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For Martin’s Case, a Long Route to National Attention
People gathered for a rally in support of Trayvon Martin in Washington on Saturday. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: March 25, 2012
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, was fatally shot on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. The next day his death was a top story on the Fox-affiliated television station in Orlando, the closest big city to Sanford. By the weekend it was being covered by newspapers across the state.
But it took some time before the rest of the country found out.
It was not until mid-March, after word spread on Facebook and Twitter, that the shooting of Mr. Martin by George Zimmerman, 26, was widely reported by the national media, highlighting the complex ways that news does and does not travel in the Internet age.
That Mr. Martin’s name is known at all is a testament to his family, which hired a tenacious attorney to pursue legal action and persuade sympathetic members of the media to cover the case. Just as importantly, the family members were willing to answer the same painful questions over and over at news conferences and in TV interviews.
More: NY Times Story