Here’s cartoonist Stephanie Eisner’s latest political cartoon published in the Daily Texan, the student paper at the University of Texas- Austin. You can see “The Media” there, telling its lies again, about how the BIG BAD WHITE [*a bunch of arrows pointing to "white"*] man killed the handsome, sweet, innocent COLORED [*a bunch of arrows pointing to "colored"*]

The right wing media has been having a feeding frenzy when it comes to the murder of Trayvon Martin. Geraldo Rivera claimed the shooting to be “justified” since Martin was wearing a hoodie.

“I believe that George Zimmerman, the overzealous neighborhood watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable he should be prosecuted. But I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies,” Rivera said.

“I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.”

He added: “You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta, you’re going to be a gangsta-wannabe, well people are going to perceive you as a menace.”

The outspoken “Geraldo at Large” host, who is Latino, expressed similar sentiments in a column Friday titled, “Trayvon Martin Would Be Alive but for His Hoodie.”

Rivera has since apologized for his comments after a firestorm of back lash from critics calling the statements “insensitive” and “a broad generalization.”

Recently, Eugene Zimmerman has released a statement saying that Martin attacked him and bashed his head into the concrete several times before he shot Martin. The right wing media have gone onto defend Zimmerman and have pulled suspension records from Martin’s school as well as posted false pictures depicting a teen flipping the bird. With all of the negative press attempting to perform character assassination on a dead teen, it’s no wonder that cartoons like the one from the University of Texas are coming out.

If Zimmerman was attacked by Martin, then where are the pictures of a bloodied Zimmerman? Why didn’t he stay in his car as directed by the 911 dispatcher? Why is there only one real witness to come forward stating that they saw Zimmerman get attacked?

Zimmerman is not a police officer so Martin had no need to answer any questions that Zimmerman asked. Would you like your teen telling a stranger where they were going? The right has accused the media of race baiting, all while race baiting themselves. The right wing media all but ignored the story until Al Sharpton got involved with the case.

Stephanie Eisner, the woman who drew the cartoon, is now trying to defend her work. In a statement she said:

“I feel the news should be unbiased. And in the retelling of this particular event, I felt that that was not the case,” Eisner said. “My story compared this situation to yellow journalism in the past, where aspects of news stories were blown out of proportion with the intention of selling papers and enticing emotions.”

The question remains, when will the media bias end, and the truth be revealed? Police have already admitted that they botched the investigation by not testing Zimmerman for drugs and alcohol the night of the shooting. The lead investigator wanted to press charges, but his decision was overridden by a lack of “solid evidence”. Trayvon Martin wasn’t a perfect child, but no child really is. All of us have gotten into mischief, created alter-egos, and tried to be cool to impress our friends.

If it were a white teen that Zimmerman had shot, would the right still view the teen as the instigator or would they be bashing Zimmerman for murdering an innocent boy? The same could be asked about the outrage that many feel over the death of Trayvon Martin. Could we be bothered if it was a white teen? Would people assemble to try and find justice for this teen if he were white? Regardless of how you view media bias, it does exist and it exists on both sides.

The problem with this case is that we are all too scared of the truth but for different reasons. Those who support Martin are scared that he might have actually attacked Zimmerman. Those who support Zimmerman are scared that Martin may indeed be the victim. Evidence is indeed scarce and is mostly hear say. The right is spinning the story as the left leaning media trying to incite race riots. All one really needs to do to is visit the comments that readers leave on conservative websites in regards to the Martin case to see how racism has infected the conservative movement.

The nation has two choices: Unite against racial profiling or suffer it’s ill effects. Only we can decide which road we will travel.