Here’s how dumb gets recycled in the media:
Step No. 1: . New revelations emerge in a big story. Here, it’s the Trayvon Martin case, in which authorities release surveillance video of the 17 year old making his last purchase at a 7-Eleven.
Step No. 2: These fresh elements in the story give commentators something to talk about, an opportunity to reprise the ridiculous things they’ve said before — and even tried to apologize for.
Step No. 3: A highly rated show takes up the topic. In a Friday night appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Geraldo Rivera repeats his mantra that the real problem in the Trayvon Martin case is fashion. As he and O’Reilly take a look at the 7-Eleven video, Geraldo calls the black hoodie on Martin “thug wear.”
Step No. 4: Repeat! People who think this way, you see, get multiple chances to foist their thoughts on the public, and so Geraldo is back at it on Sunday night. On his Fox News show “Geraldo at Large,” the host presses Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump on the teen’s choice of clothing. “If he had taken that damn hood off his head ... don’t you think that that could have avoided this awful tragedy?” asks Geraldo.
Crump is ready for this blather. “Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, one of the richest men in the world, wears a hoodie every day. And so you mean to tell me that if Mark Zuckerberg was walking through a gated community, he could be profiled and killed by George Zimmerman?” Crump once again did the easy work of filleting Geraldo’s contention about the hoodie, thus encouraging the host to keep repeating it.
