...Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.

But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.
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Standing Up For the Constitution



The Constitution is not a rough draft. You don't get to edit or erase parts of it to delete rights for an unpopular or hated defendant.

The Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of the citizen accused from the awesome powers of the Government. It was not enacted to protect the rights of crime victims.

The presumption of innocence is a bedrock of our criminal justice system that applies to the person charged with a crime, not the victim of a crime.

Self-defense is an affirmative defense that may be raised by a defendant in court in response to a criminal charge.

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Looks like the ACLU doesn't support any further prosecution of GZ by the Feds.

http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu_l ... n_case.pdf

How Soon Will This Madness Stop? And How Much of a Damn Should I Give?

“It’s likely that Martin’s death . . . would never have crowded into the national consciousness had it not been for Martin’s family, its lawyers and an enterprising PR man.
“A pivotal, if little-known, figure in the Martin story’s development was Ryan Julison, an Orlando public relations executive . . .
“With the story fading, Julison began trying to revive interest in it, emphasizing a storyline of an unarmed teenager, a neighborhood watchman with a gun and the lack of an arrest.”
– Paul Farhi, “Trayvon Martin story found the media,” Washington Post, April 12, 2012

“Let’s be honest: The George Zimmerman trial is ‘news’ because it’s what TV producers have decided is news.”
– Robert Stacy McCain, July 13, 2013

There is other news I’d rather write about than the continued parade of idiotic What It Means remarks about Trayvon Martin, including those by the Idiot in Chief. I flash back to an early spring day — March 21, 2012 — when this useless public “debate” had just begun. On my way to Louisiana to cover the Republican primary where Rick Santorum’s victory would eventually crush what little hope remained in “Newt 2012,” I stopped by to visit with Ali Akbar over lunch at Cracker Barrel.

My mind was on the primary, but Ali wanted to talk about Trayvon and Zimmerman, subjects about which I knew little and cared less.

This is the important thing to understand. A newsman during the course of a long career writes about a lot of people he really doesn’t care anything about. Unlike a commentator, a working reporter — or a sports editor, or an assistant national editor, or any other of the titles appended as my job description over the years — doesn’t get to choose his assignments. You cover the school-board meeting or the parade or the blizzard or the basketball game because that’s your job, and if you don’t hit your deadline . . . Well, why do you think they call it a “deadline”?

One lives or dies in the news business by one’s ability to turn events into words in a hurry, and if some of the subjects of your assigned beat are more interesting or admirable than others, your sympathies or opinions are really irrelevant: Just hit that deadline. This is what “objectivity” really means: I don’t give a damn about these people.

Telling the story is your job. Deciding how the story ends is not.

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I think that news is a

BOMBSHELL!!

ACLU are actually commenting on an issue that they Should have an interest in... and on the correct side.

July 21, 2013 - Is Zimmerman verdict a diversion to the real issue facing the African American Community today? asks Fox News Sunday Host, Chris Wallace as he is joined by Dr. Benjamin Carson, and Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD), member of the Congressional Black Caucus, to share their opinions on the President's recent comments about racism in this country.

The Zimmerman verdict is a diversion from Benghazi, IRS, NSA, Fast & Furious, Egypt, Detroit, Chicago murder rate, CRS taxpayer funded race baiting, growing Sunni vs. Shia conflicts.

BTW, if Obama is Trayvon, then what does that make Rachel?