I love when I get requests.
I got once recently asking what my take on the whole Trayvon Martin
situation might be. Well, here it
is:
My take on the whole Trayvon Martin situation is…well…to tell the
truth, what I know about the case I only about in the periphery. I mean, you can’t turn a television on,
you can’t read a newspaper, you can’t go clicky-clicky on the interwebs without
running into bits and pieces of it, so I know the basics but it’s not a story
I’m actively following.
I’ll tell you why: This
story feels very contrived to me.
Please don’t misunderstand.
I think it’s horrible that this poor kid got shot. I think it’s horrible that this man
shot him and that Florida seems to have laws that make it a gray area as to
whether or not shooting an unarmed boy is legal or not. It is unquestionably a tragedy. One life lost, one life probably
ruined, many other lives forever changed—this is going to reverberate.
It feels contrived to me though because you can almost feel the hand of
the media wherever you turn in this story and frankly, I’m starting to wonder
if perhaps this is how the media in Florida rolls? First, let me dispel any notion that I’m ignorant of the
FACT that the media contrives all of the “news” we hear today. They do. News used to be about gathering and disseminating facts. Now, news is a business and it has been
for some time now. Now, news is
about the story, the narrative and about entertaining the audience.
Here are some cold, hard truths:
People get killed in tragic circumstances every single day. Kids are gunned down by adults every
single day. A lot of them look
like what Obama’s son might look like.
A lot of them are wearing hoodies when they die. A lot of mothers kill their kids. It’s sad. It’s true. So,
what’s so important about THESE specific cases that they seem to warrant
national media attention and the inundation of every television, radio,
computer, phone and conversation?
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both of these stories originate
in Florida. I don’t think it’s a
coincidence that the Trayvon Martin story comes so closely on the heels of the
conclusion of Casey Anthony being every day news. When Casey Anthony was flogged to death as a story, a vacuum
came into existence and demanded that SOMETHING fill it. Let’s play Big Shot News Executive for
a moment. Your ratings go through
the roof during the Casey Anthony story and trial. You make such a story of it that it gets national attention,
which fuels and feeds the local stories even more. The constant attention it gets almost forces everyone to
have an opinion and having opinions leads to argument and further attention on
the story and then our basic need and desire to be “right” keeps us
riveted. The results? Higher ratings, increased ad revenue,
professional notoriety—in short, the result is financial and professional
success for all involved in the telling of the story.
Then it goes away.
Ratings go back down to more normal numbers. Fickle advertisers come and go with more regularity. You go from being a professional
success to being yesterday’s news.
In short, the financial and professional success you saw rise begins to
fade away. You can almost see the
board room filled with stuffy suits and everyone with an opinion on what can be
done to get things back to good.
And it’s not just the board rooms. Writers, reporters, cameramen, editors, all of the people
who had a connection to fame for a moment feel the void and the emptiness and
they all want it back. It was like
a drug and now… Now, they feel
like they’re in withdrawal.
It sets up an environment where everyone feels pressure to make things
as good as they were before. So,
whether it’s conscious (as I feel it is) or not, instead of looking for news
stories, these news agencies start looking for characters. They report what they must, but they
keep their eyes open because they are casting for the next big thing. They are looking for compelling
characters for the next Reality News Show.
Enter Trayvon Martin.
Enter George Zimmerman.
Enter (bless his heart) Geraldo Rivera. Enter President Obama.
Enter The Miami Heat. Stir
it up, add some chocolate chips, bake for 3-5 months at 451 degrees Fahrenheit
and all that financial and personal and professional success comes back in the
pre-packaged, delicious treat that makes mouths water.
What I think about the Trayvon Martin situation is that it’s an example
of mass manipulation. I think it’s
a local news story that’s gotten national attention because of great casting
and excellent production. Is
Trayvon Martin the angel that he seems he must be in so many of the pictures
that have been released? Or, is he a hoodie-wearing thug with a gangster
limp? Is George Zimmerman a
concerned citizen trying to protect his family and the families of those in his
beloved neighborhood or is he a racist, trigger-happy killer who saw an
opportunity to kill a human being and get away with it? Is this a race thing? Is it a Second Amendment issue? Is this controversial Florida Law about
using firearms just? The answers
are irrelevant, that fact that there’s so much to talk about, so many story
lines for the producers to exploit as this Reality News Show goes on is all
that matters.
What do I think about the Trayvon Martin situation? I think the shooting occurred on
February 26th. I think
that the Nielson Winter Sweeps period where ratings are established for shows,
often deciding how much ad revenue will be earned for a quarter ran from
February 2nd through February 29th. In other words, if the ratings for the
various news shows were down—it was the final week, the final few days to turn
those numbers around before advertisers starting considering other options.
THAT is what I think about the Trayvon Martin situation. I think it’s a local story that became
a national story because the Florida media knows how to cast and produce a
Reality Show. I think they have
practice at it. I think they were
desperate to fill the void left by the conclusion of the final season of The
Casey Anthony Show. I feel like
the sad reality is that kids get killed all too often and I notice that not all
of them become national news sensations—in fact, few do.
I feel manipulated. Say
what you will about Snooki, The Situation and the rest of the Jersey Shore
gang, but at least with them, what you see is what you get. With the news—THE NEWS—we are told that
we are getting journalism, but what we truly get it Must-See TV. No thanks. I’ve got better things to do with my time.
