[molson]

It wasn't even proven at trial that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin after dispatch suggested he didn't. That was one of the big initial facts that everyone wanted to hang Zimmerman on. But it's not even clear that happened. His story was that he was on his way back to his car, and that could be bullshit, but it's not disproven by any evidence.

The early media reports of this were beyond obnoxious, and you really have to look at the trial evidence and not the stuff the media made up. There were reports that Zimmerman said "fucking coons" on the call. He didn't. NBC doctored the audio to make it sound like Zimmerman volunteered "he looks black!" to the dispatcher, when actually that was a response in a question from dispatch about Martin's race. Different media organizations doctored Zimmerman's mug shot photo to make him look whiter. The NYTimes and others popularized the phrase "white Hispanic", when they were hit with the severe disappointment that Zimmerman wasn't a WASPy guy wearing a cardigan. They never used that term before this case. I get so annoyed when the media can't get death tolls right, reports people as Boston terrorism suspects when they aren't, or announce arrest warrants were filed a week before they are just in an effort to be "first", but this had bigger stakes for Zimmerman and Martin and even society, and the conduct was deplorable. They wanted to this story to be a certain way, and if the facts didn't support it, they just made up their own. And of course there was a blacklash to that in more conservative media circles that exaggerated Martin's "thugishness" or whatever. Which was also deplorable. I don't think Zimmerman was as evil as portrayed by the left media or that Martin was as evil as portrayed by the right media. Just two guys who apparently both made some errors in judgment to a tragic result that Martin didn't deserve, and Zimmerman probably didn't' deserve to go to prison forever for.