NOW THIS IS JOURNALISM – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  As readers know, we're not terribly warm here toward the mainstream media.  Low standards, bias, poor research and breathless reporting (without many facts) too often mark our journalism.  And too many "journalists" spend their time waving their Ivy League degrees, instead of doing the work. 

But Reuters has now moved a story on the background of George Zimmerman, the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case, that is just superb.  Filled with facts, not opinions.  No racialism.  No political correctness.  The case is volatile.  We've been subjected to spectacular, and often wrong, "reporting."  The usual suspects have come out of the woodwork.  And, of course, journalism's pseudo-intellectuals, like Soledad O'Brien at CNN, have tried to be profound, seeing deep social significance, where there may not be anything but a tragedy.

Please read the Reuters piece.  It's here.   An excerpt:

The 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator comes from a deeply Catholic background and was taught in his early years to do right by those less fortunate. He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather - the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

A criminal justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young African-American men.

Though civil rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Martin, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account.

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin."

COMMENT:  The piece also presents some negatives things in Zimmerman's past.  The reporter, Chris Francescani, simply did the job.  I cannot tell from the piece what side he's on, if any, which is one mark of a good journalist.

I wish the rest of the press had met this standard.  It did not.

April 26, 2012