NBC to investigate itself over editing 911 call of George Zimmerman

The Washington Post's Erik Wemple reported this weekend that NBC is investigating why the "Today" show edited the 911 call from Trayvon Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, in such a way that it appeared more racially inflammatory than need be:

As exposed by Fox News and media watchdog site NewsBusters, the “Today” segment took this approach to a key part of the dispatcher call:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

Here’s how the actual conversation went down:

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.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

The difference between what “Today” put on its air and the actual tape? Complete: In the “Today” version, Zimmerman volunteered that this person “looks black,” a sequence of events that would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality’s version, Zimmerman simply answered a question about the race of the person whom he was reporting to the police. Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry.

University of Miami President Donna Shalala has a new job, but she's not quitting her UM gig

Donna Shalala is joining the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, but will continue her job as president of the University of Miami. She's no stranger to the Inside the Beltway crowd having served as Health and Human Services Secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

Read the UM press announcement here:

http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news/releases/president_shalala_joins_brookings_institution/

Read the same press release issued by the Brookings Insitution here:

http://www.brookings.edu/media/NewsReleases/2012/0329_shalala.aspx

 

Could new cities -- and more elected officials -- be coming to Miami-Dade County?

Miami-Dade commissioners could lift a ban on Tuesday that for nearly five years has prohibited neighborhoods eager to break away from the county from becoming independent cities.

A simple majority vote could revive the stalled efforts of five communities that want government more accountable and a little closer to home. The move could also prompt other clusters of the county to consider exploring cityhood — and eventually reshape Miami-Dade government.

Already, the proposal has sparked conversations about whether Miami-Dade should look more like Broward, where almost every inch of the county is part of a city and county government focuses on big issues — transit, jails, ports — rather than local services.

Commissioners blocked incorporating new cities in 2007, fearing too many communities were looking to leave the county too quickly without proper studies being done. Eight municipalities had formed since 1991. The county’s fear: loss of control and revenue as some of the wealthier pockets of Miami-Dade looked to go it alone.

By the time commissioners imposed the moratorium, three communities had pending bids: the Sky Lake and Highland Lakes neighborhoods west of Aventura, the Fontainebleau community near Sweetwater and a square wedged east of Hialeah and west of El Portal and Miami Shores.

Two other groups, in Biscayne Gardens and on Fisher Island, also had taken steps to look into becoming a city. More here.

60 Minutes highlights Obama's broken promise on space program, jobs. Paging Bill Nelson...

When then-presidential candidate Barack Obama came to the heart of the nation's space program, Brevard County, he promised that he'd protect space-industry jobs in the face of NASA budget cuts under President Bush. Obama namechecked one-time astronaut and current Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson as an ally in Congress to ensure it all got done.

Take a look around today, and you'll see the results didn't match Obama's rhetoric.

"Fifty years of liftoffs are becoming eight months of layoffs. Have a look around Brevard County. It's shrinking. Lots of people are moving away, taking businesses down with them," 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley intoned last night in a segment called "Hard Landing."

"The 7,000 layoffs at the space center triggered 7,000 more in the community. Unemployment has been close to 11 percent."

Florida a fertile ground for the pro-gun lobby

Last month’s shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., brought an avalanche of criticism directed at Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

Yet the controversial 2005 law was just one of dozens of pro-gun laws that have gotten their start in Florida — forging the state’s “Gunshine” reputation — before spreading to other parts of the country.

Lobbying for passage of such laws has been the powerful National Rifle Association.

“The NRA has been a victim of their own success,” said Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach attorney who fought many of the gun expansion laws as a legislator in the 2000s. “They’ve won every big issue, so they’re left trying to fight over fringe issues. Lots of elected officials are afraid to cross them.”

Rest of the story here. 

--@ToluseO-- 

 

 

Obama SuperPac ad says Romney's pockets slick with Big Oil cash

From the Plum Line: regarding a pro Obama ad to run in FL, CO, IA, MI, NM, NV, OH and VA

The American Energy Alliance is spending $3.6 milion on an ad attacking Obama that blames him for the fact that gas prices “nearly doubled” since he took office (gas prices were low at the time because of the financial crisis), and amplifies multiple falsehoods, including the suggestions that Obama wants gas prices higher. Politico recently reported that the American Energy Alliance has deep ties to the oil billionaire Koch brothers.

In response, Priorities USA’s new ad — which will be running in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia — blasts the AEA ad as funded by Big Oil, and points out that the oil industry has pledged $200 million to Romney’s campaign:

Another straw poll. Another Connie Mack loss

Tom Tillison of Florida Political Press reports that tea party activists in Orlando held a U.S. Senate straw poll Saturday and George LeMieux won overwhelmingy with 53 percent of the vote, followed by Mike McCalister with 25 percent and Connie Mack IV with 21 percent.

It's the second straw poll of conservative activists in Florida that LeMieux won and frontrunner Mack finished last.

Posted by Adam C. Smith

VP? Nah. Rubio-Bush-Ryan plan: Stop Rick Santorum

Marco Rubio sounds worried. So do Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan.

Their candidate, Mitt Romney, is losing to President Barack Obama. The GOP primary is becoming “counterproductive.”

So when the three Republicans endorsed Romney over the past two weeks, it wasn’t so much about jockeying for a vice-presidential slot on Romney’s ticket. Their underlying goal was more fundamental: Stop the primary.

That means stop Rick Santorum.

The former Pennsylvania senator has little chance of winning the nomination. But his ability to damage Romney and the Republican National Convention in Tampa is real. Nothing says Tea Party like wrecking the establishment’s tea party.

Santorum has pledged to take his candidacy to the convention. So has Newt Gingrich.

"They are saying the only way they can win this race is by having a floor fight in Tampa in August," Senator Rubio said Wednesday of the “recipe for disaster” on Fox News. " I think that’s a recipe to deliver four more years to Barack Obama. And our country — forget about the Republican Party — our country cannot afford that."

Even before Rubio’s endorsement, Gingrich appeared to be softening his attacks on Romney. He looks like he’s preparing for a graceful exit.

Not Santorum. It’s as if Obama’s campaign is writing Santorum’s attack lines about how Romney is virtually indistinguishable from the president.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/01/v-fullstory/2726126/rubio-bush-ryan-plan-stop-rick.html#storylink=cpy

More here

The partisan politics of Trayvon Martin's death

From suspect to victim to cultural symbol, Trayvon Martin has metamorphosed into a political point of departure over race.

When President Barack Obama spoke about how his son could have looked like the 17-year-old, his white Republican rivals quickly accused him of being racially divisive.

When Gov. Rick Scott established a task force to investigate the Stand Your Ground gun law connected to Trayvon’s shooting, a state Democratic leader rebuked him for wanting to wait until the case is adjudicated.

Liberal and left-leaning media have taken up Trayvon’s case, with calls to arrest his shooter, George Zimmerman. Conservative and right-leaning media have called for a get-the-facts first approach, while some have published images of Trayvon portraying him as a thug.

Groups from the NAACP to the National Council of La Raza, to white and black supremacist groups, have entered — or been drawn into — the political fray as well.

“It’s campaign time, and unfortunately, it has come to that. But that’s what we get these days, unfortunately," said Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, the only elected black Republican in Florida’s Capitol.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/30/2723557/trayvon-martins-shooting-death.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy