Second Producer Quietly Fired in NBC's EditGate

Supposedly this was all an accident.

And yet the same identical false edits were created both at NBC/NY HQ (for the Today show) and down at the NBC Miami affiliate.

An unnamed source at NBC6/Miami indicates that NBC really isn't sorry at all:

“The network is very sensitive about the whole Al Sharpton/MSNBC issue, so when the right-wing bloggers started hammering, they needed to throw them fresh meat,” said the station source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the controversy. “It’s not at all clear how this happened. Obviously, there was miscommunication.”

So NBC didn't fire anyone because they thought they committed a firable offense -- they just wanted to appease "right-wing bloggers" with some "fresh meat" due to their being "sensitive" about the "Al Sharpton/MSNBC issue."

Meanwhile, Reuters begins to correct the egregiously misreported story of George Zimmerman.

Based on extensive interviews with relatives, friends, neighbors, schoolmates and co-workers of Zimmerman in two states, law enforcement officials, and reviews of court documents and police reports, the story sheds new light on the man at the center of one of the most controversial homicide cases in America.

The 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator comes from a deeply Catholic background and was taught in his early years to do right by those less fortunate. He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather – the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

A criminal justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young African-American men.

Though civil rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Martin, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account.

“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK?” the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. “There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood,” she said. “That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”

Duh.

Anyway, so now Zimmerman might be okay because he's partly black himself? This continues the disgusting pattern of determining guilt or innocence based on Racial Status. I'm glad for Zimmerman that this bit of genetic inheritance might help him -- but is this what America is now? Essentially deciding guilt or innocence by a racial mitichlorian count?

Over at the American Spectator, John Hayward recapitulates the egregious lynch-mob "reporting" here.

Why did the media push a story so completely at variance with the picture Reuters paints of Zimmerman in this extensive profile? My guess is a combination of the hunger for sensationalism, a political agenda, and pure laziness. There was a time when such a major story would have called for more shoe leather, and less reliance upon press releases from interested parties.

Oh, let me offer a couple of more reasons:

Despite the fact that the media claims to be above the blogs, they do in fact consume and trust blogs -- Leftwing blogs. Although we on the right think we've done something awesome when we push a true story into the MSM, leftwing blogs have far, far more influence on the media. After all-- they can get false stories into the MSM.

And cowardice. You know the "elephant in the room" that black woman mentioned? Yeah, the media -- brave and dauntless in its pursuit of truth -- is too cowardly to mention slightly discomforting facts, like the pattern of robberies committed by teenaged black boys in the neighborhood.

posted by Ace at 11:22 AM

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