Lost in all the writing over the NBC Zimmerman 911 phone call edit, NewsBusters’ Tim Graham writes about CNN basically walking back earlier discussion about what George Zimmerman said during those 911 calls…
NBC isn’t the only network slinking away from overcooking the case against George Zimmerman’s alleged racism. On the March 21 edition of Anderson Cooper 360, a CNN audio expert enhanced Zimmerman’s 9-1-1 call and suggested he had used a racial slur, “f–ing coon,” as he was following Trayvon Martin. Reporter Gary Tuchman asserted: “It certainly sounds like that word to me.”
Two weeks later on the same show on April 4, CNN re-assessed the tape with another CNN expert, and now felt it suggests George Zimmerman was just chilly, muttering the words “f–ing cold” under his breath. Tuchman explained: “The reason some say that would be relevant is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining.” Oopsy.
(snip)
Cooper found it “fascinating” and turned to legal expert Jeffrey Toobin to announce how important this finding could be: “It’s extremely, extremely significant because the federal government is not allowed to prosecute just your ordinary every day murder. Two people fighting on the street is not a federal crime. However, if one person shoots another based on racial hostility, racial animus, that does become a federal crime.”
I expect we’re going to be hearing more about what CNN says it’s going to do to prevent such apparently reckless speculation from taking place again…
