According to the attorney for George Zimmerman, James Beasley, the defamation case against NBC News was stayed pending the outcome of the outrageous prosecution in the criminal case. Now that’s out of the way, and Beasley is ready to proceed. Beasley, a Philadelphia-based lawyer, wrote in an email to the Washington Post:
We’re going to start in earnest asap, we just have to get the stay lifted which is a ministerial act.
When asked how the not-guilty verdict affects the civil case against NBC News, Beasley responded, “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.”
We have heard many complaints over the “Stand Your Ground” defense, even though many still don’t understand it was irrelevant in the Zimmerman defense, but take a look at NBC Universal Media’s defense.
NBC Universal Media responded to the Zimmerman complaint by absurdly claiming that other media outlets played up the racial angle of Zimmerman’s deadly encounter with Trayvon Martin. I have never heard a supposed major news organization give the “two wrongs make a right” defense.
Here’s how NBC News, in a March 27, 2012, broadcast of the “Today” show, abridged the tape of Zimmerman’s comments to a police dispatcher on the evening of Feb. 26, 2012:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.
The full tape went like this:
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. Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.
The news organization had been praying for a guilty verdict in the trial, because they had argued all along how it would substantiate their unethical behavior throughout their news network apparatus. It is an unbelievable counter-argument, as their bias was the only reason why Zimmerman ever had to worry about a conviction in the first place.
Well, what goes around comes around they always say.
MSNBC, an associate company, saw their pathetic ratings in comparison on Monday with the release of the preliminary numbers for the Zimmerman verdict.
In the 10-11 p.m. hour on Saturday night, when the verdict in, Fox News had 3,682,000 total viewers; CNN had 3,407,000 total viewers and won the coveted demo with 1,716,000 viewers aged 25-to-54.
In the same hour, MSNBC had 1,298,000 total viewers — about one-third of Fox’s total — and a mere 510,000 viewers in the demo. (These are preliminary numbers; finals are in tomorrow.)
Despite branding itself as “the place for politics,” MSNBC went wall-to-wall on the Zimmerman trial after watching its ratings tank in recent months. How has that worked out for them?
