Back in December 2012, George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against NBC for editing a the call he made to 911 about Trayvon Martin, to make it look like Zimmerman volunteered information about Trayvon Martins race, when in actuality the 911 operator asked whether the person Zimmerman was calling about was "white, black or Hispanic," before Zimmerman answered "he looks black."
The edited version reported by NBC, then widely reported by other outlets, can be heard in the video below, as well as the original unedited version.
NBC Universal Media LLC responded to that lawsuit by asking the Florida courts to stay the case until the end of Zimmerman’s trial for second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, arguing that other outlets had played the NBC edited version and that if Zimmerman was convicted then his own actions will have damaged his reputation rather than the NBC reporting.
Saturday night, the jury in the Zimmerman trial rendered a verdict of not guilty on all charges, thereby NBC's reasoning is no longer valid.
According to an email from Zimmerman's attorney James Beasley, the lawsuit defamation lawsuit against NBC will now be pursued immediately.
“We’re going to start in earnest asap, we just have to get the stay lifted which is a ministerial act,” Beasley said via email.
The attorney did acknowledge that while Zimmerman's victory in his criminal trial could be helpful to this civil suit, it was not a guarantee that he would win his defamation case:
“This verdict of not guilty is just that, and shows that at least this jury didn’t believe that George was a racist, profiling, or anything that the press accused George of being. That probably doesn’t get you that much but it’s simply time for us to start the case and hold accountable anyone who was irresponsible in their journalism.”
Although NBC did later apologize for their irresponsible editing of the 911 call, they have not been held accountable for their journalistic malpractice.
Perhaps now they will be.
