Trayvon Martin, Trayvon Martin, Trayvon Martin... What about the Robert Bales case...where 19 were murdered?

The media, unfortunately, tends to fixate on a single story to the exclusion of other important information. I'm guessing they are having a harder time trying to sell the Bales case to the public. The Martin case stirs up fairly simple emotions in the audience. The Bales case is of a soldier who murdered innocent people, and not only that, it is in a war zone where it might not be possible to gather the evidence to prove the case. They might not be sure how to cover a case showing a soldier as a villain and even worse, they won't know what to do if the villain goes free. And on top of that, they can't put reporters on the ground or cover the trial. It is pretty much secret.

The media tends to favor simpler narratives that play better on television.

EDIT: @halfstone, I would agree with your analysis if the question were about some other crime, but the Bales case is interesting and newsworthy at a national level and in need of a great deal of scrutiny because of all the implications. It is very different from the Martin case, which was interesting because of the lack of a response by the police to a known shooter, but it is just as interesting. I don't think that explains why it isn't being covered as much.

I think the difference is that there is some pretty clear evidence that Bales has some serious problems. He was immediately arrested and is being tried in a military tribunal. There is no perception, real or imagined, that he is being treated in any way other than by the letter of military law.

I do think you are wrong about the media treatment of the Trayvon Martin case. They have not "released every detail about the Trayvon Martin case". The media is trying to create furor over racism by releasing biased and cherry-picked information that supports their agenda on both sides. This is all in the name of selling newspapers and air time and furthering an established agenda. Racism sells.

While you are correct, that the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is not atypical, I think the Bales case is.

Given the fact that thousands of our military personnel are in harm's way on a mission that is a dangerous, international mission that involves our national security, I don't think that the press is all to eager to imply that Bales' wanton violence and extreme disregard for human rights is representative of the attitude of the soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. That may open a door of anti-American sentiment both domestically and abroad that we might not be able to close. To treat the Bales case with the same dishonesty that they have treated the Martin case could threaten us as a country.

In contrast, they are all too willing to make the case that Zimmerman is the poster-boy for all white conservatives, in order to paint conservatives as nothing more than a bunch of ignorant racists. It's ok to lie to defeat conservatism or to find racism where it may not exist, but to broaden that lie to undermine the United States internationally is not something the press takes lightly.

@Joe Finkle - Thanks for your comments. I think there is a lot of truth to what you say as well - that the media has less access for various reasons to the Bales case. I have two additional comments to make ...

I think that the truth WAS told initially in the Trayvon Martin case - that the police did not feel they had enough evidence to charge Zimmerman with a crime at the scene, that they worked to build a case to pass it to the DA (which they did) and the charges against Zimmerman were filed within a time-span that is very common in cases around the country. The DA does not want to file charges unless they have a case they feel they can prove. The press took this delay and ran with it - spinning it wildly into charges of racism and turning it into a political frenzy.

I don't know how old you are or whether you know much about the Liutenant Calley case during the Vietnam War, but I was around then, I was of draft-age, and I was very active in protesting that war. While I don't regret the political stance taken by myself and others, I deeply regret the lies and false accusations that surrounded that protest. The case of Lt. Calley is an example.

There is no doubt that Calley commited some heinous war crimes; he and his troops burned a village and killed innocent people. He was brought to trial and convicted in a military tribunal. However, the amount of press that that case received, and the extent to which he was made out to represent ALL of the US Soldiers in Vietnam, to the extent that the US was portrayed as unregulated, vicious baby-killers created a huge black mark on this country that took 20 years to overcome. While I myself did not serve, my friends and relatives did - and they returned to this country as objects of rancor, they were publicly jeered and spat upon - because of the false picture of them painted by the press - inspired in great part by the actions of Lieutenant Calley.

Again - I do not dispute the heinousness of either crime, nor do I believe that either should escape scrutiny. In the Trayvon Martin case, the pubic is outraged and angry, but most of the outrage is borne of misinformation. I would hate to see that anger turn against our country based on the same kind of misinformation. I've seen it firsthand before - it's not a pretty sight.

As to the question of why it is not being covered - well, I think that the LAST reason would be self-censorship on the part of the press. I think there is truth to what both of us say - there is limited information because the crime took place on foreign soil; it may be that the media in general do not think that this story will sell well (maybe because there is too much of a patriotic feel for our mission in Afghanistan), or maybe there is too much secrecy surrounding the case BECAUSE it is about an ongoing military operation and certain facts are withheld for that reason.

Because they blow up frivolous crap like that as a means of dividing and distracting the populous.

That's the left wing media for you. They obsess over one thing because it stirs up riots but ignore others. I do not know the details of your claim but would be interested in it.