn't just lemon iced tea instead of peach. This was different.

If a reporter on May 18th had simply typed skittles and watermelon fruit juice into google, they would have learned all about skittles infused vodka, and recipes for a "fire ass lean".

By May 24th, right wing blogs were suggesting that Trayvon purchased the ingredients to make such a cocktail.

Now, I have no problem if the New York Times, or others, couldn't find enough evidence to report that's what Trayvon was doing. That would have been fine. Really.

But, did they ever take a second look at the narrative once it was written and sold?

The continued use of "a can of iced tea" suggest otherwise.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

Do you think it is at all possible that people associate the Arizona brand with iced tea? Or that reporters initially didn't much care or see any real significance to what kind of soft drink the kid was carrying?

What if the writers had said, "a pack of candy and a soft drink"? Would that have been a big cover up?

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

And, if I'm "so far down the rabbit hole", tell me what you dispute.

Do you dispute that a media "narrative" and the truth are often divergent?

I think we all know that the "narrative" on folks like Tiger Woods, Coach K, and Michael Jordon doesn't match the "truth" about these guys, right?

So, why did/do so many in the media defer to the narrative? Why, in an industry full of folks who would like nothing better than to poke holes in conventional wisdom, did/do we continue to get fawning articles about these thee, instead of the truth about them. (Pre Tiger's "car accident.")

Do you dispute the role of PR professionals in developing storylines for the media, and pitching these storylines to them? There's a whole industry devoted to it. Are you really going to dispute this?

Do you dispute that early news stories, and news stories published by large organizations, like the Times, or AP, set the town for further news stories, and for smaller publications?

We know this happens, don't we? Is this in dispute?

And, we have all three of these things in this case.

We have a narrative (storyline) developed by a PR team, and pitched to a New York Times columnist. The columnist not only bites, he essentially becomes part of the PR effort, as he publishes the narrative, and goes on TV to promote it.

We see any questions regarding differences between the narrative and the truth shouted down. It's the narrative, and not the facts that result in charges against Zimmerman.

And, the rest of the media picks up the story where Blow and Alvarez of the Times left off, and the narrative never changes. It's repeated word for word, including the continued usage of "a can of iced tea". The iced tea was in the original column, it was in the original news story, and it was still there after the trial.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I absolutely believe this.

I think reporters didn't see any significance to the drink, other than it fit the narrative. A narrative they were not curious to learn the origins of, or whether or not it was factual.

The reporting had already been done.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

A great recent example from sports is the Manti T'eo myth-making.

First, the tale of the girlfriend was repeated without investigation.

Then, the tale of the conniving football player, which also turned out to be false, was repeated without investigation or skepticism. I recently saw him used as an example of a liar in a news columnist's piece. This was within the last two weeks.