Why did neighborhood-watch-wannabe George Zimmerman kill Trayvon Martin? We don’t know yet. But don’t believe anything you hear on NBC News, after they doctored a transcript of Zimmerman’s 911 call to make Zimmerman out to be racist.
Here’s what NBC broadcast on its Today show:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.
Here’s what was on the real recording:
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.
NBC doctored the record to strengthen the popular narrative that Martin was followed and shot because he was black. It’s a narrative that has thousands of protesters out calling for Zimmerman’s scalp—some literally. The crowd’s tempers—and mine, for that matter, have been inflamed by NBC’s mis-reporting. If there’s more violence NBC will rightfully share the blame.
So what does the network have to say? An error was made. Here’s NBC’s only statement, in its entirety.
“During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.”
Americans have had reason to be distrustful of the reporting of the media, even the most respected organizations. All have earned that distrust, but NBC has brought “news” to a new low. They just made it up. And apologize? Not exactly. You see, it was “an error.” Vile.
(Thanks to EthicsAlarms.com for its original commentary.)
Ethics Bob 