Trayvon Martin threatened to kill George Zimmerman, Zimmerman's father says

>>how many kids and pregnant girlfriends does Trayvon have?

Good question. Has Grandma hired a franchise attorney yet?

"...Well done. Can you imagine what the narrative would be like had this happened before the Internet? If all we had were the Big 3 to get us information?"

1010RD makes a great point. The dissemination of information used to be the nearly sole province of "Big Media".

Freeper conservatism_is_compassion has contributed some great commentary over the years on this subject, the bottom line being that there has NEVER been objective media, it is a myth.

The individual elements of the media would figure out what the message was, package the information into a format that would convey that message most effectively, and distribute it. It wasn't a monolithic enterprise where they were all faxing the talking points to each other, but when they all share pretty much the same world view, that didn't have to happen. The message would be uniform enough.

Actually, “the wire” obviates the need for any faxes of talking points. If you work for a newspaper which is a member of the Associated Press, you take on the mission of writing for the AP wire. And getting your reports shared over “the wire” and published by newspapers all over the country is a big deal for a journalist. To hit the big time, you need to please the journalistic community - and the journalistic community wants stories that bleed so that they can lede. They want "Man Bites Dog," not “Dog Bites Man,” stories.
It doesn’t take a fax of “talking points” to do that. But that does have political implications. If traditionally the important and prestigious jobs were done by white men, it is “Man Bites Dog” if a black or a woman becomes the head of Hewlett-Packard. If half the crime is perpetrated by the 10% of Americans who descended from slaves, then it is “Dog Bites Man,” and not jazzy enough to emphasize in the paper, if another black - possibly, tho we can’t actually be certain at this point, Trayvon Martin - attacks someone of a different, or the same, race.
“Man Bites Dog” stories are inherently interesting because they are inherently atypical of what usually happens. And even if you didn’t deliberately focus on the negative, sudden unexpected changes are typically negative - it is so much easier for a house to burn down than it is for a house to be built suddenly and unexpectedly. But the negative, and the Man Bites Dog, emphasis of journalism inherently tends to make news reports seem to constantly tell you that the world is in a mess and getting worse. And of course, “Things can’t get worse!” is an extreme radical statement. What follows from it is (as Shakespeare put it), “Desperate ills are by desperate measures cured, or not at all."

They have really exaggerated the intensity of that mark Phil. I watched the police video 4 times and on different sites and that barely shows up. Also, it’s not the ‘back’ of his head but up higher. No facial injury is apparent, no blood, even on his clothes.

He is also much slimmer and trimmer than the photo that has been shown all week, so that photo was as deceptive as Trayvons. Why was he handcuffed if the police considered him innocent from the start? I’m confused about that. I always take a ‘wait and see’ view.

For anyone wishing to listen and decide for themselves, rather than having it spoon-fed to you by the enemedia !

Zimmerman call to SPD dispatch
(4Mb mp3)

I downloaded the call Zimmerman made to the SPD.
Ran it multiple times at different speeds to clarify hurried/unclear portions.
Following is my best effort at a verbatim transcript of the most relevant spots and their locations by time on the linked recording.

prefixes = @ minute:seconds_speaker Z = Zimmerman and D = Dispatcher

0:58_Z: now he's coming towards me

1:07_Z: he's got his hand in his waistband

1:22_Z: yep he's comin' to check me out

1:38_Z: these @ssholes, they always get away

2:07_Z: sh!t, he's running ..

2:09_D: he's running ? which way is he running ?

2:15_Z: down toward the entrance way

2:16_D: which entrance is that that he's heading towards ?

2:18_Z: the back entrance

2.22_Z: f**k it's cold [NOT coon/s as being ginned up by the enemedia]

2:23_D: are you following him ?

2:25_Z: yep

2:26_D: ok we don't need you to do that

2:28_Z: ok

2:38_Z: he ran

2:40_D: ok .. George, what's your last name

2:42_Z: Zimmerman

2:34 - 3:25 [back and forth re Z's name/address/phone & location of Z's truck]

3:27_D: ok, do you live in the area

3:29_Z: yeah, yeah

3:30_D: what's your apartment #

3:29_Z: it's a home, it's 1950 .. oh crap I don't wanna give it all out - I don't know where this kid is

[balance is D/Z working out where cop in transit should meet Z]

You’ve done a great/tenacious job with it .. thanks on behalf of anyone anywhere with a conscience !

It is all very easy to see in that light. I always boil it down to the fact they aren’t in the business to inform the public, they are in the business of making money.

That, and the power trip that comes to them from feeling as if they were having an influence on events.

Thanks for the excellent post.

Thank you, tom

"...Well done. Can you imagine what the narrative would be like had this happened before the Internet? If all we had were the Big 3 to get us information?"

101ORD makes a great point. The dissemination of information used to be the nearly sole province of "Big Media".
. . . But we were a captive audience. And many people, no, MOST people trusted the media. They TRUSTED people like Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather to tell us the truth, and assumed they did so. It was only with the passage of time that we could look dispassionately on that time, and realize just what took place.
The Internet has changed all that. Personally, I have not read a newspaper, read a magazine (such as Time or Newsweek) or watched a full news broadcast in nearly a decade. I consider myself far better informed than the majority of people I know.
But that comes with a price. With that freedom of not being beholden to Big Media comes responsibility...the responsibility of having to vet information myself and not depend on someone else (such as ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, LA Times, Boston Globe, etc.) to do it for me. And this is sometimes not only difficult to do, it is occasionally impossible to do, and I am left with having to make a best guess. And not being infallible, I make mistakes in judgement.
This is where a site like Free Republic becomes invaluable. Here, there can be generally open discussion about an issue. Many different people can view the available evidence and with a multitude of perspectives (some useful and some not so useful) an issue can be attacked piecemeal and broken down, much like a bunch of people with hammers and chisels working on a gigantic boulder.
I have found that on FR, any opinion or theory, no matter how crackpot or politically incorrect, can be promoted by a poster. However, I have also found that if you have a point of view, it is not going to be simply accepted as another valid theory, but can and WILL be deconstructed by participants. It is done with experience, humor, anger, insight, ignorance, bias, prejudice and wisdom. What results is, if not a good handle on an issue, is a wider perspective on that issue.

. . . It is both critically useful and maddeningly frustrating to approach the issues this way, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank God for this forum.

The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . .
It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam Smith

Pure and simple, we come to FR to pool our “incredulity” so that we can muster enough skepticism to have a chance at attaining a modicum of wisdom.

Excellent summaries all around and completely true.

Special thanks to you Jim. Without FReerepublic the conservative cause might have been lost or very, very limited. When I think back on a decade plus of aggressive resistance and skepticism and all the information we’ve brought forth - most of it deeply embarrassing to the liberal elite - FReerepublic is truly keeping the Republic free.

Best regards to all and again deep thanks to you Jim.

I will second that sentiment. Thank you, Jim.