UPDATE: 4/3/12, "NBC News Admits 'Error' of Edited 911 Call in Trayvon Martin Controversy (Video)," Hollywood Reporter
The maliciously edited version has had over a week to go viral and incite hatred, bounties, and violence. Even if a correction is announced, experience suggests only the first version will be remembered.
3/31/12, "NBC to do ‘internal investigation’ on Zimmerman segment," Washington Post, Eric Wemple
"NBC told this blog today that it would investigate its handling of a piece on the “Today” show that ham-handedly abridged the conversation between George Zimmerman and a dispatcher in the moments before the death of Trayvon Martin. A statement from NBC:
“We have launched an internal investigation into the editorial process surrounding this particular story.”
Great news right there. As exposed by Fox News and media watchdog site NewsBusters, the “Today” segment took this approach to a key part of the dispatcher call:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.
Here’s how the actual conversation went down:
Zimmerman: 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.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.The difference between what “Today” put on its air and the actual tape? Complete: In the “Today” version, Zimmerman volunteered that this person “looks black,” a sequence of events that would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality’s version, Zimmerman simply answered a question about the race of the person whom he was reporting to the police. Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry.
In an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, called this elision on the part of ”Today” an “all-out falsehood” — not just a distortion or misrepresentation.
And it’s a falsehood with repercussions. Much of the public discussion over the past week has settled on how conflicting facts and interpretations call into question whether Zimmerman acted justifiably or criminally. That’s a process that’ll continue. But one set of facts is ironclad, and that’s the back-and-forth between Zimmerman and the dispatcher. To portray that exchange in a way that wrongs Zimmerman is high editorial malpractice well worthy of the investigation that NBC is now mounting."
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3/30/12, "MSNBC Fixes False Report Which Made Zimmerman Look Racist, Doesn't Acknowledge Error," NewsBusters, Randy Hall
"Following in line with their broadcast television colleagues who deliberately edited the audio of a 9-1-1 call of George Zimmerman, the Florida community watch volunteer who shot teenager Trayvon Martin, to falsely impute racist motives to him, MSNBC.com, in an unbylined piece did the exact same thing in text form, stripping out vital information which made Zimmerman appear to be racially motivated against Martin, who is black.
After being criticized, MSNBC.com restored the proper context but never posted a retraction, correction notice, or an apology for doing so. Originally, the story quoted from Zimmerman's call to 9-1-1 and edited the text to say the following: "'This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,' Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car."
But here is what MSNBC/NBC News left out thanks to “a convenient ellipses” (as first noted by Breitbart.com blogger Dan Riehl):
ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he's up to no good, [begin ellipsis] or he's on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around, looking about.
911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic? [end ellipsis]
ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
With this in mind, Riehl stated:
Not only did Zimmerman not equate Martin's skin color with his looking suspicious; he didn't even initiate the comment. It was simply a response to the police dispatcher.
Instead, the community watch leader was speculating based upon what he could determine at night in the rain to answer the police dispatcher.
Since then, the news channel has changed that paragraph of the story on its website so it reads as follows:
This guy looks like he’s up to no good,” Zimmerman said in a 911 call. Asked by a dispatcher if he was white, Hispanic or black, he replied, "He looks black." (Italics supplied)
However, no one from MSNBC or NBC News has issued an apology regarding the error."...
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Ed. note: On Sunday evening March 25 I heard a caller to a NY area radio show (Aaron Klein) say the Zimmerman-dispatcher tape had him calling Martin a "coon." I thought this sounded unbelievable as no one speaks this way unless they're mentally ill. Mr. Klein is quite knowledgeable and up to date, but it's possible he hadn't heard of this tape because he didn't dispute the caller who sounded extremely sure of his facts. So this deadly narrative went on for days. The grassroots right is on its own without a political party (the GOP is no help) and without a billionaire funded, massive operation like the left has in Media Matters and its arms at MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, NY Times, Washington Post, ABC Radio Network, Politico, Huffington Post to stop or start any piece of information instantly.
via Weasel Zippers
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