Posted on 04/25/2012 12:47:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Jeff Burnside was fired Friday after making an edit to tape of George Zimmerman’s 911 call before he shot Trayvon Martin, SFLTV is reporting. Burnside, a reporter, still has a page on the website of Miami’s WTVJ, an affiliate owned and operated by NBC. It’s not unusual for networks to use reported material from their owned and operated affiliates, but it is unusual for such reporting to generate this much unwelcome attention.
NBC’s “Today” show aired the tape, which removed context from Zimmerman’s conversation with a 911 operator. The original call transcript said:
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.
The edit changed Zimmerman’s words to: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”
NBC has apologized for the video but declined to say how the edit occurred; Erik Wemple called the mea culpa “skimpy” and David Carr said the edit was a “remarkable lapse in editorial process that inflamed a highly emotional issue, and it created suspicion that journalists and media outlets were picking sides.” He wondered why NBC didn’t issue an on-air correction. Jim Treacher posts a screenshot of what he says is a deleted tweet by fellow WTVJ reporter Christina Hernandez claiming the 911 call came to the station in the edited form.
Burnside hasn’t replied to a telephone message. A phone call to WTVJ’s newsdesk was immediately patched through to a spokesman from the NBC-owned stations who said only, “As a result of our investigation an employee involved in editing the tape is no longer at the station.”
Burnside tweeted photos from a Sanford, Fla., rally on March 26, and also mentioned he’d be on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts that day. Martin, 17, was killed in central Florida, but he lived in Miami and attended high school there.
Burnside’s station bio says he won three awards in 2007 for his investigative reporting: an Investigative Reporters and Editors Certificate, the National Press Club Award, and the Clarion Award. He’s worked at WTVJ for 13 years, according to his Facebook page.
Yeah, but like all progs Burnside had good intentions. Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelettte....
So, is this the “Senior Producer” that NBC claimed to have fired three weeks ago?
Or is is “a reporter” they fired 4 days ago?
Has the “Senior Producer” magically become “a reporter” after the heat is off for a bit?
.
NBC apologized...by editing that tape they have incited racial tensions, people have been violently attacked and all they can do is apologize? Journalists are at the bottom of the “ethics” ladder. Give me a sleazy used car salesman any day.
When dealing with a used car salesperson one has the opportunity to inspect the vehicle, negotiate over the price and terms, and ultimately the ability to walk away if any of them aren't to your satisfaction. The Legacy Media, however, just spews forth miles of utter crap every day and most of it goes completely unchallenged. This time, one out of hundreds, they got caught.
The esteemed “Poynter” institute is late to this story...it was on Free Republic several hours ago.
Willingly? or Coerced?
Martin was shot by Burnside after he edited Zimmermans tape?
This is a huge exclusive!
I guess it's too much ask for, expecting a journalist to be able to construct a sentence.
On March 19 NBC6 ran a story on the phone call George Zimmerman made in connection with the Trayvon Martin case. In that story an error in editorial judgment was made in which a question from the operator was deleted which could have created the impression that Mr. Zimmerman’s statement may have been singling out Trayvon Martin because of his race. We take this incident very seriously and apologize to our viewers. After conducting an extensive investigation, we are putting a more stringent editorial process in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/NBC6-Zimmerman-Edit-Explanation-148961305.html
Will Spike Lee publish Jeff Burnside’s address on Twitter?
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