AP, UPI Finally Note NBC's Firing of Producer Over Zimmerman 911 Call Editing
Breitbart.com has noted that it took about 17 hours before the dam broke, but now the Associated Press and United Press International both have stories on NBC's decision to fire a Miami-based producer over the editing of George Zimmerman's 911 call.
The AP story, which has a time stamp of 12:03 p.m. at the Wall Street Journal, plays it pretty straight (posted in full because of it relative brevity; the item's author, as shown here, is Television Writer Frazier Moore):
Story Continues Below Ad ↓NBC News has fired a producer for editing a recording of George Zimmerman's call to police the night he shot Trayvon Martin, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
The person was not authorized to talk about the situation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The identity of the producer was not disclosed.
An NBC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The producer's dismissal followed an internal investigation that led to NBC apologizing for having aired the misleading audio.
NBC's "Today" show first aired the edited version of Zimmerman's call on March 27. The recording viewers heard was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police, with no prompting, that Martin was black: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."
But the portion of the tape that was deleted had the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person who had raised his suspicion was "black, white or Hispanic," to which Zimmerman responded, "He looks black."
Later that night of Feb. 26, the 17-year-old Martin was fatally shot by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla. Though Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman told police he fired in self-defense after Martin attacked him.
Questions subsequently have arisen over whether Zimmerman was racially profiling the teen, a theory the edited version of the tape seemed to support.
On Tuesday, NBC said its investigation turned up "an error made in the production process that we deeply regret." It promised that "necessary steps" would be taken "to prevent this from happening in the future" and apologized to viewers.
UPI's coverage as carried at Breitbart's Big Journalism (but mislabeled as an AP report in its breaking news post) is a bit less than perfect (also posted in full; bold is mine):
NBC has fired the Miami-based producer deemed most responsible for editing the 911 call George Zimmerman made the night he killed Trayvon Martin.
A source, whose name was not reported, also refused to tell The Hollywood Reporter the former employee's name.
NBC's "Today Show" aired the 911 call March 27, but critics said the network's choice to edit out elements of the script make it appear as though Zimmerman's motivation for shooting Martin was based on his skin color, the Reporter said Friday.
In the original call, Zimmerman says, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."
The dispatcher asks, "OK, and this guy -- is he white, black or Hispanic?"
Zimmerman tells the dispatcher, "He looks black."
The NBC version omitted the dispatcher's question and Zimmerman is heard saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."
NBC said March 31 it had launched an investigation into the matter.
"We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers," NBC said Tuesday.
"Critics said"? It's not just "critics"; it's anyone with an ounce of sense, which I guess makes everyone, at least with an ounce of sense, a critic. The tone of this all too frequently used journalistic tactic is "Gosh, if it weren't for those darned critics, there wouldn't have been a problem."
MRC/NB management tells me that "we were the first to find the edited audio and the tv report." MRC/NB's doggedness in pursuing this odious case of media malpractice is commendable and a thoroughly justified point of pride for all involved.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
Just one of many
Submitted by deadeyedan on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 2:48pm.
No doubt there is a plethora of stories the lamestreamers have distorted in recent years but only rarely, especially when it's more subtle than this case, will they admit to anything.
LIBERALISM - government of the people by the theories and for the ideologists
This was NO error!
Submitted by minky on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 2:52pm.
NBC may as well have offered their own bounty on Zimmerman.
My guess is that Mr. (or Mrs.) X is black.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 2:54pm.
Just wait.
And NBC must have threatened all their employees with a similar fate if they dare leak the name. It's not like everyone there (including other MSM networks) doesn't know who it is at this point.
This is only going to get worse for NBC, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it.
Nailed it
Submitted by Blonde on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:00pm.
The truth IS going to come out.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Can you believe it!
Submitted by pwb on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 2:58pm.
Can you believe this, they fired a guy for following the directions of the company. Hope he finds a good conservative lawyer to sue them. I don't see how you lose your job doing what your company tells you to do.
Screwed da pooch
Submitted by CJohnson on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 3:07pm.
I wonder if the Broadcasters Union and ACLU will get involved.
Now it's ABC News' turn!
Submitted by MommyMia on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 3:09pm.
ABC News intentionally hid Zimmerman's injuries and they have not owned up to ANYTHING. They lied when they reported that the first video they released was the original police surveillance footage.
In fact, the first footage that ABC News aired was a crappy copy made by recording the video as it played on a screen/monitor. The camera used was human-held as is evident by the tell-tale wobbling picture. Furthermore, several seconds into the first footage aired by ABC News, the camera operator actually pans the camera to center the picture because the edge of the screen/monitor is visible in the shot. This is the first video, see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmMSaVYAcRQ
However, this so-called "enhanced" video shows footage that is perfectly steady and has a visible date/time stamp – which is consistent with a permanently mounted security camera. This "enhanced" version appears to be the original footage, or a slightly tweaked version of the original to cover ABC News' lies. They reported the screen recorded copy was used to produce the "enhanced" copy, which is not only false, but impossible. The entire tale was made up whole cloth. Watch this infuriating segment on Good Morning America: http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-26797925/george-zimmerman-enhanced-video-shows-injury-28804579.html
Why didn't ABC News air the original video footage from the start; or report that the footage initially aired was actually recorded from a screen/monitor and therefore, the quality was significantly compromised? Whoever operated the camera to record the first version released, had to have seen a much clearer picture than the public was shown. ABC News withheld the original footage and played what looks to be a sick joke, instead.
They aired a poor quality screen-recorded copy captured by someone physically holding a camera, presented it as the original footage, and then reported that the security video did not show any injuries – which contradicted George Zimmerman's claims. ABC News intentionally obfuscated Zimmerman's wounds and then acted like they broke some scoop after they realized the genuine footage would eventually come out should Zimmerman be charged with a crime. And they had the wherewithal to pretend like they did some honest reporting and went out of their way to have the video enhanced to find the truth. THEY PATTED THEMSELVES ON THE BACK YET THEY FLAT-OUT LIED.
It's unacceptable that no media watchdog has called them out on this awful lie.
Tom. Reuters credits NewsBusters on NBC editing nab
Submitted by Gary Hall on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 3:16pm.
Here:
NBC probe centers on staffer in shooting story error
In other news - well - in other "not in the news," I see that my "Breitbart plays dirty in editing Sherrod tape Los Angeles Times" newspaper, hasn't found time nor place to make note of this yet.
I just fired off a note to the regional bureau chief who's covered the Trayvon Marin story, to see if they were to remain consistent in their pattern of bias here.
(;~/ gary
From what I've seen of ABC,
Submitted by jkwtrading on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 4:27pm.
From what I've seen of ABC, NBC and CNN doctoring audio, video and the like my conclusion is George Zimmerman will be the new mega million winner.
Good luck trying to defend yourself msm..
Time for some naming and shaming
Submitted by CO2Maker on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 5:15pm.
NBC won't identify the producer that was fired. Why doesn't someone who has access to NBC staff rosters start to speculate: "Was it A? Was it B? B hasn't been seen in several days. How about C? C worked out of the Miami bureau. Not sayin' any of them is the culprit, but, you know, gotta start somewhere."
When A and B respond with great umbrage, you can write them off. (Or as Rush suggested, you can say, "B has offered a denial, but we haven't verified it yet," and let the guy twist in the wind for a few days.
I suspect that in a short amount of time, the bad actor will be named, and then the focus can be turned onto the rogue editor's equally rogue supervisor, on up the food chain until a really important person is implicated ... or not, but we're still attempting to verify his alibi, um, explanation, too.
Maybe the MSM will finally understand..
Submitted by dyardley on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 6:04pm.
that they are being watched. Not just by their few fans but by America. They are on notice! This type of deliberate misreporting has to stop for the welfare of our country and they will be reported and called out for their bigotry, racism and prevarication. One can only hope. Nice job NewsBusters!
In terms of their identity...
Submitted by seen the light on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:02pm.
the more they wait to name them, the more it reveals that person is most likely has a history of political activism that can be traced with a simple google search. Also, I am fairly confident they didn't fire an underling, because that person will sing to the high hills and start a civil suit, because they would know how vulnerable in a highly visible way this is for NBC.
They can't hide the identity forever. This is one of the rare cases when we get to win one against the biased media. Enjoy it, its going to get good!
After forging documents,
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:18pm.
After forging documents, editing video tape, and now audio tape, the only thing left for the Make Believe Media is hiring people to "stage" incidents.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
ABC's John Quinones has been doing that since 2008.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 7:28pm.
"WTF Woud You Do?"
Now a new narrative is used.
Submitted by BTW Biological ... on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 8:10pm.
On msnbc they are going with when Zimmerman does call 911 it is only when he sees a black man. Should he be concerned with the activity of the person or the race of the person?
Me thinks he was too gong ho.
When the left is caught...
Submitted by seen the light on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 8:30pm.
they always move the goalposts! We can't let up and make sure we pin them down. They HATE that.
Zimmerman may well have been "gung ho", ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sat, 04/07/2012 - 11:07pm.
but as the current meaning of the phrase is 'dedicated' or 'enthusiastic', I would rather have a volunteer in Neighborhood Watch be "too" gung ho, than exhibit a "meh" attitude; otherwise, what's the point of watching?
MD
NPR coverage
Submitted by cesar.zalamero on Sun, 04/08/2012 - 12:13pm.
NPR, not surprisingly, has buried the story.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=150192304#commentBlock