NBC fires editor for altering Zimmerman 911 call; when will MSNBC fire the writer who did the same?

lesjones.com Blog ^ | Les Jones | April 7, 2012

[grundle]

Welcome, visitors from Instapundit, JustOneMinute, Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades, and elsewhere. One interesting update to this story is that TalkLeft found that there was an earlier version of the Today show story from March 27th. NBC Producer Out But Unnamed

The NY Tmes breaks its Trayvon Martin silence long enough to report at one of their blogs that an unnamed NBC producer has been fired as a result of the doctored Zimmerman “He looks black” report.

Before NBC’s alteration on TV, MSNBC did the exact same thing in print. When will MSNBC fire someone?

UPDATE: A reader named Jim notes this NBC Miami piece credited to Jeff Burnside that may have been the source of the MSNBC piece. It’s substantially the same, with minor editing differences. Though it has the same March 21st date as the MSNBC piece there are comments from March 20th.

In case it changes, here’s a Google cache of the NBC Miami piece, and here’s a screenshot:

Oddly, the hyperlink in that story goes to this April 2nd NBC Miami story about the Martin/Zimmerman shooting. That means the piece has been edited since March 21st.

And another update from Jim:

I just realized the following story was posted on 3/19/2012- which means it was the original story. http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/White-House-Weighs-in-on-Travyon-Martin-Case-as-Protests-Mount-143402066.htm

Burnside, Hernandez and Colby are the authors. Burnside and Hernandez apparently work for NBC Miami but Colby apparently does not. Since AP is listed on the article, Colby may have been acting as a stringer. Burnside alone wrote the second article using the altered quote.

I’m sorry I didn’t notice that at first. Nonetheless, it does seem to disprove NBC’s explanation the whole thing was a mistake. The important thing is we actually have names: Hernandez and Burnside. If NBC fired a producer for this, they’re gonna have to fire these two reporters, as well.

Screenshot here in case it gets edited. LATER: It’s a good thing I got the screenshot. They’ve completely removed the 911 conversation.

[grundle]

NBC said The Today Show edited the 911 tape to save time. But that doesn't explain why the print version was also edited.

[laweeks]

I thought that NBC refuses to say who the idiot was that got fired. Therefore, I assume, NOBODY GOT FIRED and tough $hit for us.

NBC . . . MSNBC . . . aren’t they essentially the same bucket of slimy slop?

[John 3_19-21]

NBC still stoke’in the racial fire by using 4 and 5 year old pics of Trayvon in tonights “news”.

[NoLibZone]

NBC is wrong often.

Until the person fired is named , the reports of his being fired are just the latest “mistaken”, “accidentally incorrectly”, “up against time constraints”- report.

[Red Steel]

You got that right. No name = no one got fired.

[jmax]

That fired producer will probably now sue NBC for N-O-T naming him, claiming “Loss of Future Wages”. His legal grounds would be if they had named him, he could have put it on his resume’ and demanded a bigger salary at his next job interview. But, now, without that, he can’t prove what a super liberal progressive he is, thus is being deprived of a super salary worthy of his station in life.

[Erasmus]

NBC said The Today Show edited the 911 tape to save time. But that doesn't explain why the print version was also edited.

It works like this.

You know what every word in a broadcast or on a website costs? Electricity! Using too much electricity causes global warming and kills the whales.

Now, NBC beeing a greenie company doesn't want to use any more of those nasty electrons than necessary, so that's why they did the edits: To save the whales.

[Erasmus]

God help me; I’m beginning to think like John.