Latest NBC Gaffe Draws Criticism : Television: Former NBC News president Lawrence Grossman calls latest incident ‘horrific.’

NBC News came under severe criticism Thursday following its second on-air apology in recent weeks for presenting misleading stories.

Tom Brokaw apologized Wednesday on the “NBC Nightly News” for a Jan. 4 story on federal forest management in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest. And earlier this month, the network admitted it faked a flaming crash of a General Motors pickup truck on its newsmagazine series “Dateline NBC.”

In the apology, Brokaw said NBC News “inadvertently used dead fish from another forest further south, not Clearwater.” The apology, which followed complaints, also admitted that some fish in Clearwater that appeared to be dead “were not. They had been stunned for testing purposes.”

As reports swirled that the job of NBC News President Michael Gartner might be in jeopardy, the network said that too much focus was being placed on the latest incident.

“I hate to feel we’re being criticized for coming forward and doing the right thing,” said Katherine McQuay, manager of media relations for the news division. “To correct a mistake like this is standard practice for all news organizations. Newspapers have the luxury of burying their corrections on page six. We have to come out right in front.”

However, she admitted that the timing of the error was “extremely unfortunate.” But she added that she felt that linking the nightly news video footage with the “Dateline NBC” incident was unfair: “People are trying to link these two situations together, and they’re not remotely connected,” McQuay said. ABC, CBS and CNN declined official comment.

NBC made the admissions hours after Sen. Larry Craig (R-Ida.) compared the nightly news segment to the “Dateline NBC” story. In comments he made on the Senate floor, Craig said NBC News “twisted reality and sensationalized an issue.”

Responding to the apology made by Brokaw, Craig said he was generally pleased, but he added that NBC should have gone further in admitting blame. He said he would take no further action on the floor.

Commenting on the NBC incidents, Ben Bagdikian, former dean of the UC Berkeley graduate school of journalism, said: “What it seems to say is that NBC, which has been low in the ratings, is obviously trying too hard to improve its ratings, so hard that it cuts corners for easy dramatic effect. And they’re doing this in a terribly serious category, which is investigative journalism.

“It does a disservice to the public. Ever since the takeover of the networks (in corporate upheavals) in the 1980s, they have shrunk their key headquarter journalistic staffs and bureaus.”

Bagdikian also noted the “increased use of contract crews on location.” He added: “All these incidents tell us there is a serious problem about how network news is doing its work.”

Lawrence Grossman, former president of NBC News, said: “It’s just horrific. I don’t know whether to be sad or angry or both. I think the latest mess is tragic for NBC News. They’re reaping what they have sown. The management was indifferent to the product. Can you imagine a network news division that produces something as irrelevant as (the network’s series) ‘I Witness Video’?”

Grossman said he thinks CBS and ABC News “still take their roles and their special responsibility seriously.”

Another former NBC News president, Reuven Frank, added: “There seems to be a demand for stories that scare the hell out of people. They are redefining news as something that has to do with unmasking villains doing evil deeds.

“ ‘60 Minutes’ has become very successful with this formula, so everybody tries to do what they do. But ’60 Minutes’ apparently is better at it.”

Van Gordon Sauter, president of Fox News, said NBC’s morale would be further devastated by the latest incident. But he added: “It’s premature to say that this will have an irrevocable impact on NBC News. For the time being, the organization is under a cloud, but the more lasting damage is internal damage. Something needs to be done now and quickly.”

Sauter, who was criticized by some colleagues for a glitzy approach when he was president of CBS News, from which he was fired, said he didn’t feel the NBC incident would reflect negatively on television news as a whole and its credibility with viewers.

But other media experts disagreed.

“In general, many people feel they cannot trust TV news and this is just another blow,” said William J. Woestendiek, director of the USC School of Journalism. “Once someone lies or cheats on you, you tend to lose faith in that entity.

“Lots of folks who have been saying all along you can’t trust TV news will now say, ‘See, I told you so.’ ”

Peter Herford, head of the broadcasting department at the Columbia University graduate school of journalism, said:

“There is clearly an absence of management supervision at NBC, which is becoming fatal. This latest episode indicates there is a major deficiency even in the nightly news. It says to me that one of the three major networks is now clearly separated from the other two in the way it is operated and managed.”

“It’s the price that’s being paid for (the networks) cutting budgets and cutting people. Everybody said that sooner or later you were going to cut into bone. And competitive pressures have been created by prime-time magazines, which are major profit centers.

“As infotainment shows come along--’Inside Edition,’ ‘Hard Copy,’ ‘A Current Affair,’ the public, I believe, no longer makes any serious distinction between those programs and network news programs. Once again, standards and practices get blurred.”

Said Ed Guthman, veteran newsman and journalism professor at USC: “There are all sorts of fail-safe mechanisms to prevent mistakes like this (the two NBC incidents) from happening. And you’re getting the feeling they don’t exist at NBC.”