Good piece at NRO - Victor Davis Hanson, Fanning the Flames in Ferguson”
“............There is a second theme in such cases. The media almost invariably distort the facts, sometimes deliberately seeking to incite tensions. In the Trayvon Martin case, journalists published photos of Martin as a diminutive adolescent, not more recent pictures of Martin as a 17-year-old who was much taller than Zimmerman.
Zimmerman was referred to by the New York Times as a “white Hispanic” (a term not usually accorded those of mixed ancestry). ABC News was accused of airing footage of Zimmerman shortly after his encounter with Martin that concealed the severity of Zimmerman’s head injuries. NBC edited a recording of Zimmerman’s 911 call to police in a way that suggested Zimmerman was a racist. CNN speculated that Zimmerman may have used the racial slur “coon” during his 911 call.
In the Brown case, the media has rushed to portray the victim as a “gentle giant” who was almost certainly gunned down by a racist, trigger-happy cop. Only days later it was reported that just minutes before his death, the 6-foot-4, 292-pound Brown had allegedly committed a strong-armed robbery, bullying and assaulting a store owner half his size — and had been almost immediately been stopped not far away for walking down the middle of the road...............”
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/385878/fanning-flames-ferguson-victor-davis-hanson
Good piece at NRO - Thomas Sowell, “The Media and the Mob.”
“Those of us who admit that we were not there, and do not know what happened when Michael Brown was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Mo., seem to be in the minority.
We all know what has happened since then — and it has been a complete disgrace by politicians, the media, and mobs of rioters and looters. Despite all the people who act as if they know exactly what happened, nevertheless, when the full facts come out, that can change everything.
This is why we have courts of law, instead of relying on the media or mobs. But politics is undermining law......”
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/385876/media-and-mob-thomas-sowell