What a nice little job of media bias

[CitizenBBN]

For those not following, George Zimmerman was back in the news this week. his wife and he are divorcing, no shocker given the strain of his situation, it's turned their whole family upside down.

Well there was some kind of domestic argument at a house between him and her and her father. She claimed he was talking threateningly with his hand on his weapon, but both she and her dad signed papers of non-prosecution. Apparently no gun was ever found and isn't involved in any investigation, so that part may have been made up by the wife.

Anyway, I see this headline on CNN tonight:

"Attorney Mark O'Mara drops George Zimmerman

Mark O'Mara, the attorney who successfully defended George Zimmerman in his second-degree murder trial this year, will no longer represent his notorious client.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/10/justice/zimmerman-lawyer/index.html?hpt=hp_t3


Makes it sound like the attorney has refused to represent him for some reason, doesn't it? "Drops" implies a negative "I'm done with this guy" connotation.

The real story is that O'Mara is now an analyst for CNN and is no longer practicing law as a lead attorney. In the 2nd paragraph, after they've established a connotation, we find out that he said he's not representing Zimmerman in the divorce or this domestic case. No surprise, why would he? He's not a divorce lawyer, he's a trail attorney. Even if he were practicing he wouldn't be Zimmerman's divorce lawyer.

In fact there are still pending cases related to the trial, like the civil suit of NBC. B/c he's now with CNN another attorney has also taken over those cases, but not b/c he's "dropped Zimmerman", b/c he's "dropped his law practice in favor of being a media personality", at least as it relates to this set of cases.

Subtle, making it look like Zimmerman "must really be guilty, even his attorney dropped him", when in fact any changes in legal counsel having nothing to do with Zimmerman's domestic situation at all.

That is how you maintain bias and pitch your side regardless of facts but without actually lying.

[CGWildcat]

That is excellent! Can I share this Citizen?

[DanISSELisdaman]

Zimmerman needs to find a country where he can start a new life and move to it. He will never have any peace in this country and sooner or later, someone will come up with a frame-up that will stick....that is if he's not killed first.

[CitizenBBN]

Please do. The more people can recognize how they are being manipulated into creating a mental image, and how that is done in a way that can't be proven as a "lie" but is still a falsehood, the better. Happens all the time but this was such a classic use of language to create a false connotation I thought it worth posting.

FWIW Zimmerman was searched by police who found no gun and per their statements they don't believe a gun was involved in the incident at all. His wife made that up or he put his hand somewhere that gave the impression he had a gun perhaps. CNN also had a video titled "See Zimmerman in handcuffs", like he's some traveling circus sideshow act, so they were playing to a theme. They had 3 stories on Zimmerman up, nothing about the Colorado recall of their Senate Majority Leader by pro gun voters. There's one up now, but he'd already conceded the race hours before I looked at CNN, and is a pretty big story in the gun debate issue.

But this story stands on its own as a textbook case of using a word's connotation to paint a false image.