I don’t know how the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin episode will end but I do know who is already being convicted – The Main Stream Media (MSM).

Once 911 audio and police surveillance video were released the media went into full race baiting mode and tried to be the first to ‘prove’ how George Zimmerman was a racist and shot Trayvon Martin in cold blood.  But after careful analysis of the audio and video, many MSM outlets had to make embarrassing retractions and revisions that should reveal to Americans just how lost the MSM is.

On 28-MAR-12 ABC reported that the police surveillance tape showed no signs of injury to Zimmerman and this supposedly supported the racial driven narrative that Martin was a victim of a hate crime.  But on 02-APR-12 ABC changed their position after enhanced video footage clearly showed a cut on the back of Zimmerman’s head.  

As if CBS were working from the same playbook as ABC, they came out with a story on 28-MAR-12 stating that the video showed no injuries to Zimmerman and then had to backtrack with a story on 03-APR-12 admitting the video did show injuries to Zimmerman’s head. 

There is a very detailed post at Sistertoldjah showing how CNN first reported that the 911 audio clearly revealed a racist word used by Zimmerman to describe Martin but days later had to do their own backstroke and admit that Zimmerman was instead stating that it was “F&cking Cold” outside (which it was in Florida on the day of the shooting).

But perhaps the worst example of journalistic ethics came from NBC and is detailed at PJ Tatler.

Here is what the full transcript of the 911 call contained:

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good, [begin ellipsis] or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic? [End ellipsis]

ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

Here is how NBC first broadcasted the 911 audio after its own editing:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car.

To NBC’s credit, they have fired the producer responsible for this “error” (as NBC explains it) but I find it very hard to call this an editing error when it looks more like a blatant attempt to present Zimmerman as a racist.

I remember a time when journalism was an honored profession and those who chose to enter that field understood the ethics that were required in providing the news to the public.  Somewhere along the way I feel that journalists stop getting degrees in Journalism and instead chose the Political Science route and they bypassed the training in ethics.  The Zimmerman smear campaign by the MSM shows us just how biased the traditional media are and why more people are looking to new media in the forms of blog sites to find details and vetting of the stories.