The Latest Trial of the Century

So I heard something about a Zimmerman verdict? I think it was a trial or something. Anyway it was supposed to have been a case that defined a generation, or seeped into the national consciousness, or something like that. I somehow got the sense that it was the most important case in the history of mankind, even though it sounded like just kind of a regular old murder case - you know, the kind that probably happens in your local neighborhood pretty often? But for some reason this case was not just newsworthy, but bold face headline-worthy.

ABC World News* has been talking about the “high drama” in this Zimmerman case for quite a while, and I still haven’t figured out why it’s so dramatic. Nobody involved is famous in any way, at least prior to the case. No movie stars or pro athletes. Let me check the Wikipedia page to see if I’m missing something. Nope, nothing that I can see. It just looks like a random murder that, for whatever reason, turned into a racially-charged media circus. I suppose it just happened to have all of those divisive issues that major media loves to highlight.

Personally, I don’t know anyone involved and couldn’t care less if he’s guilty or not guilty.

• A while back I switched from the NBC Nightly News podcast to the ABC World News podcast. Holy crap was that a mistake. Diane Sawyer has got to be the worst anchorwoman in the history of news. She puts such an overemphasis on adding question marks to the end of headlines. She sounds exactly like a comedy parody of a newsperson, like the late Diane Simmons from Family Guy.