( CNN ) -- As scores of people head to the National Mall this week commemorating 50 years since the March on Washington , some corners of the media are still featuring passionate debate over whether African-Americans have ignored `` a culture of violence '' in their midst . The finger pointing this time comes after the senseless killing of Australian baseball player and college student Christopher Lane , shot dead August 16 while jogging on a street in Duncan , Oklahoma . From the moment three teenagers were arrested in the crime -- first misidentified as three black youths , later found to be two African-Americans and one white guy -- some media outlets tried to draw comparisons to the killing last year of black teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman . But if Lane 's death has anything in common with Martin 's -- besides the sad fact that both killings seemed avoidable and were possibly committed by people of a different race from the victim 's -- it 's the sometimes sloppy reporting used to make points about race that deserve subtler , more precise treatment . Random killings spark laments , but reality shows long slide in crime . In the early days of reporting on Martin 's death , Zimmerman was identified as white because police in Sanford , Florida , listed him that way on the incident report . Those early reports about a white man killing an unarmed black teen fit an easy black-and-white narrative about racial profiling in America , while the truth was that Zimmerman identified as Hispanic , but still could have profiled Martin . Similarly , CNN aired a report suggesting that Zimmerman might have used a racial slur to describe Martin during his 911 call to police just before the shooting . But later , CNN aired another story with a different audio analyst who disputed that conclusion , and no allegations of a racial slur on the call surfaced at his trial . LZ Granderson : Negligent parents , lawbreaking kids . This past week , Fox News Channel 's `` Fox and Friends '' and The Daily Caller website both reported the three teens who killed Lane were black . The Daily Caller also published a photo featuring a different , dark-skinned black youth identified as Michael Jones , the white teenager police believe drove the car during the shooting . Both outlets also criticized President Obama and activists such as the Rev . Al Sharpton for not making an issue of Lane 's death in the way they spoke on Martin 's killing . The mistake with Jones ' photo recalls a similar error made as some media outlets began publishing material reportedly discovered on Trayvon Martin 's closed social media accounts , in an attempt to show he was n't the innocent teen his family and supporters described . Both Twitchy.com and Business Insider published photos of a shirtless , young black man facing the camera and providing a middle finger salute with both hands , identifying him as Trayvon . That person was not the dead teen Trayvon Martin , but a different young black man . About a year later , Zimmerman 's defense team released images taken from Martin 's cellphone which did show him shirtless , making a similar gesture to the camera , but it 's tough to know what that revealed other than a teen with a typical rebellious streak . Still , an unspoken argument seems to be wrapped up in these stories . It 's the conflict over institutional prejudice and racism . In the Trayvon Martin case , police knew who killed the teen and resisted arresting him for 44 days . That fueled concerns that laws such as Florida 's stand your ground legislation were making it easier to profile and kill African-Americans . That seems a long way from a presumed thrill killing in which suspects were arrested within days , saying they shot Lane because they were `` bored . '' Teen arrested in beating death of WWII vet . Even news that one of the teens involved in Lane 's murder posted anti-white statements on Twitter months ago seems a different point . But some media outlets , committed to the idea that American institutions such as the criminal justice system are mostly fair , have focused on more personal explanations for such tragedies , emphasizing the criminality of some black people in ways that evoke old stereotypes about people of color and crime . It seems obvious that real-life incidents rarely fit neat categories and the need to explain senseless deaths can lead to a lot of jumped-to conclusions . But if the Chris Lane and Trayvon Martin cases teach anything , it 's that cherry-picking facts to fit a preconceived narrative can be a road to inaccuracy and unfairness . Here 's hoping somebody is taking time to soak up the lesson . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Eric Deggans .
Eric Deggans : Lane , Martin killings being compared to make points about race . Races of some in both cases were misreported , false images posted online . Deggans : The errors fit into preconceived racial notions when real story is more complex . Cherry-picking facts , jumping to conclusions inflames more hatred , he writes .