Aussie College Baseball Playa Killed By Bored Teens In Ok Narrative

You're also forgetting another aspect in this: With the debate over gun control, you had Zimmerman claiming he was standing his ground, which is one part of the debate.

From your favorite columnist:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/opinion/blow-standing-our-ground.html?_r=0

 

Details did emerge, but the narrative remained unchanged. That's the point.

People had already made up their minds, and their minds were made up thanks to a PR drafted narrative.

 

Sure. That was part of it.

Blow didn't mention "Stand Your Ground" in his initial column, but the first Times news story did.

Getting the ant-gun crowd whipped up helped add to the drum beat that led to Zimmerman facing charges, and appealed to the media.

 

I was agreeing with your point.

 

So the news story wasn't following "The Narrative"? I thought "The Narrative" in this was racially-based?

According to this, there are roughly 13,000 murders per year in the U.S.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/firearm-murders-equiv.html

Which is over 40 per day. In one case, a guy who was a neighborhood watchman claims he was doing the right thing, got into a physical confrontation, and killed the other person with a gun. He claims what he did was legal by the state's own laws.

Don't you think this is just a bit different than the other 40-something daily murders from botched robberies, from passion, gang killings, or just plain crazy idiots deciding to kill someone? How often does someone claim the state gave him the right to kill someone?

That is why this case received the attention from THE MEDIA!!! It's a news story. It didn't need a PR push.

 

Baron, did you read all of the pieces YF posted about the process of this story. It's rather fascinating.

It was all PR push. Hard push.

 

"Stand Your Ground" had nothing to do with it?

 

Since it's so important to you in the Zimmerman case, I was just trying to give you more examples to deconstruct. It sounds too important to limit to just one case.

 

The two examples I suggested that might have gotten lost earlier in this thread are Emily Bazelon's book, "Sticks and Stones," and its chapter on the Phoebe Prince bullying suicide story, and the recent New Yorker piece on the Steubenville rape.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think there are people on here who argue against the typical "board conservatives" for the hell of it.

 

I think YF hit the nail on the head when he answered MC, who had a valid point, in that no one in the biz who's worth their salt wants to be told what his/her journalism job is or how to carry out his/her responsibilities -- especially when that person repairs coffee machines.

 

Unfortunately Blow refuses to look at the whole picture. What he does not say
is that his boys are at greater risk of violence at hands of other black teens. Especially
if they lived in Chicago. I think most would be more receptive to the thoughts of
people like Blow and Sharpton if they showed some intellectual honesty and looked
at the entire landscape.