Just when you thought the controversy over the Trayvon Martin shooting couldn’t get any worse, it got worse. Or, more accurately, several parties helped make it worse.
Enter Marcus Davonne Higgins, a Los Angeles man no one’s probably ever heard of, and film director Spike Lee, whom quite a few people have heard of.
I don’t know if Lee knows Higgins, but I’m sure Higgins isn’t a journalist. He can’t be.
We journalist types have these principles and a set of ethics. And the first rule of journalism is this one: If your mother tells you she loves you, you check the woman’s story.
Last week Higgins sent a tweet to several celebrities. According to news reports, one was actor Will Smith; another was basketball superstar LeBron James; and yet another was Lee.
Higgins must be one of those self-appointed social justice crusaders who’ve decided to weigh in — way too heavily and incorrectly, in this instance — on Martin’s fatal shooting in a Sanford, Fla., gated community Feb. 26. Lee is another of those self-appointed social justice crusaders.
George M. Zimmerman, who lives in the gated community where Martin was shot, has admitted to shooting the 17-year-old. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
Higgins’ tweet gave what he thought to be Zimmerman’s address in Sanford. Not being a journalist, Higgins didn’t bother to double-check to see if the address was correct.
Lee, not being a journalist either, also didn’t check. He just shamelessly and recklessly retweeted the incorrect address to the 250,000 people who follow him on Twitter. And this, dear readers, is why the word “Twitter” also has the word “twit” in it.
Suddenly, the Sanford home of Elaine McClain, 70, and her 72-year-old husband, David McClain, started receiving hate mail and threats. George M. Zimmerman does not and has never lived at the address that Lee and others publushed on Twitter. But William George Zimmerman, Elaine McClain’s son from a previous marriage, lived there at one time.
Higgins had tweeted the wrong address. (According to news reports, he did more than that. He tweeted the address with the comment, “Like the fat punk he is, he still lives at home with mommie & daddy.”)
Lee, an African American who’s always trying to prove how black he is, and how down with the brothers he is, probably couldn’t resist what must have come naturally to him. He decided to retweet the address, the better to make his statement about the Martin shooting.
The McClains had to move from their home to a hotel. Lee, after learning of his boneheaded move, apologized. News reports indicate that he’s reached some sort of “financial settlement” with the McClains. That’s a wise move, because a lawsuit was sure to follow.
If this incident proves anything, it shows the utter absurdity of those who claim that Twitter will replace traditional journalism.
Yes, I’ve heard this nonsense uttered. True, people may be able to get some facts faster on Twitter. But that doesn’t mean those facts have been double-checked for accuracy.
The Lee-Higgins incident wasn’t the only Twitter outrage that occurred last week. Baltimore police proudly announced on their Twitter account the arrest of Nicholas Maultsby and Julien Rosaly, who were charged with robbing a couple of nearly $23,000 in jewelry.
Although one of the victims “positively” identified Rosaly as one of the robbers, the fact is he was in a pizza restaurant at the time of the crime, and there was video to prove it.
When it comes to news, citizens are best urged to trust the folks whose first rule is, “If you mother tells you she loves you, you’d better check her story.”
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
