NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY

Media, Law and Culture

Media Bias: Analysis of Trayvon Martin and

Michael Brown Shootings

Nikhil Srivastava
2010BALLB61

Submitted to,
Prof Mukesh Srivastava

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
The Trayvon Martin Shooting ....................................................................................................................... 4
Facts .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Parties Involved......................................................................................................................................... 5
Trayvon Martin ..................................................................................................................................... 5
George Zimmerman .............................................................................................................................. 5
Sanford Police Department................................................................................................................... 5
Background of the shooting ...................................................................................................................... 6
Role of media and apparent bias .............................................................................................................. 7
Differing Focus by Media .......................................................................................................................... 8
Distortion of facts and media bias .......................................................................................................... 10
Results of Trial and Aftermath ................................................................................................................ 14
The Michael Brown Shooting ...................................................................................................................... 16
Facts ........................................................................................................................................................ 16
The Parties .............................................................................................................................................. 17
Michael Brown Jr. ............................................................................................................................... 17
Darren Wilson ..................................................................................................................................... 17
Reactions and Media Role ...................................................................................................................... 18
Differing Accounts................................................................................................................................... 19
Dorian Johnson ................................................................................................................................... 19
Police ................................................................................................................................................... 20
Media Role .............................................................................................................................................. 20
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 22
References .................................................................................................................................................. 23

Introduction
Media bias is the bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the
selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias"
implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the
perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various
countries is widely disputed.
Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories
and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative. Government
influence, including overt and covert censorship, biases the media in some countries, for example North
Korea and Burma. Market forces that result in a biased presentation include the ownership of the news
source, concentration of media ownership, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended
audience, and pressure from advertisers.
This paper attempts to look at the way in which media bias can cause issues with regards to the fair trial
of persons involved in biased reporting, with special reference to the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown
shootings in the United States of America.

The Trayvon Martin Shooting

Facts
On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot
Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old
mixed-race Hispanic and White man, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community
where Martin was temporarily living and where the shooting took place.
Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during an altercation between the two. Responding to an
earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived on the scene within two minutes of the shooting.
Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, and then questioned for five hours. The
police chief said that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's
claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Florida's Stand Your Ground statute, the police
were prohibited by law from making an arrest. The police chief also said that Zimmerman had had a
right to defend himself with lethal force.
As news of the case spread, thousands of protesters across the country called for Zimmerman's arrest
and a full investigation. Six weeks after the shooting, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases
misleading media coverage, Zimmerman was charged with murder by a special prosecutor1 appointed
by Governor Rick Scott.
Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford. On July 13, 2013, a jury acquitted him of seconddegree murder and of manslaughter charges.
The Zimmerman case attracted massive media attention in the United States. However, in the weeks
leading up to the trial, the mainstream media in the United States engaged in practices that would
subsequently be heavily criticized by the courts, Zimmermans attorneys, and journalists across the
world. The Zimmerman case thus was one of the most high-profile cases of media bias and selective
journalism over the last 3 years, where many facts not disclosed or ignored by the mainstream media
were widely disclosed to the public only at Zimmermans trial.

State of Florida v. George Zimmerman

Parties Involved
Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 February 26, 2012) was the son of Sybrina Fulton and
Tracy Martin, who were divorced in 1999. He was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School and lived
with his mother and older brother in Miami Gardens, Florida. On the day he was fatally shot, he and his
father were visiting his father's fiance and her son at her town home in Sanford, Florida. She lived in
The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a multi-ethnic gated community where Martin had visited several times
before.
According to his autopsy, Martin was 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 158 pounds (72 kg) at
the time of his death.
George Zimmerman
George Michael Zimmerman (b. October 5, 1983) was born in Manassas, Virginia, and is the son of
Gladys (ne Mesa) Zimmerman, born in Peru, and Robert Zimmerman Sr., a retired Virginia magistrate.
At the time of the shooting, Zimmerman was employed as an insurance fraud investigator. He had been
working toward an associate degree in criminal justice at Seminole State College. In one of his interviews
with the police, he said his goal was to become a judge.
At the time of his arrest on April 11, 2012, Zimmerman's height was reportedly 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m)
and his weight 185 lb (84 kg), according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office Inmate Booking record.
Zimmerman's height was shown as 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and his weight at 200 lb (91 kg) on the
Sanford Police Department Offense Report for February 26, 2012, the night of the shooting.
Zimmerman and his wife moved to The Retreat at Twin Lakes in 2009.
Sanford Police Department
Bill Lee had been chief of the Sanford Police Department for ten months when the shooting occurred.
Prior to Lee becoming chief, the department had been accused of protecting relatives of police officers
involved in violent incidents with blacks, and the Martin case increased distrust between the police and
Sanford's black community.
On March 22, Chief Lee temporarily stepped down from his position because of public criticism over his
handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting. In April, the Sanford City Commission refused to accept Lee's
resignation and stated that "Lee's spotless record showed there needed to be further review to

determine if he failed in his duties." Lee was fired on June 20, 2012 by Sanford City Manager Norton
Bonaparte. Lee responded by saying "I continue to stand by the work performed by the Sanford Police
Department in this tragic shooting, which has been plagued by misrepresentations and false statements
for interests other than justice2."
On June 26, 2012, the lead investigator of the case, Christopher Serino, was transferred out of the
Sanford Police Department's investigative unit and reassigned to the patrol division at his own request.
Serino said he felt pressured by several of his fellow police officers to press charges on Zimmerman
when he believed there was not enough evidence to do so, and that one of the officers pressuring him
was a friend of Martin's father3.
In September 2012, Orlando TV station WFTV released a leaked memo in which interim police Chief
Richard Myers blamed the police department spokesperson, Sgt. David Morgenstern, for having
mishandled the Travyon Martin case and removed him from his spokesperson position4.

Background of the shooting

The Retreat at Twin Lakes is a 260-unit gated townhome community in Sanford, Florida. The population
in the development, at the time of the shooting, was about 49% non-Hispanic white, 23% Hispanic (of
any race), 20% black, and 5% Asian, according to US Census figures5. Both George Zimmerman and Tracy
Martin's fiance were renting homes in the development when the shooting occurred. At the time of
the shooting, Martin had been staying with his father's fiancee at The Retreat.
From January 1, 2011 through February 26, 2012, police were called to The Retreat at Twin Lakes 402
times6. Crimes committed at The Retreat in the year prior to Martin's death had included eight
burglaries, nine thefts, and one shooting. Twin Lakes residents said there were dozens of reports of
attempted break-ins, which had created an atmosphere of fear in their neighborhood.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/20/2860209/sanford-police-chief-bill-lee.html, last accessed 3/9/2014

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/12/2892510/more-evidence-released-in-zimmerman.html, last accessed
3/9/2014
4
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/wftv-obtained-memo-interim-police-chief-blames-dep/nR5HZ/, last accessed
3/9/2014
5
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/v-fullstory/2700249/shooter-of-trayvon-martin-a-habitual.html, last
accessed 3/9/2014
6
Supra
3

In September 2011, the Twin Lakes residents held an organizational meeting to create a neighborhood
watch program. Zimmerman was selected by neighbors as the program's coordinator, according to
Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department7.
Zimmerman had made nearly 50 calls to police between 2004 and 2012 to report various local
disturbances, such as loud parties, open garage doors, potholes, and children playing in the street.
Following break-ins in the neighborhood in 2011, Zimmerman's calls to police increasingly focused on
reporting people he suspected of criminal activity.
During the months leading up to the February 26, 2012 shooting, Zimmerman called the police several
times to report people he believed to be suspicious. On each of the calls, Zimmerman only offered
information about their race when specifically asked by the dispatcher to do so, reporting that the
people involved were black males.
According to friends and neighbors of Zimmerman, three weeks prior to the shooting, on February 2
Zimmerman called police to report a young man peering into the windows of an empty Twin Lakes
home. By the time police arrived, the suspect had fled. On February 6, workers witnessed two young
black men lingering in the yard of a Twin Lakes resident around the same time a new laptop and some
gold jewelry were stolen from her home. The next day police discovered the stolen laptop in the
backpack of a young black man whom Zimmerman identified as the same person he had spotted peering
into windows on February 2.
Zimmerman had been licensed to carry a firearm since November 2009. In response to Zimmerman's
multiple reports regarding a loose pit bull in the Twin Lakes neighborhood, a Seminole County Animal
Services officer advised Zimmerman to "get a gun", according to a friend, rather than rely on pepper
spray to fend off the pit bull, which on one occasion had cornered his wife. Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee
acknowledged that Zimmerman had a legal right to carry his firearm on the night of the shooting.

Role of media and apparent bias

Almost immediately after the February 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, the conversation about the case
began simmering on Twitter. But it was nearly three weeks later, on March 17-after the release of 911
tapes-before the story exploded on Twitter, on blogs and in the mainstream media to become the first
story of the year to get more coverage than the race for the presidency of the United States. The Pew
7

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-24/news/os-trayvon-martin-neighborhood-watch20120321_1_zimmerman-community-ties-neighborhood-watch, last accessed 2/9/2014

Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism, an American think-tank, conducted a study on the topics
covered and discussed by various media sources and media houses in the wake of the story breaking8.
The figures cited by the study have been quoted in the section below.
Moreover, the Martin story has been a much bigger story on the channel MSNBC, whose talk show hosts
generally have liberal political leanings, and a much smaller story on Fox, whose prime time lineup leans
conservative. The focus of the discussion differs as well. Conservative talkers paid the most attention to
questions about who Martin is and to the defense of the man who pulled the trigger, George
Zimmerman. Liberal hosts focused primarily on gun control and the Florida law.

Differing Focus by Media

While all three sectors of media were suddenly trained on the event, their focus was just as striking for
how it differed.
On Twitter, the conversation focused heavily on calls for justice (21% of the statements about the case)
and sympathy for the victim and his family (19%). Together those two themes made up 40% of all the
discussion about the case, which included millions of tweets on the subject over the 11 days since it
became a major story. On blogs, the No. 1 theme of the conversation (accounting for 15% of it) was the
role of race. That was followed calls for justice (13%). And on cable news and talk radio, the most
discussed topic was legalistic, the subject of gun control and Floridas Stand Your Ground law. That
accounted for 17% of the airtime devoted to the case. That was followed by questions about Trayvon
Martin and defense of George Zimmerman.
MSNBC, with a liberal prime time lineup, devoted the largest portion of its newshole to the story. Fully
49% of MSNBC programming studied was dedicated to the case. On CNN, the case made up 40% of the
hours studied during the period. Fox News covered the story much less than the other two outlets. It
devoted 15% of its airtime studied to the case. Not only did the three cable news channels cover the
story to different degrees. They homed in on different aspects of the case.
MSNBC devoted the most attention the gun control issue and Floridas Stand Your Ground law. The
second-most popular topic on MSNBC was the city of Sanford, including discussion of its police force and
the citys rocky racial history.

http://www.journalism.org/2012/04/05/social-media-conversation-about-race/, last accessed on 6/9/2014

The leading theme of CNNs coverage of the case involved questions about Trayvon Martin and the
defense of Zimmerman followed closely by straight news accounts, while on Fox, questions about
Trayvon Martins past and statements in defense of George Zimmerman also garnered the most
attention by far. That was followed by attention to the medias handling of the story.
Some of these differences in approach can be seen in how the three channels handled a mid-afternoon
March 26 press conference called by Trayvon Martins family. MSNBC showed the press conference live
for over 14 minutes, with no commercial interruptions or comments or summary by the new hosts. CNN
also provided live coverage of the press conference, but for less time than MSNBC, a little over five
minutes. Fox did not show any footage from the press conference when it was occurring and did not
discuss the case in that hour.
When coverage is broken down by the ideology of the talk show host-both in talk radio and cable-there
are also differences. The No. 1 storyline among liberal talkers was gun control and the Florida law
followed by a discussion of the remark by Fox News Geraldo Rivera blaming the hoodie for Trayvon
Martins death.
Among conservative talkers, the top subject included questions about Trayvon and a defense of
Zimmerman, followed by a discussion of the medias handling of the story. The news agendas in social
media, meanwhile, varied significantly from that of the mainstream press. The most prominent topic on
cable and talk radio-gun control and the Florida Stand Your Ground law-was considerably farther down
the list on both Twitter and blogs. Conversely, sympathy for Trayvon-a major topic in social media-was
not nearly as popular in the cable and talk radio universe.
However, there were also significant differences in focus between the blogosphere and Twitter
universe. On Twitter, where the 140 character limit impacts the depth of the discussion, the combined
topics of sympathy for Trayvon Martin and calls for justice accounted for 40% of the statements. On
blogs these themes were significant, but not nearly as prominent, accounting for one quarter (25%) of
the conversation. The Florida law pertaining to the Stand Your Ground doctrine and the role of race
were bigger issues, accounting for 26% of the conversation studied versus 15% on Twitter.
On other topics connected to the case, there was less divergence between the two social media
forms. That was certainly the case regarding expressions of skepticism about the victim and a defense
of the shooter, which accounted for 7% on blogs and 6% on Twitter. (On cable and talk radio, that theme
was twice as prominent, at 14%).

In other words, in social media support for Trayvon and outrage at the killing far outweighed any sense
that Zimmerman might have been justified in his actions. On cable and talk radio, suspicion of Trayvon
Martin was virtually equal to doubts about George Zimmerman.

Distortion of facts and media bias

President Obama spoke some undeniable truths when he noted that the African-American communitys
reaction to the entire incident must be seen in the context of a long, terrible history of racism. But there
is another context too: that of an ideology-based, media-driven false narrative that has distorted a
tragedy into a racist outrage.
This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed heritage that included white,
Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an
honorary white male steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he once
had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a neighborhood about 20 percent
black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenants son getting away with beating a
homeless black man.
This narrative has perpetuated the lie that Zimmermans history of calls to the police indicates obsessive
racial paranoia. Thus, discussing the verdict on the PBS NewsHour, University of Connecticut professor
and New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb asserted that Zimmerman had called the police 46 times in
previous six years, only for African-Americans, only for African-American men. Actually, only six calls9
two of them about Trayvon Martinhad to do with African-American men. At least three involved
complaints about whites; others were about such issues as a fire alarm going off, a reckless driver of
unknown race, or an aggressive dog.
In this narrative, even Zimmermans concern for a black childa 2011 call to report a young AfricanAmerican boy walking unsupervised on a busy street, on which the police record notes, compl[ainant]
concerned for well-being10has been twisted into crazed racism. Writing on the website of The New
Republic, Stanford University law professor Richard Thompson Ford describes Zimmerman as an edgy
basket case who called 911 about the suspicious activities of a seven year old black boy. This slander
turns up in other left-of-center sources, both in news and social media.

http://www.motherjones.com/documents/327330-george-zimmerrman-911-call-history, last accessed 6/9/2014

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nation/july-dec13/zimmerman2_07-15.html

10

In addition to this, there were many other distortions of the facts which led to the polarization of the
American public over this issue. For example, NBC News played an edited version of Zimmermans call to
the emergency services, wherein he was purported to have said the following, This guy looks like hes
up to no good. He looks black. The disclosure of this fact caused a nationwide frenzy, and made the
entire incident appear to be a racially motivated killing. However, during pre-trial discovery, the actual
transcript of the call to emergency services was made publicly available, and according to official
documentation, the following dialogue is what actually11 took place:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining
and he's just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy--is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.
Thus, on perusal of the actual documentation, what is clear is that Zimmermans racial description of
Martin is prompted by the 911 Dispatcher specifically asking him about Martins race. It should also be
noted that Martins post-mortem examination found marijuana in both his blood and urine.
While this falsehood was retracted and cost several NBC employees their jobs, other fake facts still
circulate unchecked: most notably, that Zimmerman disobeyed police orders not to follow Martin (or
even, as Cobb and another guest asserted on the NewsHour, not to get out of his car). In fact, there was
no such order. The dispatcher asked if Zimmerman was following the teenager; Zimmerman said yes,
the dispatcher said, We dont need you to do that, and Zimmerman replied, Okay. (Just before this,
the dispatcher had made comments that could be construed as asking him to watch Martin, such as,
Just let us know if he does anything else.)
Another clear example of media bias in this case is the use of photographic identification for the
involved parties. The photos circulated of Trayvon Martin by the mainstream media are those of him
from three to four years before the incident, while that of Zimmerman is from that of a previous
mugshot taken for a different incident for which he was arrested. In the 24 months before the Martin
shooting and the previous incident, photos of Zimmerman were shown where he had become grossly
obese, having put on nearly 150 pounds of weight in that time. Conversely, the photos of Martin that

11

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/trayvon-martin-case-exposes-worst-media-210020839.html

were shown were still that of a 13 or 14 year old boy, smiling angelically for the camera, and not the 17
year old muscular specimen that he had developed into.
Furthermore, the media made it seem as though there was nearly a 50-pound difference in weight
between the two men, and not the actual 27 pound difference. Reports also almost uniformly failed to
take into account the fact that Martin was nearly 4 inches taller than Zimmerman.
According to the testimony of a martial arts expert at trial, the short and pudgy Zimmerman had zero
chance against the 6-foot-2 virile young frame of Martin. So Zimmerman's testimony seems plausible
that Trayvon started the confrontation while Zimmerman was retrieving an address for the 911
operator.
After this, according to the prosecution's own eye-witness account, Trayvon was found on top of George
beating his head into the concrete "MMA style." Furthermore, police records validate this testimony
with photos of Zimmerman's fractured nose, two black eyes, multiple lacerations on the back of his
head, and damp grass stains on the back of his clothes. Meanwhile, Trayvon suffered only knuckle
abrasions consistent with hitting someone. This type of beating also supports Zimmerman's claim that
he feared for his life; and, that it was his voice on the 911 audio screaming for "help."
A further point ignored by the media was Zimmermans own mixed ancestry and the fact that according
to U.S Census rules, he qualifies to be identified as Hispanic. It was also ignored that Zimmerman himself
identified as Hispanic. Instead, the terms Self-proclaimed Hispanic and White Hispanic were used,
which is akin to calling Barack Obama a Self-proclaimed black or White Black, as he also has the
same amount of white ancestry as Zimmerman.
Zimmermans past, where he has had relationships with black women, served as a tutor to
underprivileged black children, has black relatives, and even filed a complaint against the Sanford City
Police for mistreatment of a homeless black man, was completely ignored and hidden by the
mainstream media, in furtherance of their agenda to portray the incident as a racially-motivated
murder.
The media also did not report the multiple incidents of violence that Zimmerman protestors were
involved in, in the weeks after the shooting. In just a few days, Breitbart News had documented over

two dozen12 separate acts of violence and lawlessness throughout the country. One aspect of this
lawless spree the media adamantly refuse to report on are the reported "hate crimes" being committed
by black against whites and Hispanics.
The indictment of George Zimmerman was also flawed. Special Prosecutor Angela Corey did not go
before a grand jury to get an indictment; undoubtedly indicating that she feared not getting one, on the
grounds of lack of evidence. Of Coreys affidavit of probable cause, Harvard University law professor
Alan Dershowitz speaking on MSNBC said Most affidavits of probable cause are very thin. This is so
thin that it wont make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge..theres simply nothing in there
that would justify second degree murder13. He went on to describe the affidavit as irresponsible.
Dershowitz went on to point out that the affidavit suggested the shooting of Trayvon Martin was
entirely unprovoked; omitting any reference to the struggle that occurred beforehand. He added I think
what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection
when she gave her presentation and overcharged. This case will if the evidence is no stronger than
what appears in the probable cause affidavit this case will result in an acquittal.
Eyewitness testimony and physical evidence backs up George Zimmermans claim that he was neither
the physical aggressor, nor even standing his ground that night. He was confronted by an angry
Martin, who knocked him down with a punch to the nose and proceeded to pummel him. (There is no
evidence of a fight, but abundant evidence of an assault).
Trayvon Martin was shot not walking home in the rain wearing a hooded sweatshirt, but while
straddling Zimmerman MMA style, beating him senseless, bloodying his face and punching or pounding
his head against the concrete sidewalk, as admitted at trial.
A few days after that, ABC News claimed that Zimmerman wasnt injured the night the shooting took
place, airing a blurry video of Zimmerman at the police station and stating that a police surveillance
video taken the night Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman.
Many viewers pointed out that ABC didnt even bother to enhance the video before running with the
report. A day after that, when ABCs report was sweeping the nation, NBCs Chris Matthews backed up
ABCs version, even though one of his Hardball guests pointed out, with pictures, that Zimmermans
head did show cuts and bleeding.
12

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/07/16/Twenty-One-Acts-of-Post-Zimmerman%20VerdictViolence-and-counting, last accessed 6/9/2014

13
http://guardianlv.com/2013/05/george-zimmerman-trial-hampered-by-media-bias-and-prosecution-misconduct

The most disputed question that night who was screaming for help before the shot was fired by
Zimmerman? has family and friends on both sides divided. But it raises another question that
essentially answers itself: Who would more likely scream for help? The person being beaten, or the one
doing the beating?
One of the most important, and remarkably under-publicized facts that came out at trial is that one of
the detectives, while interrogating Zimmerman at the police station that night, told him that the entire
incident had been caught on surveillance video. The detective was bluffing, but Zimmerman didnt know
that. His reaction: Thank God14.
The defense claimed that anybody who had done something wrong, and then lied about it, was far from
likely to react in that manner. This contention was agreed with by the trial court.
The inaccuracies and poor reporting continued. The media described Martin as a good student.
Subsequent information, however, showed he often got into fights, used marijuana and was suspended
from school before he was shot material the judge had restricted the defense from using. Further
evidence indicated the teen had marijuana in his system at the time he was shot. Moreover, Trayvons
purchases of watermelon-flavored fruit juice not iced tea as reportedly frequently and Skittles may
not have been so innocent. These are two of three ingredients of Purple Drank, a concoction that also
includes cough syrup he used to get high, according to his text messages as found during the
investigation.

Results of Trial and Aftermath

On Saturday, July 13, 2013, the day after deliberations began, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty for
both second-degree murder and the lesser included charge of manslaughter. The jury deliberated for
sixteen hours before arriving at a verdict, which was read in court shortly after 10 pm EST15.
Following the announcement of the verdict, defense attorney Mark O'Mara told reporters at the
courthouse that he was ecstatic with the decision by the jury. O'Mara thanked local law enforcement,
the jury, and the time and effort they put into the process. Defense attorney Don West said he was still
angry that Zimmerman was even brought to trial. West said that the prosecution of Zimmerman was
"disgraceful" and that he was "thrilled the jury kept this tragedy from becoming a travesty". In response
14

15

http://crosscut.com/2013/07/15/media/115568/john-carlson-trayvon-martin/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/zimmerman-trial-jurors-request-clarification-on-manslaughterinstructions/2013/07/13/3a26dbbe-ec0c-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html

to a question from the media, O'Mara also claimed that if Zimmerman "had been black, he never would
have been charged with a crime".
When asked if Zimmerman had been overcharged in the case, State Attorney Angela Corey told
reporters after the verdict that the allegations against Zimmerman "fit the bill" for a second-degree
murder charge. Prosecutor de la Rionda said that he was disappointed with, but respected, the jury's
verdict.
Several attorneys commenting on the case, such as Paul Butler of Georgetown University, said that the
prosecution had failed to adequately prepare their witnesses for trial and had been out-maneuvered by
the defense attorneys. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz remained extremely critical of State
Attorney Angela Corey's actions in the case, charging that "her conduct bordered on criminal conduct"
and "in 50 years of litigating cases ... rarely have I seen [a prosecutor] as bad as this prosecutor16".
George Zimmerman remained in hiding after the verdict, although it was reported that on July 17, four
days after the verdict, Zimmerman helped rescue several people from an overturned vehicle in Sanford,
Florida17. The family rescued by Zimmerman had planned a press conference but later dropped the plan
because they were worried about adverse public reaction to saying anything positive about Zimmerman.
A month later, Zimmerman was seen in Cocoa, Florida touring a factory of the company that
manufactured the gun he had used in the shooting18.
Although there were scattered incidents of disturbances and vandalism following the not-guilty ruling,
fears of widespread civil unrest (as per the Rodney King verdict in 1992) were unrealized. A Hispanic
man in Baltimore was reportedly beaten by a group of youths, one of whom was armed with a handgun,
while the group chanted "This is for Trayvon!19" A white man in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin said he was
beaten by a group of African-American youth who were yelling "this is for Trayvon Martin!" The man
said he was saved from the assailants by a young African-American couple who came to his rescue20. In
Washington, D.C., an adult white male was kicked by three African-American men, and robbed of his
16

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/07/14/alan_dershowitz_zimmerman_special_prosecutor_angela_co
rey_should_be_disbarred.html
17
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/22/us/florida-zimmermanvehicle/index.html?sr=fb072213zimmermanoverturnedsuv3p
18
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/24/us-usa-zimmerman-gun-idUSBRE97N0CT20130824
19
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-monday20130715,0,5135359.story
20
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/28/us/dc-robbery-hate-crime/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

phone and wallet. The man said the three assailants yelled out "This is for Trayvon!" Police investigated
the incident as a hate crime.
The prosecutorial misconduct and media bias that hampered the George Zimmerman trial from the start
made it impossible to accurately determine the exact events that led to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
There will likely be no closure for Martins family or for Zimmerman. What has been made clear is that
there is no place for media bias or fabricated racism in the context of a legal case, brought about to due
to either partys infringements of the law.

The Michael Brown Shooting

Facts
The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown, an unarmed
black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The disputed circumstances of the
shooting and the resultant protests and civil unrest received considerable attention in the United States
and abroad.
Brown and Dorian Johnson were walking down the middle of the street when Wilson drove up and from
his car ordered them to move to the sidewalk. Brown and Wilson struggled through the window of the
police car until Wilson's gun was fired, either intentionally or as a result of the struggle. Brown and
Johnson fled, following which Wilson pursued them on foot firing his weapon. Wilson hit Brown with six
shots, killing him. Witness reports differ greatly as to whether Brown was standing with his hands up or
moving toward Wilson when the final shots were fired.
The Ferguson Police Department released a video of a convenience store robbery which occurred
minutes before the shooting. It showed a confrontation between Brown and a store employee. Brown
had no criminal record. Wilson had served as a police officer for five years, three of those with the
Ferguson Police Department. He has no disciplinary history.
The shooting sparked unrest in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, in part due to the belief among
protestors that Brown was surrendering as well as longstanding racial tensions between the majorityblack community and the majority-white city government and police. Various forms of protests and

rioting continued for over a week, with escalating violence and curfews at night. Widespread media
coverage examined the post-9/11 trend of police militarization, especially when dealing with protests.
The shooting is currently under investigation by a county grand jury, which will decide whether Wilson
should stand trial for killing Brown. The FBI is investigating whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights.
The Department of Justice is reviewing Ferguson Police Department's internal investigations of use of
force during the last four years.

The Parties
Michael Brown Jr.
Michael Brown Jr. (May 20, 1996 August 9, 2014) was the son of Lesley McSpadden and Michael
Brown Sr. Brown graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis eight days before his death,
completing an alternative education program. His teachers said he was "a student who loomed large
and didn't cause trouble21," referring to him as a "gentle giant." At the time of his death, he was 6' 4"
(1.93 m) tall and weighed 292 lb (132 kg). He was an amateur rapper and posted tracks online under the
name Big Mike22. Brown had no criminal record.
Brown was to have started attending Vatterott College, a technical school, on August 11, with plans to
become a heating and cooling engineer. A friend of Brown said that while everyone else wanted to be a
basketball or football player, Brown had wanted to own his own business.

Darren Wilson
Darren Dean Wilson was born in Fort Worth, Texas on May 14, 1986. He lives in Crestwood, Missouri, a
city of 11,000 people about 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Ferguson, and was 28 years old at the time of
the shooting.
Wilson first worked as a police officer in the police department of Jennings, Missouri, later disbanded.
Wilson had no disciplinary history with the department. While 12 of the 40 officers in the Jennings force
found jobs with the county police, Wilson ended up taking a job in Ferguson. He was described by a
Jennings coworker as an "average officer" who "didn't get into any trouble." Former Jennings Police

21

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/michael-brown-remembered-as-a-gentlegiant/article_cbafa12e-7305-5fd7-8e0e-3139f472d130.html
22
http://graphics.latimes.com/towergraphic-michael-browns-raps/

Chief Robert Orr told the Times that he hardly remembered Wilson and said that must mean he never
got in any trouble, because thats when they usually came to me23.
In February 2014, Wilson received a commendation for "extraordinary effort in the line of duty" from
the City of Ferguson. The citation was related to an incident in which he struggled with and detained for
arrest a driver that police said was preparing a large amount of marijuana for sale24.

Reactions and Media Role

Peaceful protests and civil disorder broke out the day following Brown's shooting and lasted for several
days. As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, police grappled with
establishing curfews and maintaining order, while members of the Ferguson community demonstrated
in various ways in the vicinity of the original shooting.
On the day of the shooting, a makeshift memorial to Brown was established in the street where he was
shot. Flowers and candles were scattered over the bloodstains on the pavement. That night, according
to Mother Jones, a police officer allowed his dog to urinate on the memorial and it was later crushed as
police drove over and through it. These incidents inflamed tensions in the community, according to
Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace, who said "That made people in the crowd mad and it made me mad25."
The protests began the day after the shooting. On August 10, a day of memorials began peacefully, but
some crowd members became unruly after an evening candlelight vigil26. Local police stations
assembled approximately 150 officers in riot gear. Some people began looting businesses, vandalizing
vehicles, and confronting police officers who sought to block off access to several areas of the city. At
least 12 businesses were looted or vandalized, and a gas station was also set on fire, leading to over 30
arrests. Many windows were broken and several nearby businesses closed on Monday. The people
arrested face charges of assault, burglary, and theft. Police used a variety of equipment, including riot
gear and helicopters, to disperse the crowd by 2:00 a.m. Two police officers suffered minor injuries
during the events27.

23

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/25/heres-what-we-know-now-about-darrenwilson-the-officer-who-shot-michael-brown/
24
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/officer-brown-killing-awarded-commendation
25
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/ferguson-st-louis-police-tactics-dogs-michael-brown
26
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/looting-erupts-after-vigil-slain-missouri-teenmichael-brown-n177426
27
http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/08/11/ferguson-riots-arrests-injuries/13886175/

Widespread media coverage examined the post 9/11 trend of local police departments arming
themselves with military-grade weapons when dealing with protests .In late August, Ferguson police
officers began wearing body-mounted video cameras donated by Safety Visions and Digital Ally. Fifty
cameras were donated and made available to each officer.
Due to the fact that this case is still sub-judice, and considering the lessons learned in the George
Zimmerman case, the mainstream media has been slightly more conservative in their reporting and
coverage of this as a racially motivated crime.
However, plenty of discrepancies still remain in the facts and the way in which they have been reported.

Differing Accounts
Dorian Johnson
Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown, was walking with him in the street. Johnson said that Wilson pulled
up beside them and said, "Get on the sidewalk. Johnson said the young men replied that they were
"not but a minute away from [their] destination, and [they] would shortly be out of the street28." Johnson
stated that Wilson drove forward without saying anything further, only to abruptly back up, positioning
his vehicle crosswise in their path, almost hitting the two men. He said, "We were so close, almost
inches away, that when he tried to open his door aggressively, the door ricocheted both off me and Big
Mike's body and closed back on the officer."
Johnson said Wilson, still in his car, grabbed Brown around his neck through the open window. Brown
tried to pull away, but Wilson continued to pull Brown toward him "like tug of war," according to
Johnson29. Johnson said that Brown "did not reach for the officer's weapon at all," insisting that Brown
was attempting to get free of Wilson rather than attempting to attack him or take his weapon from him.
Johnson said Wilson drew his weapon, and he said, "I'll shoot you" or "I'm going to shoot," and almost
instantaneously fired his weapon, hitting Brown.
Following the initial gunshot, Johnson said Brown was able to free himself, at which point the two fled.
According to Johnson, Wilson exited the vehicle, after which he fired several rounds at the fleeing
Brown. According to Johnson, Brown turned around with his hands in the air, after reacting "as if he was

28

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/13/ferguson-missouri-teen-shootingwitness/13992387/
29
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/us/missouri-ferguson-michael-brown-what-we-know/index.html

hit" and said, "I don't have a gun. Stop shooting30!" Wilson then shot Brown several more times, killing
him. Johnson's attorney stated that Wilson did not attempt to resuscitate Brown, did not call for medical
help, and "he didn't call it in that someone had been shot." Johnson told local TV stations shortly after
the shooting that Brown had been surrendering when Wilson opened fire without cause or warning.
Police
On August 10, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar stated, "The genesis of this shooting incident was
a physical confrontation during which Brown "physically assaulted the police officer31." Dashboard
cameras are not used in Ferguson police cars, so no video of the incident exists. According to Belmar,
Wilson attempted to exit his vehicle but was pushed back into the car by Brown, who then assaulted
him inside. Brown then allegedly attempted to seize Wilson's gun, which was fired at least once during
the struggle. Belmar acknowledged that "more than a couple" of shots were fired in the course of the
encounter.
Hours later, Jackson said Wilson was not aware of the robbery when he stopped Brown. Still later,
Jackson told NBC News that while Wilson initially stopped Brown for walking in the street and blocking
traffic, "at some point" during the encounter Wilson saw cigars in Brown's hands and thought he might
be a suspect in the robbery. Several days later, the police department reported that Wilson said in his
account to the Ferguson police that "Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him" and that
"fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force32." The
Atlantic Wire and MSNBC have reported on the changing nature of the department's statements33.

Media Role
The Washington Post featured a wordy piece devoted to Darren Wilsons dysfunctional family of origin,
and the racial and other problems in the police force he used to work for, difficulties that seem to have
had nothing whatsoever to do with him. As William A. Jacobson has written for a website, its an
attempt at guilt by association34. This includes discussing his parents divorce when he was two or three
years old, and his mothers criminal record.

30

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/08/17/michael-brown-was-shot-times-ferguson-officerpreliminary-autopsy-shows/izi6zze4Z2QebrpaWtG2nI/story.html
31
http://online.wsj.com/articles/missouri-teenager-killed-by-police-after-fight-1407698036
32
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/us/shooting-accounts-differ-as-holder-schedules-visit.html
33
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-police-name-michael-brown
34
http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/washington-post-finds-darren-wilson-guilty-by-association/

That effort seems even more biased when it is contrasted with a lengthy AP article published the very
next day in the Sunday Washington Post that talks about the unblemished character of Michael Brown35.
But when the writers deal with the Ferguson incident itself, they fail to mention Browns robbery of the
convenience store, his getting physical with the clerk there, or the fact that star witness Dorian Johnson
was present at the robbery, has a previous record36 (including a history of lying to the police about an
earlier alleged offense) and therefore had a strong motivation to lie in his tale of what happened when
Brown was shot. Post reporters Carol D. Leonnig, Kimberly Kindy and Joel Achenbach merely describe
Johnsons version versus the police version as competing narratives.
Ferguson police identified Wilson at the same time they released a video of an alleged theft showing
Brown snatch some cigars in a convenience store just minutes before he was killed. In the video, Brown
is shown grabbing a clerk by the shirt and forcefully pushing him into a display rack. Browns family
angrily denounced that video as character assassination.
No one seems to have thought to look into the marital (or any other) history of Browns family, or
whether any of his relatives have arrest records. And rightly so, because it really doesnt matter; what is
relevant is Browns own history.
But why, then, is the divorce of Wilsons parents and their other history considered fair game by the
press, and not that of Browns parents or relatives? After all, Brown had a mother and stepfather, and a
biological father whose name is Michael Brown Sr., so we can conclude that some sort of
divorce/separation and upheaval occurred. But it is virtually never mentioned, either in the AP article or
in any of the reports made by major outlets. It should also be noted that the history of any other
members of Browns family has not been brought up, unlike Wilson.
Another point of note is that subsequent to the Ferguson shooting, there have been reports of AfricanAmerican police officers shooting at and killing white males. The most well-known case occurred in
Utah37, but has received next to no media coverage, particularly among the mainstream outlets. As the
matter is sub-judice, and many of the protests have devolved into riots, the focus has shifted from the
motivation for the killing to the subsequent violence brought about by it. However, the role of the
35

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/michael-brown-called-little-kid-in-big-body/2014/08/24/4c12948c2b9c-11e4-be9e-60cc44c01e7f_story.html?tid=collaborative_1.0_strip_2
36
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2732122/Revealed-Key-Michael-Brown-shooting-witness-DorianJohnson-arrest-warrant-theft-busted-lying-cops.html
37
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/08/26/ferguson-attack-utah-escapes-media-notice-race-bias-seen

media in not totally disclosing all the facts and context of the shooting cannot be ignored. It is even
more pertinent to note that all of this comes in light of the trial courts criticism of media coverage in
the George Zimmerman case. However, this has not prevented the mainstream American media from
doing what could easily be seen as picking the most convenient narratives, either for political ideology
or merely for television audiences.

Conclusion
The role and composition of the media has evolved. From merely being newsreporters, the fact that
most media outlets are directly or indirectly controlled by a handful of major corporations causes the
current bias. The media now has taken on an approach almost resembling propaganda, particularly in
the USA. Thus, it is important to ensure that in order to understand the entire context of any issue,
particularly one as sensitive as the aforementioned incidents; one must consider news derived from a
multitude of sources.
As seen in the Zimmerman case, the media often may distort the relevant facts of an issue to suit their
own purposes. Luckily, in that instance, the administration of justice was not hampered by the clear
media bias and negative pre-trial publicity. However, this may not be the case in future. The distortion
of facts and selective silence on certain key issues in the Michael Brown shooting shows that very few (if
any) lessons have been learnt from Zimmerman.
An effective way to regulate this would be the establishment of an authoritative media watchdog, one
that has force of law and statute to regulate and punish irresponsible media outlets. However, until this
is established, the layman must ensure that he/she obtains his/her news and facts on an issue from a
variety of sources, so as to obtain as much information and context as possible.

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