Critical Thinking - Yesterday I posted a video and CNN story that hit the “national news” of a Step-Father in a fenced back yard, with a baseball mitt, and a belt, and a young boy, with a baseball.
The video was not posted just to “stir emotion”….. It was posted because there is a critical aspect to the Trayvon Martin case that people are overlooking. Well, most people. Bear with me.
Like the Trayvon Martin case, yesterday’s video, which drew the ire of many TreeHouse participants, was/is a media narrative. The media narrative was “Step-Father beats Step-son for dropping ball while playing catch“. That was the substance of the media construct, and it included a nice u-tube video to support it.
There is only one problem. There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, within that actual video to support that assertion. Go back and look at it again. Junior was not smacked for dropping the ball, in fact the ball never leaves his hand – nor do you even see in the video a game of catch – It is just not evident. Again, go back and look at it. There is NOTHING within that video to support a claim that “a boy was beaten by his step-father for dropping a ball while playing catch“. Nothing.
Yet almost everyone accepted that fact. Why?
The only thing that draws you to believe that was/is the accompanying narrative with the video. If you just watched the video, without any predisposition toward what you are witnessing, you “might” draw that conclusion. However, when you watch the video combined with the narrative you are CERTAIN to draw that conclusion. But why?….
You see, it is the combination of the video along with the narrative that directs your evaluation and conclusion. So ask yourself a question: which is having more of an influence upon me, the narrative OR the video?
What does this have to do with George Zimmerman?
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