So now it appears NBC has fired an "un-named," producer who altered the George Zimmerman 911 call and by doing so inflamed racial tensions in South Florida. Does anyone really believe this is an honest mistake with all of the editorial checks a mainstream news organization like NBC has in place? Is there anyone out there who doesn't think the Mainstream Media doesn't have a political agenda? And oh, how about that vast right wing media that exposed this breach of journalistic integrity? Thirty years ago we would have never known about it.
I remember almost 50 years ago when JFK was assassinated on a Friday afternoon in Dallas. For the next 24 hours all we heard about were all the right wing hate groups in Dallas. Then on Saturday afternoon we find out that Lee Harvey Oswald was of all things, a pro-Castro Marxist. And I remember the Tawana Brawley case where the "Reverend" Al Sharpton tried to inflame racial tensions in upstate New York and later we found out the whole story was a hoax.
I lived in Atlanta in 1996 when we had the Centennial Olympic Park bombing and the media all jumped on the bandwagon to accuse a poor little security guard named Richard Jewell of being the bomber. Later we discovered he was only guilty of trying to warn people of a suspicious package. And I am sure we all remember the Duke lacrosse team case when the media was judge, juror and executioner on the white guys on the lacrosse team. Later, once again, we found out the whole thing was a hoax and the district attorney actually was convicted of abusing his power.
One other fact about the Richard Jewell case. Several media organizations had to pay him an, "undisclosed" sum for their erroneous reporting and one of those was NBC. I hope when this is all over George Zimmerman owns Rockefeller Center.
Doug Jones
North Chattanooga
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Zimmerman is nothing but a neighborhood bully, who shot a kid for no real reason. He pursued this kid, and then shot him when the kid took issue with his being followed.
Zimmerman didn't do his neighborhood any help, and I'd wager everyone living in that community is on edge right now. I know exactly how I would feel if this had happened in my neighborhood, and in fact would patrol my neighborhood for people like Zimmerman.
The same people who want to push guns in bars are the ones taking up for Zimmerman, and they are mostly Republican. You know, Mr. Jones, you don't need a gun in a bar if you don't insult other people.
Stephen Durham
freethinker1963@yahoo.com
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Doug Jones is suffering from tunnel vision. He only sees his side of the debate. What does he think Fox News is? Fairy Tale Hour.
The Chattanooga Free Press has never had a decent thing to say about President Obama. It's supported union busting for decades and in my opinion has a bigoted editorial staff going back to Roy McDonald.
It seems that Doug has never heard of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the crazy bigoted women on Fox News . Yes, Doug stay in your happy world of deception, lies, half truths and you'll be alright.
Chuck Mehan
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Talk, figurative talk, and whether spoken or written, is cheap when we have a mere few facts being supplied by a provably biased national media, race baiters on both sides of the issue, and others who want nothing more than to stir the kimchi pot.
It's easy to bloviate about what we would do in some circumstance, especially when we've never found ourselves in that particular position, but none of us knows for certain until it happens unless we're constantly training for a variety of those dangerous situations.
Truly free thinking individuals will wait for all the facts to come out about Mr. George Zimmerman, Latino Mighty Whitie and registered Democrat, before attempting to draw conclusions as to his guilt or innocense, especially from several hundred miles away when eye witness accounts indicate he was being attacked rather than the other way around.
Truly free thinking individuals won't attempt to draw conclusions contrary to those who are on site, especially when those include police, paramedics, and residents of the neighborhood in which the incident occurred, when their only information comes from, now proven, biased sources using "doctored evidence." NBC got caught with their trousers down, around their collective ankles, on this one just like CBS and Dan Rather when they had to retract a story about President Bush's military service.
Truly free thinking individuals won't try to use a totally inappropriate, and incorrect, analogy between a horrible event involving two people and guns in bars, blaming an entire group for what happened. As for guns in bars, whenever the force of law is used to restrict guns from any area all that's created is a free-kill zone for those who aren't going to abide by the law anyway. Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp would probably agree with that statement, and there are numerous examples of it as well... Virginia Tech, Columbine, Jonesboro, Killian, and more.
Truly free thinking individuals would never use one event to justify their collective stance toward an issue or belief, especially when the facts simply don't support their contention. Self proclaimed free thinkers who would even attempt to do so often perceive themselves to be master debaters when, in fact, all they are is master baiters... freely jumping into the pot with the rest of those who would use race, ethnicity, religion, income, genealogy, occupation, or other characteristic as bait to draw one group into conflict with another. That's merely being part of a herd, not free thinking.
It's been said that an armed society is a polite society. There's a reason for that.
Kookookachoo...
Royce Burrage, Jr.
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Despite the fact that everything that Mr. Jones said was true, Mr. Durham and Mr. Mehan, by their responses, are apparently both card carrying members of the left wing Kool-Aid society who refuse to accept the fact that their news sources, the left-wing biased media (aka the Mainstream Media), love to stir up racial tensions via their brand of yellow journalism.
Mr. Durham, I am assuming, was not at the scene of the incident, yet he knows that Mr. Zimmerman is a neighhood bully who killed Mr. Martin for no reason. There is not one fact in evidence that I am aware of that supports that hypothesis, yet Mr. Durham states it as fact. It sounds like he may be a good candidate for that newly vacant producers job at NBC.
Mr. Mehan's response is equally loopy as he goes off on several unrelated tangents to express his hatred for a number of folks without any supporting evidence (which is a long-held tactic of the left).
The bottom line is that Mr. Jones brings facts to the table while his detractors bring unsupported opinions and personal diatribes. Regarding the incident itself, I am content to let the investigation unfold in Sanford and let the chips fall where they may. Zimmerman may have committed a crime or he may have been acting in self defense. Time will tell, and until then it is best to keep our biases and theories to ourselves.
As a side note to Mr. Burrage, I do love your opinion posts to the Chattanoogan.com. Your colorful prose nearly always brings a smile to my face which is not to diminish your opinions, which I enjoy as well. If we ever meet in a bar, sir, I want to buy you a beer.
Jim Nelson