So far Ted Nugent the only star power for twelve-hour pity-ganza.
N A NEW effort to raise additional funds to pay for his legal defense, George Zimmerman, charged with killing seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, will be hosting his own telethon this coming Sunday on the Fox Network.
The only celebrity guest announced so far will be rock star and gun enthusiast Ted Nugent, who is said through channels to be "super pumped" for the telethon and reworking the lyrics of some of his hit songs "to be even more offensively attention-grabbing than ever before."
Mr. Zimmerman, according to a press release, "will employ some of the traditional methods of garnering support during telethons," including video montages "of people of all ages who successfully took an evening stroll without George shooting them to death," a phone bank "of average Americans who know that confronting someone taking a walk at night and then shooting them to death could happen to anyone," and "several children borrowed from other telethons; children who are alive today because they were not foolish enough to wear a hoodie while being out at night without parental supervision."
Zimmerman's twelve-hour pity-ganza will begin airing this Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. One of the telethon's producers said he hoped that Sunday's church-going crowd "will still be in a forgiving mood when they get home, not to mention still humming along in tithing mode."
The accused murderer will punctuate the end of every hour by singing a song and pleading for financial assistance. Some tunes will be covers of his personal favorites, like "Run for Your Life," by The Beatles.
Others will be songs Zimmerman has penned himself, exploring, his producer said "the themes you might expect: what it's like to be the victim of a youngster so concerned with his own safety that he couldn't put himself in another man's shoes. Or how a murder rap can ruin your life worse than if you were shot to death by a stranger who was only doing it for your own good."
Although several networks were approached, Fox was the only one that agreed to air Zimmerman's telethon, citing in a statement "our commitment to fair and balanced programming.
"In this spirit," the Fox statement continued, "we will air uninterrupted Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? immediately after the telethon."
© 5.22.12 Kate Heidel
