It seems the butthurt is deep at the BBC over the Zimmerman verdict. Using the topic of celebrity lawyers as a hook, the BBC’s Tara Mckelvey has penned a hit-piece portraying Zimmerman lawyer Mark O’Mara as a self-serving celebrity-craving huckster using up his 15 minutes of fame to foment anger: “Zimmerman’s lawyer raises profile – and incites rage”
You won’t find BBC articles on the Zimmerman trial questioning the race-baiting comments from hustlers such as the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson. One assumes their views are taken as pearls of conventional wisdom within the politically correct world of left-liberal BBC newsrooms.
Mckelvey explains that the “vigilante” George Zimmerman shot Martin “through the heart”.
The jury accepted self-defence as justification for the shooting. The trial resulted in freedom for Mr Zimmerman – and in a new profile for O’Mara.
A “Justice For Trayvon” photo appears at this point in the article.
Mckelvey tells us that O’Mara’s “fame, or notoriety, was ratcheted up even more after the trial”.
After the jury reached their verdict, Mr O’Mara spoke at a press conference – and surprised people with his inflammatory comments about race.
If Zimmerman had been black, said Mr O’Mara, “he never would have been charged with a crime”.
“This became a focus for a civil rights event, which again is a wonderful event to have,” O’Mara said.
“But they decided that George Zimmerman would be the person who they were to blame and sort of use as the creation of a civil rights violation,” Mr O’Mara said. “The facts that night were not borne out that he acted in a racial way.”
Many people found his remarks offensive.
People such as BBC journalist Tara Mckelvey, evidently.
But what O’Mara said is true. Zimmerman did “become a focus for civil rights violation” because of the colour of skin. It happened when the race hustlers got involved. It happened when Obama said “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon.” It happened when the media made Zimmerman a “white Hispanic” and tried to portray him as a racist, even to the extent of selectively editing his 911 call. And it’s also true that the “facts that night were not borne out that he acted in a racial way.” The FBI conducted extensive interviews with Zimmerman, his friends and his colleagues, and could find no evidence he was racist.
Mckelvey then gives us a renatgob with approved views to make the case against O’Mara.
“The defence looked unfeeling and callous during the trial,” says Jeannine Bell, a professor of law at Indiana University. “This comment – that if Zimmerman had been black, he would not have been charged – reinforced that view.”
Jeannine Bell is author of “Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, and Hate Crime”. It’s always someone like that the BBC calls on, isn’t it? God forbid they ever get the views of a black conservative. How about asking, say, Thomas Sowell for example, eh BBC?
Mckelvey continues:
Mr O’Mara may have appeared callous, yet his remarks fuelled his fame. It is not clear how long he will stay in the limelight, though.
After a few paragraphs on other celebrity lawyers, she wraps up her article by quoting another on-message expert:
“Celebrity journalists [sic] have an agenda,” says Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California. “They know exactly what they want to use the media for.”
Mr O’Mara’s racially charged comments at the press conference after the trial may have been an honest expression of his views but were not “helpful” to his client, says Ms Levenson.
“Being on camera in a press conference is not the time to vent,’ she says. “It’s not a therapy session.”
Mr O’Mara heightened tension with his racially charged remarks after the trial, she says, and made the situation harder for his client. She believes that his remarks hurt his chances for a career as a celebrity lawyer.
“This is O’Mara’s 15 minutes of fame,” says Ms Levenson. “It’s a flash in the pan.”
“incites rage… notoriety… inflammatory comments… offensive… unfeeling and callous… callous… racially charged comments… racially charged remarks”. Get the point? He’s a bad, bad man. Luckily he’ll be “a flash in the pan”, so he’ll get his and no mistake. The “15 minutes of fame” line is the pull quote used in the sidebar of the article.
According to Wikipedia Laurie Levenson is “a frequent television commentator on criminal legal issues, first coming to fame as a frequent commentator for CBS in the OJ Simpson trial.” Perhaps she sees O’Mara as a potential competitor on the circuit?
Not mentioned in Mckelvey’s hit-piece are O’Mara’s comments on the prosecutors:
Zimmerman’s lawyer calls prosecutors ‘disgrace’ to profession
(Reuters) – George Zimmerman’s chief defense lawyer on Monday called Florida prosecutors “a disgrace to my profession” for holding back evidence for months and pledged a new effort to impose sanctions against them.
Mark O’Mara and co-counsel Don West argued the self-defense case that helped Zimmerman win an acquittal of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges on Saturday for the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
The law requires prosecutors to share evidence with defense attorneys, especially if it helps exonerate defendants. The requirement is known as the Brady disclosure.
O’Mara accused prosecutors of several Brady violations, which were heard by Judge Debra Nelson before the trial. Nelson postponed some of her decisions on sanctions until after trial, saying the process was time-consuming.
“This is not acceptable, and is not going to be tolerated in any case that I’m involved in,” O’Mara told Reuters in New York on Monday, accusing special prosecutor Angela Corey and lead trial attorney Bernie de la Rionda of Brady violations.
Pointing out any of that doesn’t serve the petty revenge-driven agenda of Mckelvey, so she conveniently ignores it.
Another low in the BBC’s biased coverage of this issue.
UPDATE. Tara McKelvey has form: BBC Admits Error in Claiming Race Played Role in Cleveland Kidnappings Coverage (h/t The Beebinator)
