As intended, my October 23 article, “Why Did the Miami Herald Abandon Journalism,” caught the attention of the editors of that venerable newspaper.

Now that I have their attention, I would like them to address a question that only they have the clout and resources to answer: did the Florida state attorneys know that their star witness in the 2013 trial of George Zimmerman was an imposter?

If the editors answer this question, they could win a Pulitzer. Even if they fall short, a good faith effort could help restore the faltering faith of many Americans in mainstream American journalism. Here is what we know right now.

• As Joel Gilbert proves six ways from Sunday in his new film and book, “The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America,” star witness Rachel Jeantel was an imposter. She was not Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend. She was not on the phone with him when shot by Zimmerman. She likely never met Martin.
• At the trial, Jeantel said her nickname was “Diamond Eugene.” Through his dogged research, Gilbert found the real girlfriend, “Diamond Eugene,” full name Brittany Diamond Eugene.
• Here is the immediate news hook: the one adult who provably knew about the witness switch is now running for Miami-Dade county commissioner with the open support of Hillary Clinton. Her name is Sybrina Fulton, the biological mother of Trayvon Martin. In her defense, Fulton did not know about the switch before it happened.
• The evidence strongly suggests that the Martin family attorney, now civil rights superstar Benjamin Crump, helped orchestrate the witness switch.
• Without Jeantel’s perjured testimony in an April 2012 deposition, the state would not have arrested or tried Zimmerman.

I focus on the Miami Herald editors for two reasons. One is that in 2012-2013 they did real journalism when the national media were disgracing themselves with one corruption of the facts after another.

The second is that this is undeniably a Miami story. Trayvon, Fulton, Jeantel and Diamond Eugene are all from the Miami area. If the Miami Herald ignores the story, the national media will happily let it die.

Wrote the Herald's Douglas Hanks on October 16, “Fulton received an unprecedented boost on Sept. 27 when Clinton endorsed Fulton in a Twitter post with a fundraising link for the District 1 candidate.”

The tweet read as follows, “A Mother of the Movement to prevent gun violence, @SybrinaFulton has already helped turn tragedy into action. If you can, contribute to help her win and make the change we need.”

As Hanks noted, Fulton served as a Clinton “surrogate” in  2016 and joined Hillary for two weeks on the campaign trail. Chelsea Clinton and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker followed Hillary with their own endorsements of Fulton.

If the Miami Herald ignores the story, the national media will happily let it die. That would be a shame. The corruption of this story has done enough damage already. Led by the media and the false witness to believe Zimmerman was guilty, much of black America exploded in anger when he was acquitted. Black Lives Matter was formed as a direct result.

When the BLM activists and Crump took their show to Ferguson a year later, the resulting lawlessness intimidated police nationwide and discouraged them from pro-active policing. After years of steady decline, the homicide rate spiked nationwide the next two years. The victims were disproportionately young black men like Trayvon.

If they have not yet done so, I would recommend the Herald editors read Ronan Farrow’s new book, “Catch and Kill.” Although the book is ostensibly about Harvey Weinstein’s many predations, the deeper story is about how outside pressure can bend a news organization—in this case, NBC News—to its will. As the Herald editors and I know from experience, the pressure Weinstein can bring to bear on a story is nothing compared to the pressure the race industry can bring to bear.

That brings us to one, final news hook. Two serious books were written on the George Zimmerman case. One was my own book, “If I Had a Son.” The other was “Suspicion Nation” by NBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom.

Weinstein purchased the rights to Bloom’s book, an appalling mishmash of disinformation that, among other things, fully neglects the key eyewitness whose testimony assured Zimmerman would be acquitted. Weinstein’s partner, Jay-Z, went on to produce an incendiary and equally dishonest six-part documentary based on Bloom’s book.

As something of a quid pro quo, Bloom abandoned her practice of defending women who had been sexually assaulted in favor of attacking the women who accused Weinstein of assault. To say the least, she does not come across well in Farrow’s book.

Word to the wise: NBC comes off even worse.

Correction: In my October 23 article, I contended that an unnamed reporter did not watch Gilbert’s film as he claimed. Not being able to prove or disprove my contention through Vimeo analytics, I take him at his word that he watched at least the beginning of the film. He would also like it known that he is not just a reporter but the “investigations editor,” a fact I concealed for the same reason I did not name him, to protect his identity.

Further correction from Thomas Lifson, editor

The contention that the editor in question did not view the film on Vimeo was based on Joel Gilbert’s account of his checking of Vimeo records, but he did not perform a screen grab or produce other forensic evidence to support his contention. The Herald editor disputes this claim and is confident forensic evidence supports his contention. Because forensic evidence is not available, American Thinker withdraws the claim that the video was not viewed by the Herald editor and regrets any distress or misunderstanding that may have resulted.