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Conservative writer buys into highly questionable liberal media “conclusions” about Zimmerman
Isn’t Michael Brendan Dougherty supposed to be some kind of intelligent conservative, in the traditionalist or paleoconservative camp? Indeed, he is a regular contributor at The American Conservative. Yet here he is at Business Insider brainlessly and uncritically passing on to the reading public the supposed “scientific” conclusion of supposed “voice recognition expert” Tom Owen that the voice on the tape is not George Zimmerman’s. (See VFR’s in-depth discussion of Owen and the problems of voice recognition here.) Dougherty also uncritically and mindlessly passes on the supposed “fact” that the videotape of Zimmerman arriving at the police station does not show any signs of injury. A friend told me the same thing the other day. I asked, how detailed, how close up, was this video? My friend replied that it seemed to be a shot taken from a surveillance camera. I said, how can you make any conclusions about the existence or non-existence of injuries to a man’s nose or head based on a distant surveillance video? Then we saw the tape on TV. It was a distant shot from above, out of focus, and one did not see any obvious signs of injury on Zimmerman’s head. I repeated, how could anyone possibly make such a definite statement based on such a vague tape? Then, lo and behold, the TV station (it was probably Fox News) played a sharpened, slowed-up close-up of the same videotape and something that looked like an injury became visible on the back of Zimmerman’s head. So the supposed fact that he had no injuries dissolved.
It is disturbing and frightening how suggestible even intelligent people are, how they will automatically believe anything that is presented to them as “fact,” no matter how questionable, inconclusive, and tendentious these “facts” really are. In particular, it is not acceptable that conservatives, living in an environment of discourse controlled by lying liberals, should instantly swallow whatever the liberal media present to them. Wake up, people. Email entry |