Zimmerman sues NBC and reporters

George Zimmerman sued NBC on Thursday, claiming he was defamed when the network edited his 911 call to police after the shooting of Trayvon Martin to make it sound like he was racist.

The former neighborhood watch volunteer filed the lawsuit seeking an undisclosed amount of money in Seminole County, outside Orlando. Also named in the complaint were three reporters covering the story for NBC or an NBC-owned television station.

The complaint said the airing of the edited call has inflicted emotional distress on Zimmerman, making him fear for his life and causing him to suffer nausea, insomnia and anxiety.

The lawsuit claims NBC edited his phone call to a dispatcher last February. In the call, Zimmerman describes following Martin in the gated community where he lived, just moments before he fatally shot the 17-year-old teen during a confrontation.

The lawsuit claims NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create a myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain.

An NBC spokeswoman said the network strongly disagreed with the accusations made in the complaint.

There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly," the network said. NBC intends to vigorously defend their position in court.

Three employees of the network or its Miami affiliate lost their jobs because of the changes.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder but has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense under Florida's "stand your ground law."

The call viewers heard was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police, with no prompting, that Martin was black, according to what NBC broadcast, he said [Martin] looks like he's up to no good. He looks black.

But the portion of the tape that was deleted had the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person who had raised his suspicion was black, white or Hispanic, to which Zimmerman responded that he looks black.

Tot Shots at Lindsay Lohan

NY Post

The E-Trade baby struck back at Lindsay Lohan -- and what a potty mouth on this kid!

Lawyers for the financial firm filed hundreds of pages detailing Lohan's drug abuse, brawls and DWI busts -- including reams of profanity-laced Internet comments from detractors -- all under the guise of proving she lives in Hollywood and not Long Island, where the case was filed.

Despite the catalog of bad behavior the papers chronicle, E-trade claims it's not making the argument that she has already defamed herself far more than their commercial -- which features a "milkaholic" baby named Lindsay -- ever did.

Lohan is "a pot-stirring, lazy, irresponsible, disrespectful little drama queen," the papers -- filed in Nassau County Supreme Court -- quote one on-line commenter as saying.

"Why does anyone want to know what this train wreck is doing?" another adds. "She is the classic child star. A little success (parents pushed her into the business) at a young age and then she thinks she's the poo."

"How can she pay her rent and pay for her coke?" yet another writes. "That sugarcane she's sniffin' doesn't come cheap . . . "

The huge file of clippings is being used to advance the argument that Lohan is a Californian.

E-Trade is not, however, requesting a change of location to LA -- they want the court fight to be switched to Manhattan, where E-Trade has its corporate headquarters.

Dina Lohan, the star's mother, said the court papers are only going to help Lindsay's $100 million lawsuit.

"This is the whole reason we are suing them -- for demeaning Lindsay," Dina Lohan said. "They are just proving how they operate -- they play dirty."

Lohan's lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, vowed to fight the motions to dismiss and to change the venue.

E-Trade lawyer Howard J. Rubin declined to comment on the case, but his papers claim that public records show Dina Lohan, not her daughter, owns the Merrick address given as Lindsay's in the lawsuit.