Literally tens of thousands of publications and media outlets have reported that George Zimmerman weighed 250 pounds and Trayvon Martin weighed 140 pounds.
The weight of 250 pounds for George Zimmerman was based on a police report that was over six years old. He has since lost a lot of weight. Newer pictures of Zimmerman show a much slimmer man.
Media outlets have reported several different heights for George Zimmerman. They have ranged from 5'2" to 5'9". The Sanford police report from the night of the shooting lists Zimmerman at 5'9".
The police surveillance video, recently shown on ABC National News shows a fairly slender George Zimmerman the night of the attack. A close friend of Zimmerman, Joe Oliver, says Zimmerman is 5'8" and currently only weighs 170 pounds.
The police estimated Trayvon at 6'0" and 160 pounds when they wrote the police report the night he was shot. This was probably a conservative estimate, as his family has reported his height at 6'2".
Literally, thousands of media outlets have either reported false weights, or have stated "Zimmerman outweighed Martin by 100 pounds." As far as I can tell, not a single media outlet has printed a retraction.
Last Wednesday, March 21st, I wrote an article about how the media was intentionally distorting the shooting. I wrote about the facts that were being covered up. The article would go on to be viewed nearly a half million times.
I knew that I would be bombarded with attacks when I wrote that article. However, three days later Fox Tampa Bay broke down and played a suppressed interview I that I had brought major attention to. Fox Tampa Bay was apparently embarrassed that they had sat on the interview for twenty five days. They pretended like it was brand new.
The interview had actually been conducted by their sister station, Fox Orlando, on February 27th. Drudge Report linked to the interview and the story rapidly unfolded. During the next few days, everything I reported as a fact about the case on March 21st has now been reported by major media outlets as being true. A few days ago I was even told by a CNN producer that my article played a major role in changing the tone of the Zimmerman/Martin media coverage.
After I had written the article, many people asked me if Zimmerman really outweighed Martin by 100 pounds. I said he probably didn't, but I had no way of knowing Zimmerman's weight. Well, know we know that the media was wrong about that as well. In fact the only thing the media actually got right was the names of the people involved and the fact that Trayvon Martin had died. Even the most prominently shown pictures of Zimmerman and Martin were digitally altered.
Next time you hear a major media outlet complain about "amateur bloggers on the internet," remember the vast multitudes of Trayvon Martin articles that consisted almost entirely of falsehoods.
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