An investigative journalist is supposed to be someone who digs deep, sometimes working for years to expose the truth about a single crime that’s been committed, corruption that has gone undiscovered, fraud that has left people destitute, and so on.

Also known as watchdog journalism, the investigative journalist shines a light on what others have gone to great lengths to hide. The goal of this type of journalism? To trigger change, reveal what has been hidden, and get to the truth of what really happened in any given situation.

While the mainstream media focuses on simply reporting the news, investigative journalists work hard to get to the truth behind some of those stories – or at least that’s what they’re supposed to do.

In recent years, however, it seems as though investigative journalists – like many in the mainstream media – have either become incredibly lazy or are actively working to spread misinformation. Either way, the real truth about many of the stories we are fed on the news just never gets exposed anymore.

A perfect example of this is the tragic death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American high school student who was shot to death by neighborhood watch coordinator, George Zimmerman. The media portrayed the incident as a racially motivated killing, never stopping to check the true facts of the case. Everybody took sides, and racial strife on a scale not seen in decades resulted.

Yet, had the investigative journalists done their job properly, much of this strife and anguish could have been prevented, because in reality, false witnesses had been brought in by the prosecution to make its case, and what was simply a tragic accident was falsely paraded as an example of callous racism. Martin’s family were told a pack of lies, and Zimmerman’s life was destroyed. (Related: Compilation of 12 fake news stories from the mainstream media.)

Fortunately, thanks to the work of an old school, dogged investigative reporter, the truth has finally come out and Zimmerman can begin to get his life back. Sadly, the ripple effects of the racial rifts caused by this case continue to be felt. (Related: Fake news is what you get when the mainstream media tells you vaccines are completely safe.)

Where were the investigative journalists?

As reported by American Thinker, in researching his book, The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America, investigative reporter Joel Gilbert did what all investigative journalists should do to find the truth of what lies behind the media’s most sensational stories:

Joel demonstrated a long-lost art, investigative journalism, and he did it in a fun, entertaining, and easily readable manner. Unlike cable news gabbers who get their talking points from echo chamber left-wing distributions networks, Joel examined phone records, photos, and yearbooks. He pounded the pavement, knocked on doors and actually talked to people.

Once upon a time this was called gumshoe journalism, walking around, investigating, putting in actual effort. Modern journalists only use their thumbs, checking Twitter feeds and reporting tweets as verified news.

Gilbert’s hard work paid off big time. He reveals in his book how the mainstream media did all it could to fan the flames of racial hatred instead of doing its job and finding out what really happened:

Big media played its part in the Trayvon hoax as in NBC doctoring George Zimmerman’s 911 call so that Zimmerman appeared to be a racist, providing a racial angle for his self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin. CNN described Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic” to keep the race angle front and center in their reporting.

Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder, despite the prosecution’s use of false witnesses, and is now suing the Martin family, their lawyers and prosecutors for $100 million.

But the damage is done: Zimmerman continues to receive death threats and suffers from both depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If journalists had accepted their responsibility to find out what really happened on the night Trayvon Martin died, a massive amount of anger, grief and bitterness could have been averted.

Learn more about the mainstream media’s fake news at FactCheck.news.

Sources include:

AmericanThinker.com

TheGuardian.com