Though it might feel like a hundred years ago, it was only last April when the media joined Barack Obama’s cynical crusade to gin up his base in Florida through the artificial inflaming of racial tensions. And there was no question NBC News was the worst of these co-conspirators after the network was busted editing a 9-1-1 call to make Trayvon Martin’s suspected shooter, George Zimmerman, look like a racist. Today, Zimmerman filed suit against the Peacock Network.

Zimmerman accuses NBC of creating a “false and defamatory misimpression using the oldest form of yellow journalism: manipulating Zimmerman’s own words, splicing together disparate parts of the recording to create the illusion of statements that Zimmerman never actually made.”

He’s suing for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, demanding unspecified damages.

I’m no lawyer, but there’s absolutely no question here that NBC News is at least morally liable for one of the most despicable acts of defamation I’ve ever come across. Here’s the maliciously edited version of the 9-1-1 tape NBC’s storied “Today Show” broadcast before the entire world:

ZIMMERMAN:  This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black.

Here’s how the call really went:

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.

OFFICER: Okay, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

 ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

All of this, of course, falls on the man in charge of NBC News since 2005, Steve Capus, who apparently encourages this kind of behavior, at the very least, by allowing it to occur again and again without there being any kind of consequence. Because something else Zimmerman might have on his side is the fact that NBC has been caught a handful of times using the exact same kind of malicious edits to aid and abet the left, specifically Barack Obama.

In 2009, NBC’s Contessa Brewer edited video “so that that MSNBC viewers wouldn’t know that the man carrying firearms to a Tea Party was a black man. This allowed Brewer to then host a segment about how racist the Tea Party is towards President Obama and how this racism might just lead to the unthinkable–the assassination of our President.“

In 2011, NBC’s Ed Schultz edited Texas Governor and GOP presidential candidate, Rick Perry, to look racist.

Back in June, Andrea Mitchell was caught editing up a gaffe for Mitt Romney.

Zimmerman’s fate with respect to that tragic shooting is one thing. But his suit against NBC News is as righteous as it gets, and I wish him nothing but Godspeed.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC