Monday, June 30, 2014

Florida Judge Tosses George Zimmerman’s Defamation Suit Against NBC

Judge Debra S. Nelson
“There exists absolutely no clear and convincing evidence that defendants knew that the information published was false at the time it was published, or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of those statements,” wrote Judge Debra S. Nelson. She also ruled that against contentions in Zimmerman’s complaint that he suffered emotional distress as a result of the NBC News reports.

WaPo provides the background of the NBC distortions that the judge somehow failed to notice:
At issue in the case were several broadcasts from NBC News that edited the 911 call that Zimmerman had made not long before shooting Trayvon Martin on the night of Feb. 26, 2012 in a subdivision in Sanford, Florida. As a result of edits by NBC News, Zimmerman sounded as if he had volunteered that Martin is black. The full tape reveals that he was asked by the dispatcher whether the person he was following was “white, black or Hispanic?” Zimmerman’s complaint contends that NBC News knowingly misportrayed Zimmerman...

6 comments:

  1. Hey was screwed from the beginning with a fat female judge. Justice in the people's republic of amerika is a joke.

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  2. I'm generally sympathetic towards Zimmerman, and there's no doubt that NBC edited this audio for malicious purposes....

    BUT, I'm not sure he suffered any real damages. What's he trying to argue, that this specific audio edit is what caused Eric Holder to persecute him? That without this, Al Sharpton would have left him alone and the black panthers would never have called for him to be murdered? Please. All of the crap he went through would have still happened regardless of how NBC edited the tape...

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    1. No, but that edit was crucial to the storyline. If they didn't portray him as a racist asshole then the controversy would've died and he wouldn't be getting death threats. I hope he takes it to the Supreme (ugh) Court.

      I know almost zero about Zimmerman but the whole tragedy was blown WAY out of proportion. Martin was a (self-proclaimed) "thug" and Zimmerman wanted to be the "big man". It ended in tragedy, but Zimmerman should've been allowed to plead guilty to a MUCH lesser charge instead of allowing the government propaganda media to make it a circus.

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    2. All of that is true. But my point is, they would have portrayed him as a racist asshole whether this edited recording existed or not. In fact, they did so, and continued to do so, long after this recording was exposed and discredited. Countless other media sources portrayed him as a racist asshole without ever having used this recording.

      I don't think the edit was "crucial to the storyline," because the storyline had already been written far prior to the recording existing.

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  3. I think it was Mencken who thought a Judge was a student of the law who marks his own papers.

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