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Another Casualty at NBC Over Trayvon Martin Segment

May 4, 2012  •  Post A Comment

An NBC correspondent who was involved in a March segment about the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has left the network, reports The New York Times’ Media Decoder. The segment, which aired on "Today," has been criticized for giving the impression that shooter George Zimmerman was guilty of racial profiling.

It’s not clear whether Lilia Luciano was dismissed by NBC or resigned, the story says. Her departure appears to be the most recent fallout from an investigation into the editing of a 911 call by Zimmerman, which made it appear as if Zimmerman was volunteering that Martin was a "black male," when in reality the 911 dispatcher had asked him for the information, the story notes.

Luciano hasn’t appeared on NBC news programs since the network started an investigation toward the end of March.

As previously reported, a seasoned editor was responsible for the editing of the "Today" segment. That producer was subsequently fired. A correspondent at a Miami station was also fired last month after a report included similar errors.

It’s unclear what Luciano’s mistake was, as The Times writes she may have borrowed a script from the Miami station, or could have introduced the error into the "Today" show’s reporting for the first time.

Luciano, 28, was hired by NBC in 2010 to work on "NBC Nightly News," "Today” and other programs, and had previously worked for TeleFutura. She couldn’t be reached for comment, the story notes.

She removed "NBC News Correspondent" from her Twitter biography on Thursday, the piece adds.

3 Comments

  1. Very, very poor choice for headline. You are equating the real death of a young man with a reporter’s loss of a job. Your words matter…

  2. You’re being overly sensitive, Tom.

  3. Ultimately, this all falls into the catagory of protecting other neighborhood watch and rent-a-cops so they will be able to continue to kill anyone that they think, in their expert opinion, threatens our society. Your kids will be next.

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