George Zimmerman is suing NBC over its editing of a 911 tape, claiming that the network made him sound like a “racist and predatory villain.”
On Thursday, Zimmerman filed a complaint alleging, “NBC News saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain.”
He is suing for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seeks unspecified damages as well as a trial by jury. The news was announced on GZvsNBC.com, a website established by Zimmerman’s legal representatives on their client’s behalf.
Zimmerman shot and killed seventeen-year old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager, in February. NBC News subsequently aired an edited version of Zimmerman’s 911 call, which made it sound as if he had voluntarily told the operator that Martin was “black.” He had actually been responding to the operator’s question as to whether the “suspicious person” he was calling about was “black, white or Hispanic.”
The controversial edit, which aired on “Today,” roiled NBC’s news division earlier this year. The network launched an internal investigation into the matter, and admitted that the edit was an “error.” Two people were fired as a result, and a third staffer was let go over a different, unrelated edit.
