That Patriot-News, the world renowned experts on self-defense, hysterically say yes, someone could indeed shoot another in Pennsylvania under questionable circumstances. Shocking! Clearly these folks were Presidents of the debate society in school. No, says the York Daily Record, since Pennsylvania law is different from Florida.
The York Daily Record is closer to correct, but the fact of the matter is even Florida’s law isn’t factoring into the Martin shooting, based on both narratives. Maybe the traditional media ought to take a look at their shallow and inaccurate coverage of complex issues, often deliberate in my opinion, to understand why people are turning away from them in ever increasing numbers.
It increasingly appears that “what happened” was exactly what should have happened. Self-defense worked.
Amazingly, the media’s horrendous coverage of the Martin shooting actually is being covered by the media. I about fell out of my chair when I saw that headline.
I’m pretty sure it was NBC’s amazingly stupid and criminal dishonesty that forced their hand; note also it’s a Yahoo media blog item, not e.g. something from the AP. Stupid because unlike NBC’s rocket engine sexing up of a truck collision which was only apparent to experts, with the police department and Mother Jones respectively providing the 911 audio and transcript far too many people could immediately catch the editing.
But notice how it buried that in the middle of the article between two nothingburger incidents and kept the usual picture of an 11 year old Martin vs. Zimmerman’s mug shot. Overall thoroughly dishonest, but they can say the called out this really dangerous excess of the 4th Estate, even though it just about deserves J’accuse level treatment.
“Maybe the traditional media ought to take a look at their shallow and inaccurate coverage of complex issues…” ut that would require, you know, work! As in the form of real investigative journalism.
The “The Patriot-News” is owned by Advance Publications (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Publications). The parent company of such anti-gun newspaers as the Newark, NJ “The Star-Ledger”, the Easton, PA “The Express-Times” and the Cleveland, OH “The Plain Dealer”.
Par for the course.
That would often require variation from “the narrative” to include facts, so no it isn’t likely to happen.
“Maybe the traditional media ought to take a look at their shallow and inaccurate coverage of complex issues…”
Newspapers are in a final, downward death spiral: fewer readers and advertisers equals less revenue equals fewer reporters and less investigative reporting equals fewer readers (rinse, lather, repeat.) The unfortunate thing is, there really isn’t a good replacement source for newspapers that covers all issues in a single place. I commend blogs like this one for covering issues near & dear to me, but how many non-gun enthusiasts browse here? Newspapers had their faults (note the already past tense), but they were better than either vacuums or the partisan echo chambers that too often pass for news. It’s a troublesome situation and one with no clear solution I can see.
“Laws like ‘stand your ground’ give citizens unfettered power and discretion with no accountability. It is a recipe for disaster.â€
Isn’t that EXACTLY what cops have had for decades?
And courtesy of a link from the Instapundit, the Grey … well, I don’t think she’s a Lady anymore, reports that Zimmerman’s weight at the time of the shooting was 170 pounds vs. the quite a bit over 200 that’s been reported, apparently from his prior arrest record:
“The NY Times Quietly Takes Its Thumb Off The Scale Of Justice“; quoting the NYT:
That puts rather a different complexion on things, like Martin’s likely and if so correct estimation that he’d prevail in hand to hand combat (whoever threw the first punch; hmmmm, how come people aren’t asking why Martin didn’t retreat if he could?).