Did the media hurt the Trayvon Martin investigation?

>> let me bring in msnbc contributor toure. you made a lot of headlines yourself you made an appearance on cnn with piers morgan . a lot of talk about how this is being played out in the media . one of our questions was a rush to judgment. you tweeted out an apology today to people who follow you. what were you apologizing for in reference to this case?

>> what i want to do is get information about the case and seek justice for trayvon. the right thing happens. and i don't know what that is. i don't know if that means a conviction but i know we need to judge the evidence in a court of law. if the media doesn't help push this toward that, then we may never get to that point of justice. when i became part of the story and allowed it to become --

>> why do you say that?

>> obviously the media was important and trayvon martin's family points to reverend al sharpton and so many other names we don't know who push for this. and we would not be at this point, had there not been an intervention. had there not been people who were brave enough to hear the cries of this family. so there is no negating the role that twitter, the media , reverend al and others have played in this. we would not be here. what are you apologizing for?

>> i was angry that a certain amount of misinformation was allowed to come over the airwaves unchallenged. and piers is allowing somebody to tell whatever story they wanted to. it was a pr stunt for the family.

>> who did he allow on in your opinion? i don't want to get too caught up in it.

>> robert zimmerman , george zimmerman's brother, who has not spoken to george in years. he said i spoke to george and he said this, that and the other. the whole interview was problematic. there were questions that were not asked. and i went out to challenge him and say, hey, spreading misinformation is not helping america and not a journalist, being the best we can be in this important moment in american history . and it went from that into a more sort of ego contest. and that i was disappointed in myself that it became that. it shouldn't be about that.

>> let me take on that one program and you here. we're hearing a lot of people who are saying the media should get out of this. the investigation is underway. that somehow the great work of so many who have said, listen, we don't know if this man is guilty but we know there are legitimate questions here, who have come forward like the reverend al sharpton and being criticized here on. a national scale, what is your take here? are we supposed to back out now?

>> no, look. journalists can have an opinion. that doesn't mean you're not a journalist. we sometime can become advocates for what is right when we see that the voiceless need a voice. we can be that as we talked before about in hurricane katrina , many journalists from many different networks were down there saying, hey, the right thing is not happening. america, government, we need to intervene here. americans are dying and being treated like they're worthless. and those moments happen every once in a while where the media needs to stand up and shine a light on something that's wrong. and not stand back in a sort of pollyanna way and say, well, we're going to be objective. and we're going to see -- no. there is a clear need for the media sometimes to be advocates. and this is definitely one of those situations. we would not be here with the fbi and the department of justice , digging into this case, if not for the media . and i mean the traditional media as well as --

>> you're not saying advocate for one side or the other. advocate for the truth. advocate for what happened if george zimmerman were injured in the way that he has said, then investigate the situation. investigate the video. even the mayor of sanford says the 911 calls, he wanted to release them.

>> the justice department , the sanford police department , arrived on the scene and decided, we don't need to go further with. this we're satisfied with what's going on. the media then picked up the investigation and did what the sanford police department should have done in the beginning. and that is forcing the justice system to act in this case. that is righteous. that is what kneed should do. this is a moment where the media has done the right thing. we're not saying he should be convicted. we're saying he should be tried.

>> and asking questions is not a rush to jlt. we are supposed to ask questions. i think a lot of people appreciated your apology on twitter as you gave i guess a self-analysis of well of how this is playing