Return of the Maverick

In recent days the Obama administration has gained an unexpected ally in the push for immigration reform: his 2008 electoral opponent John McCain. The senator, along with his new political ally Democrat Chuck Schumer, returned from a meeting at the White House with a apparent sense of optimism, something rarely seen in Washington these days. Commenting on the meeting, McCain made it clear that a path to citizenship was a key component to solving the country's inescapable immigration challenge.

This act of bipartisanship comes at a time when Senate Republican leadership is becoming factionalized. While Senator Mitch McConnell still holds sway over many of the chamber's Republicans, McCain and his group of supporters, which includes Sens. Lindsay Graham and Lamar Alexander, are seeking an alternative to the Minority Leader's opposition based way of legislating. McConnell, wary of his looming reelection campaign in 2014, is unlikely to follow McCain's lead and adopt a more bipartisan position.

As McCain inches closer to his former position as Upper Chamber magnate, it is very possible that an increased number of bipartisan deals will be reached on the Senate floor in the coming months. The Senator has the optimum number of colleagues behind him to block filibusters that would prevent him from building his immigration legacy and is showing no signs of putting a stop to the brand of deal making that he become known for.

The Zimmerman Trial and the Ensuing Media Circus

Within minutes of George Zimmerman being declared not guilty, various social media sites were splattered with the opinions of both those who supported and opposed the verdict. Virtually every possible issue that could be connected to the shooting and trial were explored, most prominently gun ownership, problems with the Florida legal system, and racial inequality. Very quickly, it became clear that, in regards to the trial's outcome, people were split down very obvious partisan lines: Liberals tended to dispute the verdict while conservatives were often in favor of it, and each group used the event to support their political agenda. However, the vast majority of comments coming from both sides seem ill-informed and downright disrespectful, all of which was fueled by a media frenzy that surrounded the event.

Drama makes good television. That is just a fact, and it applies to the news as much as it does any other television format. However, the goal of journalistic television is not to entertain (though that seems to have been forgotten in the last decade or two), it is to inform. A murder trial certainly makes for good television, but is debatable whether or not the trial of George Zimmerman is at all relevant to the vast majority of American citizens.

One key argument for all the support being paid to the this trial and the events that surround it are a perfect allegory for the state of racism in the United States. While racial inequality is an abhorrent reality of this nation, this notion that the shooting of Trayvon Martin was racially motivated comes off as manufactured and misplaced. From NBC's editing of Zimmerman's recorded police call to Benjamin Jealous comparing Martin's death to the murder of Emmett Till, various groups and media outlets have trying to force a heavy racial undertone to the trial. This drive to editorialize the event, coupled with a common disregard with information surrounding the actual trial, seems to be leading many to hefty generalizations about the implications of the verdict.

The politicization of the killing of a teenage boy and the ensuing trial is nothing short of a failure by the fourth estate to do their job. Criminal trials are rarely relevant on a national scale and pornographic exploitation of those involved is a misuse of the tools that could be used to educate the American people and spark a serious dialogue about issues of race.