The revised versions delete a mixup of phrases on George Zimmerman's 911 tape that CNN initially attributed to Zimmerman and his lawyers. None of CNN's revised online versions that I have seen mention the error or change. Other news outlets have published the article, similarly merely swapping out the incorrect for the correct version, not mentioning the change. But a few media sites are still reprinting the originally published, incorrect version.

The story begins on April 5, when CNN decided to once again address the alleged racial slur in George Zimmerman's 911 call.

Sometime on April 5 and continuing throughout the day and early evening, CNN Newswire ran articles with the headline "Expert: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin." Several versions of the articles, which ran on CNN's website, were reprinted on LexisNexis and published by other news sites (see here, here and here) and included this sentence:

"Zimmerman told his lawyers that he said "These f---ing punks always get away," his lawyers told CNN on Thursday"

CNN changed that quote, after changing the headline to "Lawyers: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin" and the lede paragraph to the articles, but it hasn't mentioned why it changed the quotation reference.

At 2:00 pm on CNN NEWSROOM, Brooke Baldwin interviewed CNN reporter Martin Savidge who said he had spoken with George Zimmerman's lawyers who told him that Zimmerman had told them the words he used in the 911 call were "f*cking punks."

Savidge said based on that, he had media/audio expert Tom Owen do an enhanced version of that portion of the call and Owen agreed Zimmerman said "f*cking punks." Savidge never says Zimmerman's lawyers told him Zimmerman had told them he had said on the call, "These f---ing punks always get away."

Here is how Martin Savidge explained it (video here.) (From the full transcript of the segment at LexisNexis:)

.....Meantime, the 911 recordings from the night Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed have now been slowed down, enhanced and enhanced some more, all in this effort to hear exactly what the admitted shooter, George Zimmerman, said to 911 operators that night and to determine if the neighborhood watch volunteer used a racial slur. Well, we have a new development today and I want to bring in CNN's Martin Savidge, who is still down in Sanford, Florida, the town, as you now know, where that shooting took place.

And, Martin, you've gotten a hold of this newly enhanced audio. What does it reveal?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you how this all happened. Last night I had a conversation with the attorneys that represent George Zimmerman and I specifically asked them about the issue of the racial slur, because it is so inflammatory in this whole story. They said Zimmerman never made it. I said, well, have you asked George Zimmerman about that? They said, yes, they did. George has told him the words he used were f-ing punks. OK.

Then, independently, I got a hold of Tom Owen of Owen Forensic Services, which is a company that specializes in audio enhancement, audio improvement. And he started analyzing that specific segment of the 911 call. And the first thing he noticed was that at the very moment George Zimmerman says whatever comes out of his mouth, the phone takes a hit. Either an electronic interference hit or may have physically been bumped. And as a result, that distorted what was recorded and what everybody says they heard. He was able to isolate that interference, remove it, slow it down, do a few other things and this is what he got.

....SAVIDGE: But what he says, analyzing it carefully and clearly, is the word punks. So essentially what we have here, there are a lot of questions still about what George Zimmerman did on the night that he shot Trayvon Martin, but his attorneys and at least one audio analyst expert say he did not use a racial slur.

BALDWIN: Punks instead they say.

Here is another video interview with Savidge where he doesn't mention Zimmerman's lawyers or Zimmerman used the statement "These f---ing punks always get away" as opposed to merely "These f^cking punks."

On Twitter, at 7:42 a.m. on April 5, Martin Savidge attributes the statement to "an audio expert" (obviously Tom Owen) but doesn't say it's inaccurate:

Audio expert tells me he finds G Zimmerman did not use racial slur to 911. Instead tests show he said "These F-ing punks always get away."

CNN NewsWire Services apparently mangled Martin Savidge's report, running the erroneous article repeatedly into early evening, first with the headline "Expert: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin" containing the incorrect quote.

CNN made several changes to the article. The first two changes are not significant. CNN deleted the reference to the word "coons", substituting "racial slur." Early versions, still accessible online here and here, read:

The garbled word that raised controversy was "punks," not "coons," said Tom Owen, chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence.

CNN changed it to:

The garbled word that raised controversy was "punks," not the racial slur some people said they heard, said Tom Owen, chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence.

The LexisNexis versions appropriately reflects the change.

CNN next changed the headline and "lede" paragraph of the article, maintaining the same URL. While early versions (after the slur word change)began with:

Expert: George Zimmerman did not use racial slur before shooting Trayvon Martin

A forensic audio expert who analyzed 911 recordings disagrees with speculation that George Zimmerman uttered a racial slur moments before shooting Trayvon Martin to death.

Later versions began with:

Lawyers: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin

George Zimmerman told his lawyers that he whispered "punks," not a racial slur, in the moments before he shot Trayvon Martin, his attorneys told CNN on Thursday.

While online versions didn't mention the headline and lede change, Lexis Nexis versions did, with appropriate wording.

But then we get to the change of substance, which CNN has yet to acknowledge or explain. The early versions of the article using the headline "Expert: George Zimmerman did not use racial slur before shooting Trayvon Martin" all contain this statement:

Zimmerman told his lawyers that he said “These f—ing punks always get away,” his lawyers told CNN on Thursday.

In later versions, along with the changed headline and lead paragraph, the sentence is changed to:

Zimmerman attorneys Hal Ulrig and Craig Sonner told CNN their client told them that he said, "F---ing punks."

CNN never references the change of substance, going from "“These f—ing punks always get away,” " to merely ""F---ing punks" in the online versions. On LexisNexis, it describes the change as merely shortening the lawyers' quotes.

NOTES: Update 3:37 p.m. - shortens purported Zimmerman quote provided by lawyers, grafs 3, and in highlight

That explanation allows readers to conclude what Zimmerman's lawyers told CNN was shortened rather than incorrectly reported.

Here's a version of the CNN Newswire article with the second headline, changed lede and incorrect statement attributed to Zimmerman and his lawyers, that still ran at 7:26 p.m. Thursday night (my bolding):

Lawyers: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin CNN Wire April 5, 2012 Thursday 7:26 PM EST,

SANFORD, Florida (CNN) -- George Zimmerman told his lawyers that he whispered "punks," not a racial slur, in the moments before he shot Trayvon Martin, his attorneys told CNN on Thursday.

Some people interpreted the police recording of Zimmerman's call to 911 as evidence the fatal shooting was racially motivated.

Zimmerman attorneys Hal Ulrig and Craig Sonner told CNN their client told them he said, "These f---ing punks always get away."

Forensic audio expert Tom Owen, who analyzed 911 recordings, agreed the garbled word that raised controversy was "punks," not the racial slur some people said they heard.

When Owen, chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence, used a computer application to remove cell phone interference, the word became clearer, he said. After discussions with linguists, he said he became convinced that Zimmerman said "punks."

He provided CNN with a copy of the newly processed audio.

CNN also enhanced the sound of the 911 call, and several members of CNN's editorial staff repeatedly reviewed the tape but could reach no consensus on whether Zimmerman used a slur.

The incorrect version, sourced as CNN NewsWire, is also still running on Fox8 in Cleveland, with the headline "Expert: Zimmerman Whispered ‘Punks’ Before Shooting Trayvon Martin"

What's so wrong about this? It's that the unintelligible word following the word "f*cking" in Zimmerman's 911 call that some have alleged to be a racial slur was not attached to the phrase "they always get away." It comes later, when Zimmerman says "the back entrance, f*cking ___". From the transcript and audio of the call:

Zimmerman: Okay. These a*sholes they always get away.

Later:

Zimmerman: The back entrance…f*cking unintelligible]

"These as*sholes they always get away" can be heard as clear as day. There's no use of the word "f*cking" in that phrase. No CNN reporter besides Martin Savidge has said on air he got a quote about "f*cking punks" from Zimmerman's lawyers and commissioned Tom Owen for an enhanced version of the audio. (On Twitter, he says the audio expert (meaning Tom Owen) told him said "These F-ing punks always get away.")

Why does this matter? It matters because the never-used phrase "f*cking punks always get away" was attributed to Zimmerman's lawyers, who in turn attributed it to Zimmerman.

The obvious conclusion to anyone who has read the transcript or listened to the call is either that Zimmerman's lawyers are woefully ill-informed and therefore non-credible, or that Zimmerman was feeding his lawyers a line, easily capable of being debunked, rendering his assertion that the unintelligible word was "punks" not worthy of attention or belief. (It also doesn't speak well for Tom Owen who CNN reports provided the enhanced version of the call confirming Zimmerman's lawyers' account, since he would be confirming something that isn't on the call because it was never said.)

CNN, apparently realizing the error, changed its report without noting it erroneously attributed a statement to Zimmerman's lawyers and Zimmerman that Savidge never said they made. The new version appears at the same URL as the earlier incorrect version, meaning CNN just swapped out the wrong version as if it never happened. Since CNN never noted the error, some news outlets which don't automatically update CNN's content, are still running the incorrect version. See here and here.

The story was reprinted online by news outlets across the country all day and night. When CNN corrected its version, just swapping the two versions without noting the error, the corrected version automatically began running in place of the original on the other news sites with automated updates of CNN's articles. Thus, on these automated news sites, because CNN didn't note the error, neither did they, although by now the erroneous version had to have been seen by millions of people.

Here's the pertinent portion of the 911 call:

Zimmerman: Okay. These a*sholes they always get away. When you come to the clubhouse you come straight in and make a left. Actually you would go past the clubhouse.

Dispatcher: So it's on the lefthand side from the clubhouse?

Zimmerman: No you go in straight through the entrance and then you make a left…uh you go straight in, don't turn, and make a left. Sh*t he's running.

Dispatcher: He's running? Which way is he running?

Zimmerman: Down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood.

Dispatcher: Which entrance is that that he's heading towards?

Zimmerman: The back entrance…f* cking [unintelligible]

Contrast CNN's behavior with NBC's acknowledged error on the 911 call, and even the New York Times today, which writes about Zimmerman's earlier 911 calls:

An article on March 17 about appeals for a Department of Justice investigation into the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman misstated the time period in which Mr. Zimmerman made 46 calls to 911. The calls were made over the course of about eight years, not over 14 months. The error was repeated in a front-page article on March 21 about Florida's self-defense law known as Stand Your Ground.

The New York Times didn't just swap out the erroneous statement for the correct statement. It acknowledged the error.

Here's the uncorrected version of the CNN article still appearing at IowaState Daily: (my bolding):

SANFORD, Florida (CNN) — A forensic audio expert who analyzed 911 recordings disagrees with speculation that George Zimmerman uttered a racial slur moments before shooting Trayvon Martin to death.

What the neighborhood watch volunteer whispered as he followed the teen leading up to the deadly confrontation could weigh into the decision about charges against Zimmerman.

The garbled word that raised controversy was "punks," not "coons," said Tom Owen, chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence.

When Owen used a computer application to remove cell phone interference, the word became clearer, he said. After discussions with linguists, he became convinced that Zimmerman said "punks," he said.

He provided CNN with a copy of the processed audio.

Zimmerman told his lawyers that he said "These f---ing punks always get away," his lawyers told CNN on Thursday.

Who is responsible for the CNN misquote attributed to Zimmerman and his lawyers? Both the correct and incorrect versions state in the LexisNexis version "CNN's Martin Savidge and Tristan Smith contributed to this report," but I think the real question is who at CNN editorially decided to run the corrected version without mentioning its earlier versions were incorrect.

CNN seems so anxious to jump from news reporting to news creating, even retaining experts to render opinions that may or may not be valid, it is jeopardizing its journalistic integrity. The public wants the facts, not more speculation by dueling experts.

Over two days, CNN ran reports of two separate audio enhancements it commissioned of Zimmerman's 911 call, one with its own senior audio engineer and another with Tom Owen. Owen concluded Zimmerman said "f*cking punks" as his lawyers claim, and CNN's sound engineer believes he said "f*cking cold." In the process, it mangled statements by Zimmerman and his lawyers, attributing to them a misquote of the 911 call transcript on the very point of the article, creating doubts about Zimmerman and his lawyers' credibility. It then compounded the error by failing to acknowledge it, resulting in the erroneous version continuing to appear on other news sites. Instead of being a source of information, CNN put out misinformation and created confusion.

CNN and other news outlets need to get out of the news creating business. They also need to learn that more is required when they make an error than just swapping out the wrong version as if it had never appeared. We all know, particularly in this age of news syndication, the Internet has no erasers.

Articles as Published on Lexis:

• CNN 6:01 pm
• CNN 6:40 pm
• CNN 6:49 pm
• CNN 7:37 pm