By way of Jammie Wearing Fool, here’s NBC’s latest excuse:
An internal NBC News probe has determined a “seasoned” producer was to blame for a misleading clip of a 911 call that the network broadcast during its coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to two sources at the network.
NBC News brass interviewed more than half a dozen staffers during its investigation of the misleadingly edited 911 call placed by George Zimmerman just before he shot the unarmed Florida teenager, said the sources, one of whom is an executive at the network.
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The sources described the producer’s actions as a very bad mistake, but not deliberate.
That is a lie. There is no way — no way — that the Zimmerman edit was a mistake. It was an internal edit of audio, meaning that it was an edit out of material that was kept in the final edit, on the head and tail of the material that was cut out. To accomplish that edit, the editor had to set edit In and Out points inside the timeline and then delete the material between those two points. Such an edit does not take very long, probably less than a minute unless the resulting timeline introduces pops or other glitches that had to be smoothed out. The edit materially altered the audio in a way that told a story — a false story. An error would probably clip a word or sentence, but this one did not. It changed the exchange between Zimmerman and the 911 dispatcher from this:
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.
911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic?
ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
To this:
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car.
Let’s highlight the part lopped out, in red:
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.
911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic?
ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
I have been a video and audio editor for going on 20 years and have used a wide variety of tools in hundreds of productions during those years, from pieces that appeared on IMAX screens to pieces that appeared exclusively online. There is no way to accomplish the Zimmerman edit as the result of any honest “mistake.” You have to go inside the material to extract part of it out, and then ensure that the resulting edit is smooth enough so that it will not be distracting. There might be pops or changes in the background noise that have to be smoothed out with ramps or fades. This edit was deliberate, and involved several people in the editing booth, the production team, the web production team, and legal. NBC still is not telling the truth, and the “seasoned” producer and the dishonest editing, content and legal teams who put this disgraceful smear on TV and on the web still have their jobs. They should lose those jobs and we should learn their names, at least if NBC wants to retain any shred of credibility.
“at least if NBC wants to retain any shred of credibility”
At this point NBC has no credibility whatsoever. Weekend Update on SNL has more credibility than the entirety of NBC news. Including Brian Williams.
– doesn’t explain, but would help in the search for a new job.
Those edits were made for a reason, and authorized, clearly. I don’t understand why NBC doesn’t just say, “In a moment of emotional bad judgement and indignation, we decided to tell a story. We got caught. On reflection, we were wrong, and will take the lesson.”
I have never understood the urge to cover up; at a certain point, you simply have to step up and take the consequences.
This stuff has been going on for a long, long time. They used to get away with stuff like this only it’s a lot harder now. Do you remember when Dateline NBC rigged a truck to explode and got caught? How about when CBS 60 Minutes rigged an Audi’s accelerator to fake a story? They also had the forged National Guard memos back in 2004. Those are just a few examples that quickly come to mind.
Now NBC got caught doctoring the 911 audio tape. No doubt they’re wondering how they got caught this time. To paraphrase a character from Scoobie Doo, “I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for those pesky kids in their pajamas!”
If one were going to put the best or most charitable face on a tragic situation, it would be that two innocent guys (one being the good citizen neighborhood watch dude thinking the other dude was casing the area, but who was actually just going home in a round-about-way) randomly collided in the dark, in a high crime gated neighborhood, and in the scuffle that ensued one dude was killed, shot in the chest, in self defense, while the shooter was being pounded into the pavement. Of course, justifiable homicide in today’s litigious society only means the shooter (of limited resources) is civilly liable, not criminally. Much of what’s going on currently besides the political score settling and campaign fund raising is the search for who’s going to be the “deep pockets” (an allegedly incompetent or corrupt municipal police department is better than only a civilian shooter with limited means) for paying off the family of Travon, and the lawyers.
Once the flagrant lie has been exposed for what it truly is, NBC has no alternative but to expose those responsible, terminate their employment immediately, and run a full explanation and apology in prime time….if they want to stay in the “news” business that is. Otherwise they will continue their slide into insignificance. But, lets be honest here. The only people who watch NBC to get their news nowadays cannot be the most open-minded truth seekers in America anyway. NBC has been in the tank for decades; this is just the latest validation of that point.
A transcript of the 911 recording, leaving out the NBC deletion, should of course require an ellipsis.
A transcript of the NBC recording, however, should NOT contain an ellipsis.
It should be shown as it is, per se, just as NBC intended it to be, with no indication of any omission.
I agree with this article entirely. Been in the editing business for more than 25 years. Edits of this type don’t “just happen.” This edit was made to purposefully mislead. No editor would take it on himself to make this edit – he could very easily lose his job over it.
I don’t bother to watch any of them anymore.
The name is Jim Bell. He is The Executive Producer of The Today Show. If he doesn’t wish to hold his employees responsible for their actions, then HE is responsible for their actions. Yes, he still has a job. I hope you can send him a polite phone call, or email. As Breitbart would say, “Don’t let the bastards get away with it…”
“Mistakes were made” (NBC) Errrr…yes, like buying unthinkingly into a fascistic Leftist dogmas in your elite journalism school and then feeling like, instead of telling the truth, it is your responsibility be PRAVDA USA and help your Dear Leader get re-elected by fomenting contrived racial tensions and violence. Yes, mistakes were made alright.
I want the guy’s NAME!!!!! published in every newspaper and on TV so he can experience mobs and threats — oh wait – he wouoldn’t —
he deserves to be publicly SHAMED for purposely editing the soundtrack and libeling Mr Zimmerman…………..
mistake? yeah right, he should be SUED by Mr Z.
curious what color and what party this “seasoned producer” belongs to