Shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater

NBC has incited racial hatred. Hopefully, it does not spill into violence. If it does, the FCC should revoke their broadcast license.

We've all heard of the famous 911 call from Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case. This was NBC's original excerpt of it:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car." 

Sounds like Zimmerman might be a racist, doesn't it? Sounds like maybe he's got a chip on his shoulder, doesn't it?

It does, until you realize that NBC edited the quote in such a way that it casts Zimmerman in precisely that light.

Here is the actual transcript:

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.

911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic?

ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

The actual transcript does not present the narrative that NBC (at one time reputed to have an actual, functioning, news organization) desires to present. So apply a little cutting and pasting, and presto: Zimmerman's a racist.

Look, there's nothing wrong if NBC wants to provide fiction for their viewers. It's their First Amendment right. But they should not present their fictionalized account as news. It's like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. They should be held responsible for their irresponsibility.

[The above quotes were clipped from a blog post by Dan Riehl. His post can be seen here.]

Followup added on 4/10/2012: check out this link. Apparently, NBC has quite a history of these sorts of "mistakes."