1. NBC's statement was false.
2. Zimmerman was charged with murder 2, and investigated for hate crimes by the FBI. This all happened AFTER Florida's state attorney's office had declined to charge him with a crime. Certainly, NBC's hit job was instrumental in creating the hysteria that arose over the whole incident, and this caused the political pressure on Florida's criminal justice system to "do something".
3. Not only did NBC fail to do adequate research about the truthfulness of the audio recording they ran multiple times, they actively edited the audio recording of the call to intentionally characterize Z as a racist.NBC needs to get out the check book and settle out of court on this.
How to prove libel
There are several ways a person must go about proving that libel has taken place. For example, in the United States, first, the person must prove that the statement was false. Second, the person must prove that the statement caused harm. Third, the person must prove that the statement was made without adequate research into the truthfulness of the statement. These steps are for an ordinary citizen. For a celebrity or a public official, the person must prove the first three steps
and that the statement was made with the intent to do harm or with reckless disregard for the truth.[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP] Usually specifically referred to as "proving malice".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation