I haven’t posted here on the Martin/Zimmerman matter because it appeared to me that, whatever the circumstances prior to two weeks ago when the story hit the national press, the process was working itself out, commenting in the absence of the facts would have been premature, and I’d already said my piece about “Stand Your Ground” laws in the abstract in comments over at OTB.
It certainly appears to my eye that several major news outlets got far, far ahead of themselves in the story. For a taste of that see this post from Tom Maguire, who’s been posting heavily on the media errors in covering the story.
Here’s my question. Given what could be construed as a pattern of reckless disregard for the actual facts and inadequate or, possibly, non-existent attempts at verifying them, does George Zimmerman have a cause for libel against major media outlets? This is not just a rhetorical question. I don’t know the answer and I’m hoping to be educated. I have no opinion.
I understand that actual malice has to be present for such a cause to succeed but it seems to me that in this particular case it is possible that malice might be inferred.
BTW, it also seems to me that those who are pressing this case, portraying Trayvon Martin as an innocent child and George Zimmerman as a trigger-happy wannabe, may be dangerously close to exposing a rift in the Democratic Party: that between blacks and Hispanics. Politically, I think it would be prudent to move with extreme caution on this story. Obviously, quite a number of people feel otherwise. They could be in for a big surprise.
I’m not a lawyer and have no idea either. (Calling PD, calling PD)
But I think your phrase “reckless disregard” is charitable, at least in the case of the famous NBC editing out of the 911 dispatcher really asking whether Martin was black rather than Zimmerman offering it unsolicited.
That sounds like intent, and I think thats where sloppiness crosses into a tort………………..or maybe not.
In any event, is there anyone who trusts a thing they hear from NBC anymore? Attaching bombs to cars anyone?
“…may be dangerously close to exposing a rift in the Democratic Party: that between blacks and Hispanics.”
Can’t you read? The paper of record has informed us he’s a “white Hispanic.” nyuk, nyuk
I haven’t been following the intricacies of this case. From TM’s site, it looks like the only potentially damaging implication is that Zimmerman is “paranoid.” And that’s just an inference one could make on the misreported number of calls within the time frame.
My guess is that it wouldn’t be worth a lawyer’s time to go up against the NYT’s lawyers for that.
NBC’s godawful ellipse has been corrected by the organization, as I understand.
This crazy, breathless, half-cocked running around to catch the soonest scoop is destroying the news trade, and our sense of fairness along with it.
I’m not a lawyer, but I would think the difficulty is in proving intent. Getting the facts wrong is not sufficient and, in this case particularly, the facts are in dispute.
The editing of “news” is done so often and so blatantly (the kids in the ACORN tapes did not go in dressed as pimps) that I kind of assume that there is no likely legal action here.
Steve
Breitbart was never news. Just agitation.
The most interesting comment that I saw about his death was that he died of the ancient “apoplexy.” Which I thought appropriate.
The problem is different factions within the TBPD seem to be issuing leaks to the media, which are leaping on them right and left (literally). This is not fair to Zimmerman OR Martin’s family, and is emblematic of what happens when the legal system gets moved to the court of public opinion.
I’ll add that assholes like Maguire, when making dire proclamations like “We may have race riots in Florida,” is just adding to the problem. Everyone should take three deep breaths and let this thing get resolved by the proper authorities.
Yep. That’s about the way I see it. I think the folks who are upset that it took so long for the case to get taken seriously have a point. It’s getting taken seriously now and they need to move on.
Agreed. Honestly, given the level of press it’s received – to say nothing of the fact that some press sources have presented falsified evidence – I’m pretty skeptical at this point that Zimmerman could even get a fair trial. It still seems quite possible that the case won’t ever go to court, but even if it does I can easily imagine it being thrown out.
And while I was (regrettably) intemperate with Maguire in my last post, he’s far from the worst offender. I have been deeply, deeply frustrated lately with almost all parties that have gotten involved with this. I appreciate that you and the other folks at OTB have been far more restrained.
Richard Jewell got at least a $500k from NBC, for some pretty tepid statements, but they said they didn’t want to expose their news gatherers to revealing their sources. We don’t know how much he got from CNN and the NY Post.
Is that worth going after?
What is the TBPD, Maxwell?
…
The comment section at Althouse has been more disappointing than I could have imagined. Yesterday I linked to an article in which two voice experts claimed it wasn’t George Zimmerman yelling for help on the tape. I was accused of being a race-baiter and Democrat (imagine my surprise) for daring suggest that perhaps George Zimmerman shouldn’t be awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Honor for killing a gang-banging hoodlum. All I did was point out the expert’s comments, and even voiced some skepticism about their findings. (For example, one concluded that the voice calling for help was that of Trayvon Martin, even though he had no recordings of Martin’s voice.) But since I wasn’t a “ME TOO!”er for the prevailing pro-Zimmerman account, I was the enemy. I actually stated later that I was interested in finding out what actually happened, to which someone replied that I was very cavalier with other people’s money. (Some asshole NOT from Florida, I should point out, so he has no skin in the game, whereas I do.) I swear, the collective IQ of the nation has dropped at least 50 points since this case gained national attention.
On the plus side, it did provide yet another example of the President’s seemingly unbounded narcisism. I guess that’s something.
…
ABC News hasn’t been any better than NBC News. It took them days to admit what everyone already knew: that grainy surveillance video was grainy surveillance video. Their lead reporter, Gutman, got three basic facts wrong in a story he wrote a couple weeks back. That was three errors in the first three paragraphs, so I stopped reading it. I was so annoyed I actually set up a Twitter account and tweeted him about the mistakes. He ignored me. He was real damned quick to change the part in the article about Zimmerman being the admitted shooter, as opposed to the alleged shooter as Gutman originally wrote, when someone else tweeted that error. So at least four errors had existed in the original story. Very selective editting amounts to outright lying at some point.
I also see that back on March 22 Gutman was breathlessly reporting about Bill Lee resigning as head of the Sanford PD. of course, at that time Lee was merely taking a leave of absense, but what the Hell? Why let a few odd things like facts get in the way of the narrative?
I also see that he was reporting that some doctor from Florida was stating that Zimmerman didn’t have any injuries. This is a doctor that apparently never actually examined Zimmerman.
Shockingly, my respect for braodcast journalism has gone down considerably because of all this, which I didn’t think was possible.
The Orlando Sentinel has been doing an okay job with this story – they’ve actually been trying to figure out what happened! They’re about to go behind a paywall, however, so don’t bother looking them up now.
But I’ve got to go close the windows now. The police have a manhunt going in the neighborhood, and the noise from the helicopters is just getting to be annoying.
The bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, the baby at every baptism.
I don’t know whether it’s an occupational hazard or a requirement for the job.
What is the TBPD, Maxwell?
A brain fart. I was thinking of Sanford, but it emerged as Tampa Bay. My bad.
Shockingly, my respect for broadcast journalism has gone down considerably because of all this, which I didn’t think was possible.
It really is amazing. I go out of my way to avoid broadcast news, which is kind of difficult since I work in DC. Every time I walk into an office or a restaurant playing CNN or Fox, I feel my own brain struggling to run away.
Maxwell, the Tampa Bay thing is a real gaffe – there is no Tampa Bay PD. Tampa Bay is a region comprising several cites, I have no idea how many towns, and several counties. No unified structure there!
As for broadcast news – I try to avoid everything news-related on television except for weather and sports news, and we’ve got one local TV station that we watch – primarily because we know we will get a decent weather report six times an hour.
Also, a question for steve: The NYTimes is now reporting that Zimmerman only outweighed martin by 20 pounds and was giving up at least four inches in height. (No one seems to know how tall Martin was at the time of his death. He was somewhere between 6’1″ and 500 feet tall, based on what I’m reading. Hopefully the coroner’s report will clear that up.) The prior numbers were the result of the media using data (pictures, primarily) from years ago.
So how does that fit into your narrative of a massive Zimmerman looking to beat the Hell out of some skinny little 13 kid?
A 20 pound difference makes more sense if they were on the ground and Martin was holding his own or winning. The 100number pound difference reported did not fit with a lot of versions. Of course, at this point I don’t know if even that is true. Will wait for final report.
Meanwhile, in the last few days in Sanford:
Two men were arrested for a brutal attack on another man – they used hammers. Not sure if the attack occurred in Sanford or Winter Springs, where the victim lives, or in some third locality.
A 17 year-old was shot in an early morning shooting.
Two mornings later (this morning) three other people where hit in a drive-by shooting just one block from the previously mentioned shooting. 30 rounds fired, though no one was killed.
Sanford is a happening town, man!