Just the Facts, Please : NBC hypes a crash, undermines its case against GM and is forced to apologize

The press in the United States has rightfully and historically enjoyed broad liberties when it comes to covering the news and disseminating information. But those rights do not give the media free license to intentionally misrepresent the facts.

That’s why NBC’s decision to broadcast a report showing side impact tests on General Motors Corp. pickup trucks demonstrated such abominable news judgment. The controversy has also, for the time being, overshadowed the safety issues raised by a damage judgment reached against GM last Friday.

In that trial, an Atlanta jury awarded an astonishing $105 million to the parents of a Georgia teen-ager who died when the General Motors truck he was driving was struck from the side and burst into flames.

GM was accused of having knowingly manufactured trucks, from 1973 to 1987, that were more vulnerable to explosion in side impacts because the vehicles’ fuel tanks were mounted outside the protective frame.

The NBC segment, which aired on “Dateline NBC” in November, before the trial, neglected to inform viewers that incendiary devices had been planted on a test vehicle to ensure a highly visible explosion--thus dramatizing the report’s contention that the trucks were not safely designed. NBC also knew that the fuel tanks of the test truck were overflowing with gasoline and that the vehicle had an improperly fitted gas cap. Also distorted was the speed at which the vehicles collided.

On Tuesday NBC publicly apologized and agreed to pay GM for the costs of the auto maker’s investigation. That’s only a first step.

Network news shows must absolutely forswear the temptation to distort the powerful images of TV in pursuit of a sensational story. It’s bad journalism, it’s bad programming and, ultimately, it’s abuse of a constitutional privilege.