DC Trawler

Second NBC employee loses job over deceptively edited George Zimmerman 911 tape

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First, a reminder of what NBC did, if you’ve already forgotten or just got back from Mars:

NBC took George Zimmerman’s 911 call and changed his answer to a dispatcher’s direct question into a racist motive. They cut out three crucial seconds of audio, which they claim was “cut for time.” On a four-hour show. Hey, who has time to tell the truth and avoid smearing people as racists when you’re trying to squeeze in another cooking segment?

(PJTV explains the steps NBC needed to take to make it sound like that.)

The fallout of Editgate continues, as Brian Stelter at the NYT reports:

Lilia Luciano, a correspondent who was involved in a misleading news report about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman in March, is no longer employed by NBC News, the network confirmed on Thursday.

It is unclear whether Ms. Luciano resigned or was dismissed by NBC…

Ms. Luciano has not been seen on NBC news programs since the end of March, around the same time that the news division started an investigation into the editing process. That inquiry ended in early April. A producer was subsequently fired by the network; that person’s identity is not known.

Which is why I refuse to call Luciano the “third” NBC employee fired over this. WTVJ reporter Jeff Burnside was fired last month, but NBC has given no proof of the first firing — not even a name — and I see no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.

NBC has yet to explain how it happened or how they expect to keep their promise that it won’t happen again. This makes that fake exploding truck look like a cakewalk. And they have nobody to blame but themselves.