judge nelson 2

The same judge from the 3/16/12 911 call audio tape release injunction.
The same judge from the Zimmerman trial fiasco.
The same judge overturned TWICE by 5th Circuit court of appeals on pretrial rulings.
… now presiding over the civil lawsuit. Would you really expect anything different ? Really?

I think I’ll limit my opinion of this predictable train wreck to pictures.

SANFORD – A judge on Thursday threw out part of George Zimmerman’s libel suit against NBC Universal and held out the prospect that she may throw out the whole thing.
Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson tossed the allegations related to one of five broadcasts and said she needs to do more homework before deciding about the others. Zimmerman is suing the media company, alleging that it falsely portrayed him as a racist.
He is the Neighborhood Watch volunteer acquitted last year of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, a shooting that prompted civil rights rallies.
James beasley

um,…. yer doing it wrong

In December 2012, Zimmerman sued NBC, accusing it of “yellow journalism” for the way it edited his call to police the night of the shooting. Editors cut out key phrases, according to the suit, making it sound as if Zimmerman voluntarily stated that Trayvon was black and that he racially profiled the Miami Gardens high school junior.
The suit also says Zimmerman should be paid damages because the company falsely reported that during that call, Zimmerman used a racial epithet.
NBC’s attorneys contend that Zimmerman has no valid claim.
The most important point, said NBC attorney Lee Levine, is that Zimmerman was a public figure and cannot prove that NBC employees acted with “actual malice” – that they either knew what they reported was false or had grave misgivings about it.
The phrase that NBC employees interpreted as a racial slur, Levine said, was “very difficult to understand or decipher” and other news organizations reported that same thing, he said – that it was a racial epithet.
As for the editing, the network should not be held liable for reporting truthfully what Zimmerman actually said, Levine argued. What NBC did, he said, was use excerpts of the recording, something other news organizations did as well.
The judge on Thursday threw out the claim that NBC and employee Jeff Burnside defamed Zimmerman in a March 19, 2012, broadcast.
Jeff Burnside

2012 – Miami NBC Reporter/Producer Jeff Burnside, picks up National NBC Host Rev Al Sharpton, from Miami Airport along with former New York Governor David Patterson.

Jeff Burnside 3

Local NBC Reporter/Producer Jeff Burnside sits down to discuss the racial aspect of the national NBC strategy with Al Sharpton in advance of editing the 911 call audio.   But according to NBC Zimmerman can’t prove it.   Apparently Judge Nelson agrees.  

Zimmerman can’t claim he was wronged by that report, the judge said, because his letter to the network, one required before a defamation suit is filed, never identified that specific broadcast, and his letter did not include Burnside as an offending party.

The other broadcasts included two on March 20 and one each on March 22 and March 27.
The judge said she would decide later what to do about them.
The hearing started shortly after 10 a.m. and concluded shortly before 11 a.m.
Zimmerman did not attend.
NBC’s attorneys have raised several defenses, some of them technical. In paperwork filed before the hearing, they contended that any harm Zimmerman claims to have suffered were not caused by the NBC news reports that are at issue.
Zimmerman’s attorney, James Beasley Jr., told the judge Thursday morning that it would be a mistake to throw out the case now before he can gather evidence.
LLucianoJeff Burnside desk
He pointed out that NBC apologized for the edits and that two employees, Burnside and Lilia Rodriguez Luciano, were fired. (read more)

*Note the NBC apology was NBCMiami Only… but why let the facts get into a Nelson courtroom now.

NBC_logo_2011
NBC Screenshot apology

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