How The News Fails Us

In listening to the news regarding this Zimmerman/Williams shooting, I've yet to hear a recounting of the facts. All I hear are reports of death threats, how this vigilante went nuts on a black kid in a hoodie, how the Miami Heat wear hoodies in solidarity, how Geraldo blames the kid for wearing a hoodie, how President Obama weighs in on the issue, blah, blah, fucking blah. Can the media tell the story about what actually happened? Not a mealy-mouthed, from this or that perspective, but you know, a good old recounting of the facts and events that actually took place? You would think this is obvious. You would think this is what people would want to hear and know. But no. What people want to do is to find racial grievance in the issue - if they are predisposed to racial grievance; they use this example of why kids shouldn't wear hoodies, if they are predisposed to not liking hoodies. Man, this is a huge failure of our national press, who seems to benefit from rubbing salt on the wound and exploiting this tragedy for a few days of increased ad revenue as the people follow the case. What happened to the press...or just the idea of the press trying to find the truth of a story?

UPDATE: And why are all these people crying for vigilante violence - such as Spike Lee and the Black Panthers? Innocent black teenagers get killed all the time in gang wars and in drug related violence - why does this particular case galvanize people, while they just sit back and accept the rest as part of the tragedy of life? Why is a black teenager victim at the hands of a non-black perp worse than a victim at the hands of a black perp? Especially in post-racial America? It's not like anyone thinks this was a hate crime or this kid specifically targeted because he was black. It is obviously a mistake by an overzealous neighborhood watch guy. I mean - is this fundamentally worse than a drunk driver killing someone?