With George Zimmerman's trial starting in Central Florida this week for the murder of Miami-area teen Trayvon Martin, the controversial case has rocketed back to the headlines. Fox News, however, appears to have taken a novel approach to its coverage of the tragedy, and recently invited a guest on who claims, "You could probably kill somebody with Skittles."
Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman, grew suspicious of Martin as he was walking through the Stanford, Florida neighborhood where his father's girlfriend lived. Zimmerman followed Martin and eventually got into a confrontation with the teen. The exact details of what happened next are still under debate, but Zimmerman ended up fatally shooting Martin. Martin was carrying only a bag of Skittles candy and a can of Arizona iced tea.
Yesterday morning, Fox News invited on Doug Burns, a former federal prosecutor, to discuss the case. He had a bizarre take on events.
"I know everybody keeps sarcastically saying about the Skittles," Burns said, perhaps mocking those who use Skittles as a symbol of Martin's innocence. "You could probably kill somebody with a Skittle," he joked. Taking his idea one step further, Burns said, "The thing is, yeah, you're spinning a lot of hypotheticals, and you could break a bottle of iced tea, right, with the jagged edge, and you could kill somebody with it."
Of course, the thing is Martin had an aluminum can of Arizona iced tea.
So that shoots down that argument.
The fact that someone can be so cynical and crack jokes on national television about the death of a 17-year-old boy is something we cannot explain. Dude, when even the Fox News anchor is arguing with your point of view, maybe it's time to shut it.
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