NBC News creatively edited a police phone record to create a racist narrative where none existed in the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

George Zimmerman, performing on a neighborhood watch detail, called the local police to inform them there was ‘a real suspicious guy…’walking around, looking about.’  Shortly afterward Zimmerman claimed that the ‘suspicious guy’, who was black, violently confronted him and as a consequence Zimmerman fatally shot Martin. Zimmerman claimed it was self-defense and the police were unable to prove otherwise.

NBC News edited and broadcast Zimmerman’s call to the police making it sound like Zimmerman was a racist and had used a racial epithet. Zimmerman filed a lawsuit disputing NBC’s allegations.

NBC News initially ‘strongly disagree[d]’ with the accusations made in the complaint’ by Zimmerman but later NBCUniversal Media, owner of NBC News apologized for editing the phone call and let go three network and local NBC station employees.

Zimmerman lost his lawsuit against the network because he was unable to show that NBC acted with malice. Proving malice is the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card routinely used by the media to absolve itself of the consequences of false reporting.

Source: Zimmerman Sues NBC by McDowall, 2012, NBC News. Graphic: Partial Quote from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address 1865.