This is a news story about "news coverage" of the Zimmerman trial, from May of 2012. It explains something really important about this case, the fact that the money spent by Zimmerman's legal defense team has been spending money to affect the 'court of public opinion,' as well as the actual, trial court -- since the very beginning.
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/making-sense-of-news/172840/george-zimmermans-lawyers-hope-to-win-trial-by-social-media-in-trayvon-martin-case/
In the Trayvon Martin case, the court of public opinion has moved online.
Late last month, attorneys for George Zimmerman – the Sanford, Florida man facing second-degree murder charges in Martin’s killing – launched a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account devoted to the case. So far, they’ve used the social media platforms to comment on developments in the case, solicit money for Zimmerman’s defense, and interact with the public.
“[S]ocial media in this day and age cannot be ignored,” wrote Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara in an introductory blog post. “It is now a critical part of presidential politics, it has been part of revolutions in the Middle East, and it is going to be an unavoidable part of high-profile legal cases, just as traditional media has been and continues to be.”
O’Mara called his social media presence “new and relatively unprecedented,” and legal experts I spoke with could recall no previous case where a defense team has employed such tactics in a high-profile prosecution.
In other words, moving on to the present -- even though this phase of the judicial process has ended, no one can predict that there won't be some kind of Federal review, or a civil action, or who knows what.
So -- possibly armed with more money than they know what to do with (courtesy of those same wonderful folks who brought us the ALEC-written "Stand Your Ground Law" in the first place?) -- the P.R. machine behind Zimmerman, with the help of the same Sanford, FL local constabulary that has been helping him out from the beginning, staged a media event:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/22/sanford-zimmerman-rescue/2575217/
The statement said that on Wednesday, at approximately 5:45 p.m. ET, the sheriff's office responded to a single car accident at an intersection in the Sanford, Fla., area not far from where Zimmerman, 29, shot Trayvon, 17, in February 2012. The statement said a blue Ford Explorer had run off the road and rolled over with a family of four inside.
When a deputy arrived at the scene, two men had already helped the family out of the SUV. One of the men was Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch coordinator in Sanford.
Sure. ......Right after a weekend of protests all over the country, to demand justice for Trayvon.
Too convenient by half. No one's hurt, the event was stage-managed within the same friendly jurisdiction.... Cui Bono?
I find it incredibly hard to believe that anything about this "accident" was real.
= new reply since forum marked as read
: You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm off the front page! The front page of CNN!! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little boy like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness on the front page of CNN? Oooooh, look out! I'm going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!
