The tragic death of Trayvon Martin has been the catalyst for the latest racially-centered media frenzy in the United States. This issue of if the crime was racially motivated has dominated the news for weeks. Since the day after the shooting, the incident has been a featured story in nearly every major newspaper, periodical and news television show. Of the innumerable amount of crimes that are committed every day, only a small percentage make it into the news, and an even lesser number is ever a matter of national news. Opinions about this case abound, but one sentiment that the ubiquitous talking heads on television news shows focus on is the issue of race. It is likely that if this case were not racially involved (and the crime potentially racially motivated) that it would not be such a sensationalized account. How can we explain why this has become a leading story? Why is this incident so newsworthy? Bernie Goldberg, author of the book, “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News”, appeared on the FOX Network’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on March 27 and said the following regarding Trayvon Martin’s killer,
“He’s being called a white Hispanic. If George Zimmerman won a Nobel Prize for medicine I guarantee you he wouldn't be called a white Hispanic. But they need the word "white" in there to further the story line, which is "white vigilante kills black unarmed teenager" so it -- what makes the story juicy for the media and what -- what justifies the existence in some cases of some of these civil rights leaders is that it has to be black victim, white shooter. If it were anything else, they don't care about it.” (Goldberg, 2012)
It is likely that if Martin’s killer were the same color, the story would not be national news. In this case, the fact that the killer is not black seems to be the most notable detail. His color certainly played a part in his