Examiner.com--NBC News has fired the producer who edited George Zimmerman's 911call from the night he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
He was fired Thursday, according to sources who spoke with the NY Times. The network had already acknowledged that the edited account was misleading and apologized.
In the aired version Zimmerman said, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black." But in the original recording those two sentences are separated, with Zimmerman classifying Martin as black only after the 911 dispatchers had asked about the teen's race. (See accompany video for back-to-back comparison.)
NBC says the editing was an accident. From the Times:
Inside NBC, there was shock that the segment had been broadcast. Citing an anonymous network executive, Reuters reported that "the 'Today' show's editorial control policies — which include a script editor, senior producer oversight and in most cases legal and standards department reviews of material to be broadcast — missed the selective editing of the call."
But also from the Times, this reader comment:
I am a veteran television producer and reading this account it is absolutely mind boggling how and why a producer/editor would do this. And secondly, how in the world could this mess get on a major NBC show without anyone reviewing it, supervising the editing or writing, asking what was in it, legally reviewing it, or even just a supervisor being curious about such an important segment? Does the news division have little oversight because of layoffs and cutbacks? And if the producer was fired, what about his or her supervisors? And the editor had no concerns? What is going on there?
The producer's name was not revealed.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, April 7th 2012 at 4:00PM
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