In tonight's episode of Law & Order, NBC will be featuring the Minuteman Project - by name. And, it looks like a smear job. From their summary:

MURDER OF SMUGGLING TRUCKER COULD BE LINKED TO BORDER PATROL GROUP -- When the owner of a big-rig trucking company is shot to death, Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) learn that the victim was hauling illegal aliens and suspect a member (Daniel Roebuck) citizen's border patrol group -- but their only witness is an undocumented Hispanic woman (Aixa Rosario Medina) who risks deportation if she testifies. Meanwhile, prosecutor McCoy (Sam Waterston) is incensed when the witness is physically intimidated as he tries to turn one organization member against the other in court.

Over on the right side you can watch their short promo, and the following is below the video:

Cold-blooded murder or Minutemen vigilantes on the border?

Chris Simcox of the MMP responds, demanding that NBC remove their name from the episode and air as many apologies as they have promos for this show:

The promotion NBC has been airing on its network for the Law & Order episode describes “twelve immigrants, cooked alive in a boiling hot truck” and asks, “was it murder, or Minutemen protecting our borders?” as the word Minutemen is flashed on the screen.

In the promotion, NBC promises the episode “will enrage America.”

...It is outrageous and unacceptable that NBC is using November sweeps to pump up its ratings and profits by smearing the Minutemen as murderers and placing our members’ safety in jeopardy in its attempt to ‘enrage America...

While an episode like this might temporarily boost ratings, it might also have the long-term effect of causing many people to tune out NBC and their advertisers.

Everyone might want to send a short, polite email to the president of NBC Entertainment letting him know what you think: Jeff.zucker *at* nbc.com

UPDATE: In the show, NBC featured the "Countrymen Project". However, in the text of their website and in the downloadable promo, they mentioned "Minutemen". Comments here and in "'Minuteman'-like murderers convicted on 'Law & Order'".