krebscycle

Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinal published a terrible, deceptive, and propagandistic article on Trayvon Martin’s killing. The first paragraph, the lede as we learned to call it in 9th grade, is frankly despicable. Here’s what she wrote:

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law-enforcement authorities told the Orlando Sentinel.

The article tells us that “law enforcement authorities” told the Sentinel that Martin knocked over Zimmerman “with a single punch” and then pounded him into the sidewalk. But we know that the law enforcement authorities were not there are the time, so at most they would be relaying Zimmerman’s account. So accurate attribution, at the least would be “in Zimmerman’s account according to law enforcement authorities.” But reading down the article we find that the “law enforcement authorities” are anonymous leakers, supposedly in the Police Department. Now I’m going to rewrite this for accuracy, depending only on information you can get from a careful reading of this article:

According to an unauthorized source within the Sanford Police Department who the Sentinel has agreed to let remain anonymous, in George Zimmerman’s account, the 17-year old Trayvon Martin knocked him down with a single punch and then climbed on top of him slamming his head onto the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered before Mr. Zimmerman shot and killed Mr. Martin.

 Now that is still not a very accurate lede because it leaves out vital information that the reader does not have. Let’s try again:

According to an unauthorized source within the Sanford Police Department who the Sentinel has agreed to let remain anonymous, in George Zimmerman’s account, the 17-year old Trayvon Martin knocked him down with a single punch and then climbed on top of him slamming his head onto the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered before Mr. Zimmerman shot and killed Mr. Martin. The Sanford Police Department has been harshly criticized for its handling of the case and the reader should know that this account is from someone who has an interest in making the argument that Sanford Police made a reasonable decision in accepting Mr. Zimmerman’s claim that he had killed the teenager in self-defense.

And that’s not a very accurate lede because it does not remind the reader that Mr. Martin had been followed in the dark by Mr. Zimmerman who got out of his car, against Police instructions, to confront the teenager. And it does not even begin to explain to the reader the shoddy handling of evidence and witnesses that the Sanford Police have an interest in justifying.