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Fox News host Gregg Jarrett suggested on Monday that George Zimmerman might have been justified in killing Trayvon Martin because the teen "may have been violent" from smoking marijuana.

During a break in jury selection for Zimmerman's trial, Jarrett told viewers of Fox News' live Internet broadcast that the judge had tried to restrict the evidence to facts related to the day of the shooting.

"She's said we're not going to have any of this stuff introduced as evidence about the history of Trayvon Martin, whether he had a history of getting involved in fights, making threats, marijuana use, gun use, being suspended from school and so on and so forth," he observed.

Former federal prosecutor Doug Burns pointed out that the judge may allow evidence that Martin had marijuana in his system at the time of his death.

"If an M.E. -- a medical examiner -- takes the witness stand and says he was high on marijuana based on toxicology, how does that play?" Jarrett wondered.

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CNN media critic Howard Kurtz worried on Sunday that cable news was already spending too much time covering George Zimmerman's trial for the killing of Trayvon Martin, and that the "racially inflammatory" coverage was causing people to question whether African-Americans could get a fair trial in the U.S.

In an interview on Reliable Sources, Kurtz pointed out to CNN's new morning show host, Chris Cuomo, that the jury selection had not even been complete and the coverage already seemed to be "media overload."

"This case unfortunately really checks all the boxes of urgency," Cuomo explained. "Race looms large here. Some will take issue with that. But I think, objectively, it just does. And when that's the case, it really makes people even more tuned in."

Kurtz, however, insisted that "if it hadn't been for the racial aspect, if these were two white people or two black people involved, this wouldn't be getting any national attention."

"But race is involved anyway you want to look at it," Cuomo replied. "Here's a bet you and I can make: I do not think this story will resonate from a ratings perspective the way that Jodi Arias did. Why? Because this one is about real things beyond the satisfaction of the victim's family and the call for justice."

"But as the media choose up sides here, in my view, some people saying, 'Trayvon Martin, obviously unarmed teenager ends up dead,' others thinking that George Zimmerman got railroaded, there was pressure to indict him," Kurtz opined. "I fear -- and I think we saw signs of this when the story was red hot the first time -- that the media might play a racially inflammatory role."

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Former NYPD detective Harry Houck on Tuesday told Fox News that Florida teen Trayvon Martin was responsible for his own death because he had a "street attitude."

During a break in witness selection for the trial of accused murderer George Zimmerman, criminal defense attorney Tamara Holder explained to viewers of Fox News' live Internet stream that the prosecution may want to point out that the teen was only carrying Skittles and a can of iced tea at the time of his death.

"She was talking about the Skittles that he had, and the Coca-Cola that Trayvon Martin had," Houck replied. "That doesn't look good, you know, for the defense because [the prosecution is] injecting something into their minds. Like, this is a little kid with candy walking around the street."

"Listen, Trayvon Martin would be alive today, okay, if he didn't, alright, have a street attitude," the former NYPD detective insisted. "That's the bottom line."

"'Street attitude' is a very broad thing and is something that actually can be used -- and I'm not saying this to you personally -- but something that can be used as something racist," Holder pointed out. "Like calling a kid a thug."

"That's insane," Houck laughed.

Following a break, the Fox News host noted that "we live in a society right now that's extremely focused on being politically correct."

"Personally, I think people who use the word 'thug' or believe that the word 'thug' is a racist [word] is racist themselves," Houck opined. "You know, because I call somebody a thug, I'm a racist? No. I don't think so. I mean, that's crazy."

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Fox News host Gregg Jarrett says that George Zimmerman "has already been punished" for the killing of Trayvon Martin because he "looks like he's put on a hundred pounds."

During Monday's coverage of jury selection, Jarrett and Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle observed that Zimmerman had gained weight since his arrest in April 2012.

"He does look like a different guy," Jarrett remarked. "It looks like he's put on a hundred pounds. Look, he has been in hiding and he fears for his life, and there have been all kinds of death threats. And, you know, he can't go anywhere, can't get out and get exercise."

"Probably suffering from stress and anxiety," Guilfoyle added.

"You eat when you're under stress and pressure and stuff like that," Jarrett agreed. "So, you know, he's already been punished to some extent. We'll wait and see whether a Jury punishes him further."

"This is an individual that was trying to do some civic duty by being on the community watch," Guilfoyle opined. "That was the purpose of why he was there that night."

"Sure, let's not forget there's a reason for a community watch," Jarrett replied. "Because that's a community with a need for a watch. Because they'd had problems like this in the past."

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A Fox News guest on Monday suggested that George Zimmerman's lawyers will be able to argue that their client used reasonable force when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, who was only carrying Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea, because "you could kill somebody" with iced tea.

While waiting for jury selection to begin on Monday, Fox News host Jamie Colby and former federal prosecutor Doug Burns discussed the case on the network's live Internet video stream.

"I know that George Zimmerman's attorney will prove that he has no criminal background, he's not an aggressive guy," the Fox News host explained. "That he's a gentle kind caring soul who was minding the neighborhood, the police didn't get there quick enough and he had reason to pursue, even though he was told no to. He was just doing his Good Samaritan job."

She added that there was "no suggestion that Zimmerman kept banging his head on the sidewalk, doing it to himself."

"If I'm getting beaten up in an ordinary fist fight that's going to leave me -- here's the counterargument -- with a broken nose and some cuts and certainly no life-threatening injuries," Burns pointed out. "Broken nose, we'll assume just hypothetically is not a life-threatening injury. Then so runs the argument, you can't turn around and kill the person."

"The counterargument is, 'Well, wait a minute, you can die in a fistfight,'" he continued. "There's certainly a very good argument to be made that the force used was out of proportion to what was going on, and the kid was unarmed. We didn't even discuss that. Totally different case, let's say the kid had a gun."

"Which he didn't know," Colby observed. "All that Trayvon -- we learned later -- was armed with was a bag of Skittles and an iced tea."

"I know everybody keeps sarcastically saying about he Skittles," Burns complained. "You could probably kill somebody with Skittles."

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If anyone didn't think this guy was quite insufferable enough during his interview on Piers Morgan last month, you're in luck. You can be treated to almost an entire hour of his whining about how liberals are keeping the poor conservative white man down.

This was a talk he gave at Jim DeMint's wingnut Heritage Foundation a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, Breitbart protege Ben Shapiro has got a book to sell, so naturally he's being promoted by the likes of C-SPAN, which sadly leans way, way to the right with their Book TV series. They ended up treating their viewers to what was one long exercise in projection, claiming that liberals just want to silence conservatives, making ridiculous claims that conservatives are somehow shut out of the political debate in the United States, and are being oppressed by some secret liberal cabal out there who makes sure no one can hear their message.

[Insert laughter here.]

In Shapiro's world, Media Matters has a whole lot more influence than I'd give them credit for. Plus, there's some grand conspiracy to keep conservatives out of Hollywood and our educational institutions. And you can't dare call a conservative a racist ever... never, ever... and don't dare call voter suppression racist or mention anything about their policies being racist, because then you're just pandering and trying to pick on them and YOU JUST BETTER SHUT UP.

And heaven forbid someone picked on poor ALEC and forced them to run away from the "stand your ground" laws. Yes, and Al Sharpton is a big bad meanie who, along with the rest of the "liberal media," tried to frame George Zimmerman.

I don't know if anyone's got the stomach for the rest of his pity party, but you can watch the entire event here. I'll leave everyone with a quote from one of my fellow contributors here at C&L, Mugsy, who relayed his feelings on this pity party of Shapiro's by email:

As noted, classic "projection". I've been saying for years that "if a conservative accuses you of something, it's only because they either did the same thing themselves or would if they were in your shoes."

Ding, ding, ding, ding... give that man a medal. That's exactly what we had here -- in such blatant form that it's almost laughable, or it would be, if not for the fact that there are still people who consider this guy some kind of "serious" conservative thinker.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new fresh face of the Republican party -- which, oddly enough, looks just like the old face of the Republican party.

If they need any help with their "rebranding" effort, I sincerely hope they give this guy a call. I'm sure it will work out just as well for them as the recent efforts by Eric Cantor and Bobby Jindal.

From Majority FM: Right Wing: Everything BUT Guns Caused the Newtown Massacre:

Did you know teachers, unions, and the lack of both God and George Zimmerman are at fault for the Newtown school shooting? The Tea Party Nation thinks so! In both a post on their website and in an email from founder Judson Phillips, the group blamed the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on everything BUT guns...

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Sean Hannity really is a nasty piece of work. He spent his entire show this Wednesday evening giving Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman an extremely leading interview where he walked him through a lot of the answers and at times talked more than Zimmerman did.

This interview comes in the wake of recent questions about whether Hannity is paying for Zimmerman's defense, which of course Hannity denied.

As Think Progress reported, here's how Zimmerman responded when asked if he had any regrets: George Zimmerman Says He Wouldn’t Do Anything Differently: ‘It Was God’s Plan’ For Me To Kill Trayvon Martin:

Tonight, George Zimmerman — who is currently facing second degree murder charges for killing Trayvon Martin — participated in a highly unusual interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity.

Hannity asked Zimmerman if he regretted getting out of his car to follow Trayvon, carrying a gun, or anything at all about the night he killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman said he regretted nothing because he believed “it was all God’s plan.” He also said there isn’t anything he would do differently in retrospect. [...]

Update: At the very end of the interview, Zimmerman goes back and to the question and says “I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that would have put me in the position where I didn’t have to take his life. And I do want to tell everyone…that I’m sorry that this happened.”

As they noted, Martin's father responded to Zimmerman's statement tonight as well. Lawrence O'Donnell and his panel members Joy Reid and Jonathan Capehart weighed in on the interview on MSNBC and Reid addressed something I was wondering as well, which is why Zimmerman's attorney would subject him to the extra scrutiny this interview is going to bring him ahead of his trial. Reid explained it was made clear that his attorney Mark O'Mara was willing to have him appear on Fox to get his fundraising going again.

You can watch that interview below the fold.

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I wish I could say I'm shocked by this, but I'm not. From Current's The Young Turks: Did Fox News host Sean Hannity offer to pay for George Zimmerman’s defense? :

Cenk talks to GlobalGrind.com editor-in-chief Michael Skolnik, who discovered that in George Zimmerman’s jailhouse tapes he references someone he calls “S.H.” who might help pay for his defense. Could it be Sean Hannity, who has had off-the-record conversations with Zimmerman before? Fox News denied that Hannity has contributed financially, but Skolnik says a “rock solid source” confirms at least some of the story.

Here's more from GlobalGrind.com: SHOCKING REVELATION! Fox News Host Sean Hannity Offered To Pay George Zimmerman's Legal Fees!:

Yesterday, the Special Prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case released 149 jail house phone calls that Mr. Zimmerman made while being held on bail in April of this year in Seminole County Jail. Last night, GlobalGrind scoured through all of them, trying to decipher the coded language that George uses in his conversations with his family and close friends.

In call #30, from April 14th (3 days after being arrested), George is speaking to one his closest friends and confidantes, "Scott." As reported by many of our colleagues in the press, including the Miami Herald this morning, George mentions to Scott that his attorney Mark O'Mara is aware of an attempted transfer of $37,000 from his PayPal account to Zimmerman's wife's personal account. This would be big enough news in the case, as Mr. Zimmerman was sent back to jail after being released on his first bond for not disclosing the amount of money he had raised for his legal defense fund. Furthermore, Mr. O'Mara admitted in court that he did not know anything about the attempted transfers, but with this new evidence being made public, it seems that the attorney was in the know.

However, as we listened to the rest of the call, what struck us as odd was George's comments about a gentleman, who he calls "SH," who offered to pay for his entire legal defense, as long as he uses an attorney, who George calls "JB." In a previous call (#24), George reveals to his wife, Shellie, that "JB" is Jose Baez, who represented Casey Anthony (this was also confirmed to GlobalGrind by Miami Herald reporter, Frances Robles). However, the person who offered to pay for his legal fees, "SH" is only identified in code.

More there with transcripts of the phone recordings and from the end of the article:

George Zimmerman decided not to use Jose Baez as his attorney and stuck with Mark O'Mara. We do not know if Sean Hannity is funding Mr. Zimmerman's legal defense with Mr. O'Mara at the helm. We reached out to Mr. Hannity for comment and are awaiting a response.

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This Friday during his New Rules segment, Real Time host Bill Maher went through the list of potential running mates for Mitt Romney and finally ended up suggesting... the Real Time host himself, Bill Maher. As Maher noted, they disagree on almost every issue, but so what? Romney's already disagreed with himself on every issue as well with his flip flopping.