Nameless Scapegoat Watch:
By Mickey Kaus 4/8/2012
dailycaller.com
1) WaPo‘s Erik Wemple wonders why NBC didn’t quickly come clean about its so-bad-it-seems-intentional mis-edit of the Zimmerman 911 call. Why not immediately “go into detail on exactly what had happened and what disciplinary measures would be taken”? I suspect the answer has something to do with the possibility of a libel suit from Zimmerman. As JustOneMinute‘s Tom Maguire reminded me, when you publish something so bad you face a giant adverse defamation verdict–well that’s exactly when you try not to fire the reporter or editor responsible. If you fire them, they’re likely to cut a separate deal with the plaintiff and testify in court about how sloppy your editorial practices were, how you had it in for plaintiff all along, etc. You keep the reporter close, however incompetent they’ve proven to be. You can fire them later. Like other tort laws, libel laws are in practice the enemy of transparency. …
2) How long will the now-fired Nameless Scapegoat editor remain nameless? Not long, I’d guess. … Also, did NBC offer a can-we-still-be-friends monetary… cushion along with the dismissal? …
3) In this case, I suspect the N.S. might have some valuable information to offer a plaintiff’s lawyer. Like how maybe there was a surge of enthusiasm at, yes, the highest levels of NBC News for turning this story into a clear cut emotional morality play (fueled by trendy social media!) and riding it to higher ratings for days, if not weeks. If you go to the March 20 Nightly News broadcast (available here) you can see NBC’s Ron Allen letting viewers imagine the racial epithet Zimmerman used for the man he was following. Oh, wait. …
The N.S. was reportedly a “seasoned” producer. Seasoned producers (and reporters) know what the bosses want. … |
