NBC News Again Admits Using Misleading Footage

Two weeks after conceding it staged a fiery crash of a General Motors truck on its prime-time newsmagazine, NBC News on Wednesday had to admit that it again used “inappropriate video” to illustrate a story that appeared on the “NBC Nightly News” last month.

In a surprise on-air apology, anchor Tom Brokaw said on Wednesday night’s “NBC Nightly News” that the network “inadvertently” used misleading video footage to illustrate a story on federal forest management in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest.

The admission marks the second blow to strike NBC News in as many weeks, and knowledgeable sources said they expect it to lead to a shake-up of senior management in the news division, including the possible ouster of NBC News President Michael Gartner.

On Jan. 4, “NBC Nightly News” reported a story about forest service employees in the Clearwater National Forest who claimed that over-cutting had led to water pollution, killing fish in the streams. The network showed pictures of floating fish.

But in his on-air retraction, Brokaw said NBC News “inadvertently used footage of dead fish from another forest further south, not from Clearwater.”

Furthermore, Brokaw revealed, NBC News “also showed workers conducting tests on water in the Clearwater forest where fish appeared to be dead. In fact, they were not. They had been stunned for testing purposes.”

The revelations came just hours after Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), in comments on the Senate floor, compared the segment to the recent General Motors crash incident on “Dateline NBC.” He said NBC News “twisted reality and sensationalized an issue. . . . (The segment contained) a number of misleading and flatly inaccurate assertions.”

David Fish, a spokesman for Craig, said later, “I think the senator’s speech may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back on this. Once the issue had been brought to the floor, NBC had to respond.”

Craig said in an interview that NBC executives had been contacted by a variety of sources, including an Idaho state legislator and representatives of the forest-products industry, shortly after the story was broadcast.

According to a knowledgeable NBC source who asked not to be identified, however, the “mix-up” was brought to NBC’s attention by one of the environmental groups involved in the story, which claimed parts of the video were misleading.

The NBC source said that the video was not shot by an NBC News crew but provided by outside sources. “The video that was supplied to us (and) represented as one thing, in hindsight turned out to be another,” the source said.

Once NBC determined that parts of the video were not what they were claimed to be, Brokaw pushed hard for an on-air correction, the source said.

Brokaw stood by footage that purported to show a large area of land clear cut of timber. Craig charged that the area had been burned in a fire. “Our information remains that the video accurately portrayed clear-cuts, although some portions may have been cut after a fire,” Brokaw told viewers.

Steve Friedman, who had been executive producer of “NBC Nightly News” when the story ran last month, declined to comment except to say that he had not known that Brokaw was going to make an on-air correction. He recently left the program to develop a prime-time newsmagazine for NBC.

Under particular scrutiny now is NBC’s Gartner, a former newspaper editor who was appointed five years ago to recast the news divi s ion in a competitive mold at a time when viewers have myriad viewing choices. This latest incident is likely to lead to increased pressure for his resignation, observers said.

Even before the correction was made Wednesday, sources at the network were saying that they did not think Gartner would be able to survive the “Dateline” controversy, although they did not expect anything to happen immediately.

Jim Waterbury, chairman of the NBC Affiliates Board, confirmed that some station executives have called for Gartner’s resignation.

“Gartner is clearly under pressure from some affiliates. His is the name that everybody knows,” Waterbury said. “Some affiliates feel that ‘Dateline’ punched them in the nose.”

NBC spokeswoman Betty Hudson said that “any speculation about the future of anyone involved in the (“Dateline”) incident as related to this inquiry is premature and irresponsible.” NBC has hired outside lawyers to review the “Dateline” incident and is waiting for their report.