The Zimmerman Trial: Just One More All-or-Nothing Moment for Our Nation's Media

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

July 15, 2013

So, no big news this weekend, huh?

The Zimmerman Trial: Just One More All-or-Nothing Moment for Our Nation's Media

In the past few months, we've witnessed news events where the media quickly turned the story into a binary choice between two options:

Do we want to support the Syrian rebels or the Assad regime? Is Snowden a hero or a traitor? Do we stand with Morsi or with the Egyptian military?

Of course, in all of those examples, both antagonists are deeply flawed, perhaps too flawed to be worthy of official U.S. support, or even public-opinion support. The Syrian rebels have all kinds of Islamist, priest-throat-cutting goons in their ranks, and they're taking on a brutal dictator who's used sarin a few times; Morsi took Egypt in an autocratic, Islamist direction . . . and then the military forces that replaced him started shooting protesters.

Can you find the good guy in this picture? Hint: he's next to Waldo.

Snowden may have done the public a service by exposing an invasive surveillance system that violated privacy rights and perhaps the Fourth Amendment, but he also broke his oath, the law, and is now playing footsie with some of the world's most repressive regimes.

I mentioned this no-white-hats phenomenon to someone and got a "Fifty Shades of Grey" joke in reply, but even that implies some light greys and folks who aren't so bad; think of some of these situations, particularly Syria, as "Varying Shades of Charcoal."

And now we have the George Zimmerman case. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that so many of our fellow citizens are choosing sides on Team Trayvon or Team Zimmerman, and insisting that the only form of "justice" would be the verdict that they prefer.

Why must we pick a side? Why is there this compulsion to declare one side is the "good guy" here? Keep in mind, everything Mark Steyn is saying here is right, that a criminal-justice system, terrified of public opinion, threw a slew of implausible charges against the defendant, while a slew of loud voices in the media and in government tried to shoehorn murky events into a simplistic narrative that inflames racial tensions.

Everyone remembers the president's comment, "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon." But another bit of faux-insightful blather the president said that day is even more irksome, his declaration, "All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen."

Er, no, not really. We figure out how something like this happens with a police investigation and trial. It doesn't require "all of us" to investigate, and we certainly won't find useful court-admissible evidence within our souls.

Chances are, you've never even met anyone involved in this case. Chances are, there's absolutely nothing you could have done that would have changed events that night. So no, you don't really have to look into your soul. It's not your fault.

Obama's post-verdict statement offered more of the same:

I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that's a job for all of us. That's the way to honor Trayvon Martin.

But even if we look at everything that was said and presented in this trial, and like the jury, we conclude Zimmerman did not commit second-degree murder, and in fact acted in self-defense . . . that doesn't mean we have to lionize him. Being anti-racial-demagoguery doesn't necessarily mean we have to be pro-Zimmerman. Part of Zimmerman's defense was to insist he was not capable of defending himself in a physical altercation. Not merely not that good at fighting, his former trainer said he could barely throw a punch:

Jurors were presented an unflattering assessment of Zimmerman's physical abilities this week: Soft. Unathletic.

Days after testimony by a state witness that Zimmerman had been training in mixed-martial-arts, the defense called on Zimmerman's trainer to counter the notion that he was a capable fighter.

"He's just soft, physically soft," said Adam Pollock, of Kokopelli's Gym and Training Center in Longwood.

The trainer said Zimmerman started out at a 0.5 in grappling, advancing only to a 1 or 1.5 out of 10.

The trainer added Zimmerman "didn't know how to effectively punch."

That's a rather strange condition for a neighborhood-watch guy, right? If you know that you're likely to lose a physical confrontation, wouldn't you do everything possible to avoid one -- i.e, not follow someone you think is up to no good? If you know that your only recourse if someone tries to harm you is to pull out a gun, wouldn't you try to avoid that confrontation?

A court has ruled Zimmerman's not guilty of intentional murder. He appears to be guilty of bad judgment.

Indeed, we have good reason to complain that the media anointed Trayvon Martin the embodiment of youthful innocence, relentlessly depicting him with old photos that made him appear much younger than he was when the confrontation occurred. Some evidence points to Martin not being the saintly portrait of innocence depicted in the Hollister-shirt photo -- marijuana use, suspension from school -- but again, nobody deserves to die over an evening altercation. But let's also stipulate no 17-year-old deserves to get shot dead, before their life has even really begun. We'll never know if Martin would have gone on to become a gang member or a success story, rising above a broken home and troubled youth. His death is a tragedy, and Zimmerman pulled the trigger and caused it.

Again, without proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman didn't act in self-defense, that doesn't add up to second-degree murder. (Some jurisdictions have different types of self-defense, and some have a category called "involuntary manslaughter" -- most often occurring when one person punches another and ends up killing them by causing a brain hemorrhage.) By pulling the trigger, Zimmerman knew he would be doing harm to Martin, but he was not necessarily intending to kill.

The Stakes Just Got a Little Higher in Every Competitive 2014 Senate Race

The weekend also brought a lucky break for Republican hopes of capturing a majority in the Senate in 2014:

Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer shocked the Montana and national political establishments Saturday with his announcement that he wouldn't run for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2014 as many had expected.

"I never got in this race," Schweitzer told the Gazette State Bureau in a telephone interview Saturday morning.

He acknowledged that he considered running for the Senate seat being vacated by longtime Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, but in the end he decided a legislative body isn't the place for him.

"I'm a doer," Schweitzer said.

He said he likes to plow half a field in the morning and see the progress by noon before he finishes the job in the afternoon.

"I'm used to being in charge of things, getting things done," Schweitzer said. "Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate is a place where things die."

Keep that comment in mind for when Schweitzer inevitably endorses the Democratic tomato can that wins the primary. "I tell you, my fellow Montanans, State Senator John Smith is exactly the right man to serve in the place where things die!" Maybe they should nominate a mortician.

Rick Moran: "Schweitzer would have been a clear favorite going into the race, given his proven vote-getting and fundraising skills. His assumed candidacy explained the reluctance of GOP Congressman Steve Daines to challenge for the seat — a better possibility now that Schweitzer has declined to run."

A Daines bid could create a domino effect: "Two other Republicans, former state Sen. Corey Stapleton, of Billings, and current state Rep. Champ Edmunds, of Missoula, already are in the U.S. Senate race. Edmunds has said he would drop to the House race if Daines goes for the Senate."

Here's how Politico sees the state of play at this point: "Republicans are favored to win two seats left vacant by Democratic retirements -- in West Virginia and South Dakota -- and the Schweitzer move will make it much easier for the GOP to win in Montana. That means the battle for the majority will likely be fought in a handful of red states with Democratic incumbents, including North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alaska."

Of course, a bunch of Senate losses in the past two cycles have pretty much beaten the excessive optimism out of us, hasn't it?

Democrats: Investigate the IRS Investigator!

The Democrats' new strategy on the IRS scandal: Investigate the investigator, it's all his fault anyway:

As Republicans press their investigation into the Internal Revenue Service, Democrats are trying to turn the focus to the Republican ties of the agency's chief investigator, Inspector General J. Russell George, whose May audit ignited the firestorm.

Late last week, House Democrats charged that some of Mr. George's work has been "highly misleading," and they demanded that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has been taking the lead in investigating the IRS, call back the inspector general not just as an investigator, but as the target of lawmakers' inquiry.

"The committee has obtained new documents that raise serious questions about the inspector general's report, his testimony before Congress, and his subsequent assertions in letters to members of Congress," Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat, said Friday in a letter to committee Chairman Darrel E. Issa, California Republican, demanding that Republicans call Mr. George to reappear before the panel.

The moves put more scrutiny on Mr. George, whose official title is Treasury inspector general for tax administration. He served as an aide to Sen. Bob Dole, Kansas Republican, and President George H.W. Bush before President George W. Bush tapped him in 2002 to serve as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service and to his current post in 2004.

Those Republican ties have Democrats questioning whether Mr. George is serving as an honest broker in his investigations.

"This is a Republican-appointed inspector general. This is someone who has donated and worked for prominent Republicans. Are we as Democrats and the public to believe that he is objective and simply followed the truth where it leads?" said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, a Virginia Democrat on the oversight panel who questioned Mr. George during a May 22 hearing.

Did Connolly have any gripes with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood? Defense Secretaries Chuck Hagel or Robert Gates? Because they've worked for prominent Republicans, donated to Republicans, and so on.

Meanwhile in Syria . . .

I wonder how much the administration is counting on the Israeli Defense Forces to do any particularly dirty work in Syria:

Israel carried out an air attack in Syria this month that targeted advanced antiship cruise missiles sold to the Syria government by Russia, American officials said Saturday.

The officials, who declined to be identified because they were discussing intelligence reports, said the attack occurred July 5 near Latakia, Syria's principal port city. The target was a type of missile called the Yakhont, they said.

The Russian-made weapon has been a particular worry for the Pentagon because it expanded Syria's ability to threaten Western ships that could be used to transport supplies to the Syrian opposition, enforce a shipping embargo or support a possible no-flight zone.

The missile also represented a threat to Israel's naval forces and raised concerns that it might be provided to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has joined the war on the side of the Syrian government.

The attack against the missiles came to light after Syrian rebels said that they were not responsible for large explosions at Latakia on July 5, and that a missile warehouse had been hit. American officials did not provide details on the extent of the damage or the number of missiles struck.

ADDENDUM: New York magazine admits that the city's politics are getting pretty ugly these days:

Dare we call them . . . two-faced?

NRO Digest — July 15, 2013

Today on National Review Online . . .

JOHN FUND: The prosecutorial misconduct in Zimmerman's trial reveals a judicial system run amok. Injudicious Criminal Justice in Florida

THE EDITORS: The jury in Zimmerman's trial delivered the only reasonable verdict. A Just Verdict

ANDREW C. MCCARTHY: Holder's DOJ isn't finished. A Bogus Investigation

ROBERT COSTA: On immigration, a freshman Tom Cotton speaks for the right flank of the House GOP. Picking Tom Cotton

JONATHAN STRONG: Boehner's immigration strategy may implode. Speaker Boehner's Piecemeal Problem

THE EDITORS: The House still has a chance to improve food stamps. For Food Stamps, a Real Work Requirement

BETSY WOODRUFF: Wendy Davis won the battle, but Rick Perry won the war. Texas: How Pro-Lifers Won

CHARLES C. W. COOKE: Greg Abbott casts himself as a fighter for Texas. Abbott Launches Texas Gubernatorial Campaign

HANS A. VON SPAKOVSKY: Reid aims to silence the minority in the Senate. Tuesday's First Strike on the Filibuster

KATHERINE CONNELL: In the wake of Sandy Hook, Connecticut follows the Pelosi rule. Rush to Gun Control

To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com

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