NBC News: A Question of Standards

Even though NBC has appointed two outside attorneys to investigate the staged crash on “Dateline,” some NBC News producers and correspondents think that the news division’s problems go well beyond this incident.

“Something like this was inevitable because the NBC news organization has been turned into a money machine,” said one NBC News producer. “There is a clear feeling under the current management of NBC News that whatever flies and gets a prime-time rating will go on. The tenor of the creation of ‘Dateline’ was that the profit of the news division rested on this show. In an atmosphere where there is such intense pressure for ratings, something like the ‘Dateline’ incident was bound to happen.”

“What happened on ‘Dateline’ is characteristic of the attitude toward news of GE (the owners of NBC) and the present management of NBC,” said Lawrence Grossman, who was president of NBC News from 1984 to 1988. “This is a news division that has put on ‘I Witness Video’ (a home-video “reality” series that premiered last year) and a daytime show (“A Closer Look”) that, in my opinion, is as tabloid and sleazy as any of the syndicated talk shows. . . .

“There is certainly pressure for ratings at the other networks,” Grossman continued, “but I don’t believe that what happened in the ‘Dateline’ incident would have happened at ABC News or CBS News. It is standard procedure for news management to screen an investigative piece of this kind. Where was the oversight of NBC News management on this story? Even after the use of sparking devices was exposed, they were stonewalling and trying to get away with calling the staging an ‘unscientific demonstration’ when it actually was a distortion.”

The facts of the “Dateline” incident--who knew what and when about the addition of incendiary devices in the fiery crash shown in a “Dateline” segment--are expected to be established in the investigation commissioned by NBC. But some within NBC News attribute the decision to allow an outside testing firm to use the sparking devices--and to not tell viewers about the devices--to the loss of some experienced newspeople in recent cutbacks and layoffs.

“The overall organization has lost some seasoned producers through buyouts and layoffs,” said Gerry Solomon, a 19-year veteran of NBC News who was the executive producer of “Sunday Today” and “Meet the Press” until 1991 when “Today” and “Sunday Today” were combined into a seven-day operation and Solomon’s contract was not renewed. “I believe that the environment at NBC does not place the premium on serious journalism that it has in the past.”

“People who have devoted their careers to NBC News are deeply embarrassed by this incident and worried that this kind of thing could happen again,” said one NBC News producer. “There is a feeling among many here that the thrust of the present management is on ratings and that many of the people who have been pushed out had higher standards than some of those who are now in charge of these prime-time shows.”

These experienced older news people never got NBC News into this kind of trouble, said the producer. “There are a lot of younger people here who also are concerned about the direction of NBC News. The real issue here is not who said what to whom in the ‘Dateline’ incident. The real issue is, has the culture here changed, and what does NBC News stand for?”

In a memo to employees last week after the GM lawsuit and NBC’s on-air apology, NBC News president Michael Gartner wrote: “There were procedures that were questionable and conclusions that were not clearly presented” in the “Dateline” story. “We made a mistake.” At the same time, Gartner said, “It is imperative that we all remain committed to fair, accurate, thorough and clear journalism. That is the essence of NBC News.”