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National Briefing | Southwest: Arizona: Mistrial for Firearms Magazine Ex-Editor

January 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The murder trial of the former editor of Guns Ammo magazine was declared a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict on Wednesday. A new trial for the former editor, Richard Erick Venola of Golden Valley, is scheduled for Feb. 26. He is charged with second-degree murder in the May 2 shooting death of an unarmed neighbor, James Patrick O’Neill, 39. The prosecutor, Rod Albright, said during the trial that both men were drunk and argued before the shooting. Ron Gilleo, a lawyer for Mr. Venola, said his client shot Mr. O’Neill in self-defense, believing that Mr. O’Neill was going to get a gun to shoot him.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/us/arizona-mistrial-for-firearms-magazine-ex-editor.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Media Business Tagged With: , ,

Media Decoder Blog: Man Charged in Trayvon Martin’s Death Sues NBC for Defamation

December 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

George Zimmerman, shown at a hearing in April, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, 17.Gary W. Green/Reuters George Zimmerman, shown at a hearing in April, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, 17.

5:51 p.m. | Updated George Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin earlier this year, filed suit against NBCUniversal on Thursday, alleging that news reports that edited his voice on a 911 tape constituted defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The suit, filed in circuit court in Seminole County, Fla., asked for a jury trial. A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal said in response to the suit: “We strongly disagree with the accusations made in the complaint. There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly. We intend to vigorously defend our position in court.”

The edits of a 911 audio recording — which removed an intervening question from the operator directly asking Mr. Zimmerman what race Mr. Martin was — aired three times on NBC’s “Today” show: first on March 20, in a report by Lilia Luciano; on March 22, in another report by Ms. Luciano; and again on March 27, in a report by Ron Allen. The killing of Mr. Martin, on the night of Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., spurred a national debate about self-defense, crime and race.

In Ms. Luciano’s first report, Mr. Zimmerman’s words to the 911 operator were: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. He looks black.” In fact, Mr. Zimmerman told the operator: “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.” When the dispatcher said, “O.K., and this guy — is he white, black or Hispanic?” Mr. Zimmerman then said, “He looks black.”

The suit charges that journalists at NBC News intentionally edited Mr. Zimmerman’s statements to make him appear to be a “racist, predatory villain.”

When the omissions were noticed at the end of March, NBC News conducted an investigation and concluded that the edits were mistakes, not deliberate distortions. Ms. Luciano subsequently left the network, as did a producer who worked with her. Mr. Allen remains at the network.

Ms. Luciano and Mr. Allen were named as defendants in the lawsuit along with NBC on Thursday. The producer, whose name has not been revealed in news reports, was not named as a defendant.

Mr. Zimmerman faces second-degree murder charges in the shooting of Mr. Martin, who was 17. His criminal trial is scheduled to begin in June.

A version of this article appeared in print on 12/07/2012, on page A18 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Zimmerman Sues NBC Over Editing Of 911 Tapes.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/man-charged-in-trayvon-martins-death-sues-nbc-for-defamation/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Media Business Tagged With: , ,

You’re the Boss Blog: MindFlash Makes It Easy to Create a Training Program — and to Charge for It

September 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Tech Support

What small-business owners need to know about technology.

In a post several months ago, I described how the Web-based service MindFlash allows anyone to  create online training presentations, including reviews, quizzes and automatic grading complete with award certificates. (I illustrated the post with a little course of my own on brewing beer.)

The service has proven popular with companies that want to develop internal training programs, like on safety, harassment and other issues that employees might need to get up to speed on. MindFlash’s chief executive, Donna Wells, reports that a range of companies have developed thousands of courses that have been taken by more than 100,000 people.

But on Tuesday MindFlash is unveiling a new version of the service that should make it more interesting to a wider range of companies. That’s because the service will now allow you to charge people to take your course. One of the early preintroduction users of the new pay-for-training feature is Raz Chan, who runs a fitness and martial-arts studio in Vancouver, British Columbia. For fees ranging from $197 to $497, you can learn some of Mr. Chan’s secrets of self-defense in a series of online video courses that can take you all the way through instructor certification. “A lot of our students have been asking for a way to stay on top of the material at home,” says Mr. Chan. “And we hear from a lot of people who live too far away to come to our gym.”

Other early adopters include a software company that charges its fashion-house customers for extra online employee training, and a dentist who is charging other dentists for courses in dental techniques he’s mastered. MindFlash’s service requires a minimum charge of $9.99, but most early users are charging from $20 to $100. While MindFlash usually charges $9.99 a month and up for course developers with more than 10 trainees, it is waiving all fees for those who charge for courses, taking instead a 15-percent commission. (The company is waiving even that commission as an introductory offer until Nov. 1.)

The idea to allow charging came from MindFlash users themselves, said Ms. Wells. Like many Web companies, MindFlash invites users to request new features and to vote on suggestions. From the very beginning, getting to make money off the courses was the request that popped up most often.

In addition to MindFlash providing the means for developing a course and charging for it, Ms. Wells hopes to create a consumer marketplace for anyone who might be interested in online training — a one-stop online shopping place for courses, potentially making MindFlash the Amazon.com of online training sessions. (Hey, a company can dream.) And while the focus is initially on selling training to the public, MindFlash plans to add features aimed at helping businesses sell course content to other businesses that might want to resell it to their trainee customers.

Now excuse me, I’ll need to work on that beer-making course if I’m going to start charging big bucks for it.

You can follow David H. Freedman on Twitter and on Facebook.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=8149204369344d869eb3e9efa09c3230

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , ,