The man accused of killing teenager Trayvon Marton is suing NBCUniversal and three former NBC staffers over the deceptively edited 911 calls that aired on “Today.”
Lawyers representing George Zimmerman filed the paperwork in the circuit court in Seminole County, Florida. They also created a website, GZvNBC.com, which has all the pertinent documents. Rumors of the lawsuit were first circulated in October, but it is now official.
“NBC News saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain,” the complaint reads.
Earlier this year NBC had to apologize and launch an internal investigation after “Today” aired an edited version of the 911 call Zimmerman made to police. The edited version made it sound as though Zimmerman thought Martin was acting suspiciously because he was black, when in fact he was responding to a question from the dispatcher.
When it was all said and done, two NBC staffers lost their jobs as a result of the edit. The two staffers, along with correspondent Ron Allen are also defendants in the case.
The lawsuit is embedded after the jump.
GZNBC