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NBC Apologizes For Editing Zimmerman 911 Call

Posted by samzenpus on from the our-bad dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that NBC has completed its investigation into the Today show's mishandling of the police dispatcher's conversation with George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case with a finding of error, plus an apology. The apology addresses the show's failure to accurately abridge the conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher in this high-profile case. This is how the program portrayed a segment of that conversation: Zimmerman: 'This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black' Here what was actually said: 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.' In an appearance on Fox News's Hannity, Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, called this omission on the part of Today an 'all-out falsehood' — not just a distortion or misrepresentation. 'On the good front, [NBC] acknowledges the mistake and apologizes to viewers for the bad editing. It's a forthright correction and spares us any excuses about the faulty portrayal. On the bad front, the statement is skimpy on the details on just how the mistake unfolded,' writes Erik Wemple. 'In light of all that's happened, Zimmerman may be a tough person for a news network to apologize to, but that's just the point: Apologies are hard.'"

26 of 1,005 comments (clear)

  1. Error My Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some stupid moron in the editing room or a producer did it on purpose. At least they didn't strap a bomb to him and blow him up like they did the cars.

    1. Re:Error My Ass by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, there is always a kernel of truth in their rantings.

      To think that this very specific editing was an accident is a fools errand. Especially in light of NBCs previous, Ends Justifies the Means reporting tactics.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Error My Ass by Artraze · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > Zimmerman is still a murderer, though.

      I'm not going to defend the man, but don't you think it's just a _little_ ironic that you would state that with certainty in a story about how the "facts" we get can be so blatantly distorted? There are reasons for presumed innocence and a formal trial, and this is one of them.

    3. Re:Error My Ass by medcalf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Zimmerman is admittedly a killer. It still is unclear whether he is a murderer.

      --
      -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
    4. Re:Error My Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's amazing that despite the fact that the media has intentionally and willfully distorted the facts surrounding this case there are still people who stand by their ill-informed decision to immediately convict the suspect.

      The presumption of innocence is extremely important, and it's frightening that everyone is so quick to throw that concept out of the window. Even commenters here on Slashdot are doing it.

    5. Re:Error My Ass by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      also, everyone keeps calling trayvon an unarmed child, but when a 160+ pound man -- and a 17 year old is a man ...

      People assume he is a child because of ... more media bias. Despite the fact that he was 17, nearly every media source used a five year old picture of him when he was twelve.

    6. Re:Error My Ass by atriusofbricia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree. This is an inexcusable instance of media bias, a plain example of stripping context out of a story for spin.

      Zimmerman is still a murderer, though. You don't get to claim self defense when you started the fight. If you hunt down and kill an unarmed child, you can expect to be tried for murder.

      I'm compelled to point out that the idea that he started the fight, correct or not, came from the exact same media sources that just blatantly skewed a story in a rather extreme way for reasons not entirely known. As such, you may wish to consider before you declare someone is a murder based on the information put out by those exact same sources, no?

      --
      I was raised on the command line, bitch

      "Nemo me impune lacesset"

    7. Re:Error My Ass by atriusofbricia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      also, everyone keeps calling trayvon an unarmed child, but when a 160+ pound man -- and a 17 year old is a man ...

      People assume he is a child because of ... more media bias. Despite the fact that he was 17, nearly every media source used a five year old picture of him when he was twelve.

      Precisely. There is exactly dick for reliable information on this story. Practically everything that has been put out by the mainstream media, a phrase I'm reluctant to use, has been heavily spun in a particular direction ever since the story went national. It has been an extremely consistent, dare I say blatant, narrative that has been drilled in regardless of any facts or information available later. This picture thing is yet another example of it in addition to the subject of this thread.

      --
      I was raised on the command line, bitch

      "Nemo me impune lacesset"

    8. Re:Error My Ass by SillyHamster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1.) Zimmerman gets out of car

      2.) ???

      3.) Trayvon knocks down Zimmerman and pummels him in the face

      4.) Zimmerman shoots and kills Trayvon

      I think what happened in (2) is a lot more important than (1) for deciding who initiated the chain of events.

      If all Zimmerman did was to ask a question, there's no way that Trayvon was justified to do (3). If Zimmerman threatened Trayvon verbally/physically, then perhaps Trayvon was trying to act in self-defense. (If Trayvon did not initiate the violence, it seems that he should want to run away, but people can make bad choices in high stress situations)

    9. Re:Error My Ass by jxander · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Watching your property for strangers who might be out to steal from you and calling 911 from a discreet distance when someone who you do not recognize is wandering around at night around your home is not a provocation to a physical attack.

      Good job failing to grasp the situation, or willfully misrepresenting the facts.

      You don't happen to work for NBC do you?

      No one finds fault with Zimmerman for the actions you mentioned. Calling 911, keeping an eye on someone... all fine and dandy. Harmless, if a bit paranoid. What people take umbrage with is Zimmerman leaving his vehicle and actively pursuing someone while armed.

      Let that roll around in your head for a bit. Zimmerman grabbed his gun, jumped out of his car, and chased down a random stranger who was just walking down the street. Who, in that scenario, has the right to Stand Their Ground? Until hard evidence proves otherwise, my sympathies lie with the random stranger. Any damage inflicted upon the gun-toting aggressor (up to and including death) is justified self defense in my eyes, and any damage inflicted upon the random stranger is grounds for arrest.

      --
      This signature is false.
    10. Re:Error My Ass by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What we see here is two separate issues being lumped into one. On the one hand, you have the shooting. It doesn't sound good for Zimmerman, but then what I have heard about it came from the media. I don't have the facts at this time to make a decision about what happened. I also have not followed the story very closely.

      On the other hand, you have the completely separate issue where NBC is performing racist reporting with the clear intent of inciting racial conflict. What NBC reports doesn't change the facts of the shooting. The shooting doesn't change the fact that NBC is a race baiting news organization.

    11. Re:Error My Ass by PoolOfThought · · Score: 5, Funny

      The presumption of innocence is extremely important, and it's frightening that everyone is so quick to throw that concept out of the window. Even commenters here on Slashdot are doing it.

      And after the NBC edit. This is how it your comments come through:

      The presumption of innocence... throw that concept out of the window.

      --
      My present is the activity I am currently engaged in with the purpose of turning the future into a better past.
    12. Re:Error My Ass by fwarren · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have been involved in events 3 times in my life where there was media coverage. All 3 times the media made major mistakes in what they reported and omissions of what they did not report. Details like "the business was shut down, and all equipment was removed from the building", when the reality was the business was not shut down and the police removed a single PC from the business. All the local news did was read a press release written the previous day by the party that requested the police search the building. The local media did not even attempt to contact anyone to gather any facts or to collaborate any details. The other two news stories had the facts all wrong as well.

      Honestly I am afraid to watch the new.s I fear ever time I watch a news story that I am actually becoming dumber instead of becoming more informed.

      --
      vi + /etc over regedit any day of the week.
    13. Re:Error My Ass by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 5, Informative

      2.) no witnesses as to what happened

      Actually, there were five contemporaneous witnesses, not counting Martin and Zimmerman.

      ~Loyal

      --
      I aim to misbehave.
    14. Re:Error My Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Zimmerman grabbed his gun, jumped out of his car

      If he's like me and many other concealed carriers, the gun was already on his person, and if he got out of the car it automatically came with him, without his requiring another action.

      The way you paint the picture makes it sound premeditated, and there's no real evidence that's the way it happened.

    15. Re:Error My Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sorry but 911 operators have exactly zero authority to tell or order anyone to do anything.

      Also, stand your ground laws have nothing to do with this. The only reason they are mentioned is because some people vehemently oppose them and this seems like the perfect opportunity for them to complain about them. If someone hits you, knocking you down, jumps on you, and starts bashing your head into the pavement then standing your ground isn't even an issue. Self defense laws cover that situation already.

      You might want to rethink your opposition to stand your ground laws while you're at it. If you're legally obligated to run away instead of defending yourself then you can be herded like a lamb to the slaughter.

    16. Re:Error My Ass by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except that the current evidence is that Zimmerman didn't "grab his gun", he was carrying it to begin with. He did not "chase down a random stranger who was just walking down the street". He followed a stranger randomly wandering down the street, in the rain, at an early morning hour, in a gated community that had had a rash of burglaries and at least one home invasion in the recent past (a community where Zimmerman knew most of the residents, but did not know this person). This is where it becomes speculation and/or ambiguous. Zimmerman claims that after the 911 dispatcher told him that they did not need him to follow Martin he returned to his vehicle to await the arrival of the police and that Martin confronted and then attacked him as he got back to his vehicle. There are witness accounts that support Zimmerman's account. However, I have not seen any reports on where Zimmerman was in relation to his vehicle when the police did arrive on the scene. That is the key question. If Zimmerman returned to his truck and Martin followed him there and attacked him, the nature of the situation is completely different than if Zimmerman was following Martin and Martin turned on him attacked him (Martin possibly thinking that he was in danger). I do not have enough information to know which scenario more closely fits the facts (although I am inclined to lean toward believing the former considering the extent to which various news organizations distorted the facts from the beginning. If the story could readily be made to look bad for Zimmerman from the actual facts, why distort the facts to make him look bad?).

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  2. Apologies... by damien_kane · · Score: 5, Funny

    We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.

  3. Give the People What They Want by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.

    Guilty guilty GUILTY! A thousand counts of guilty for ... um ... being bored in public? "I demanded he present his papers and pointed out that any self-respecting member of the proletariat would not lethargically meander about and instead optimize his steps in an effort to better serve his comrades."

    And NBC? Why, they were giving you the best news money can buy. You wanted George Zimmerman to be super guilty, super racist and super scumbag and that's what they kindly provided you. Your eyeballs and mouse clicks lead NBC to place money over justice or facts (the true Capitalists that we all are). SO either stop watching them or just forgive them for entertaining you a little too well. A young man was killed by some power-tripping neighborhood watch? We can easily incite a race war with our reporting, you say? NBC sees dollar signs! Just a touch of editing and ... look at those servers cook!

    Normally I would feel unqualified to make any comments on this case unfortunately it's unclear if this will ever be brought before an actual court so this might end up being the only thing done -- mock trials in the worst format of all: the 24 hour news cycle.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Give the People What They Want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Guilty guilty GUILTY! A thousand counts of guilty for ... um ... being bored in public? "I demanded he present his papers and pointed out that any self-respecting member of the proletariat would not lethargically meander about and instead optimize his steps in an effort to better serve his comrades."

      I guess you live in one of those real gated communities (i.e. rich white suburbs too far from the bus stop for the lower class to get to) that never has to worry about burglaries. There is a reason why Zimmerman was a neighborhood watchman - their neighborhood had been suffering many break-ins and was a high crime area. If you live in a high crime area and notice someone that doesn't live there is walking around from house to house in the daytime you'd be suspicious too.

  4. Wakeup call to those who only hound Fox "News" by RyoShin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This just goes to show you that Fox News is not the only one who will happily edit or take out of context something they feel will boost their ratings or meet their internal bias/views. It's why I've stopped watching/reading all mainstream news. I just occasionally glance at "smaller"news sites and browse /. (though most /. summaries also twist the facts to meet the submitter/editor's own bias/views, but the topics are generally more interesting to me.)

    Considering the weight we put on our Jury system, this kind of reporting should actually come with heavy penalties. AFAIK, Zimmerman has yet to go to trial (if ever), and reporting like this will only improperly skew the potential jury pool one way or another. And because many Americans still trust "news" (be it Fox News or NBC or CNN), they will take things like this as absolute fact; a correction never gets as much time or weight as the original story, so they're far more likely to miss that. This American Life's correction a few weeks back was the proper way to go about it, and that's likely a millennial event. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but a few months back there was a report on /. that even after someone is told that a previously stated "fact" was actually a mistake or outright lie, an alarming portion of people still hold the previous "mistruth" as fact.

    Furthermore, an incident like this actually helps Zimmerman--there's plenty of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, to lob against this guy, so when you go out of your way to make up or twist such things it only lends credence to the idea that the guy isn't as bad as he seems.

  5. Re:This IS NOT NEWS FOR NERDS by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Editors stay in your lane. There is nothing relevant in this case to tech, or nerd issues.

    Manipulation of recorded data by a major media outlet to change peoples' perception is not relevant to tech?

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  6. Re:it is impossible to remove bias from media by SaroDarksbane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone is biased, but not everyone is a liar.

  7. Re:Why so hung up on a race? by SaroDarksbane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My fixed version: An unarmed person was shot during an altercation, and the facts relevant to determining who initiated the fight are still unknown. The ethnicity of the two parties is irrelevant. The shooter should be on trial for murder if there is probable cause to believe he was the one who started the fight.

  8. Representing this as a mistake is BS by LetterRip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This wasn't a mistake, it was a deliberate misrepresentation on the behalf of whoever did the editing or ordered the editing done.

    When the corporation claims 'oops' when it is obviously deliberate, it leads to distrust. There most definitely should have been firings over this.

  9. My friend is trying to protect his neighborhood by Quila · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's lived here for 30 years and watched crime go up and up over that time. Every week he tells us of another house that's been broken into. In almost all instances, the house was cased prior to the robbery to determine when it would be unoccupied.

    Crime is best prevented by the people knowing their neighborhood and being able to spot anything out of place. If an unknown 6'2" black guy in a hoodie walking apparently randomly at night is out of place in a neighborhood, then so be it.

    Oh no, that would be profiling! Racist! Hate to break it to you, but NOT profiling according to statistically relevant criteria is plain stupid and a waste of resources.