‘Dateline’ Debacle a Lesson in Accountability

It preened, it strutted, it puffed itself up. As a report released Monday affirms, however, the NBC peacock in this instance was wearing no feathers.

That report, prepared by two outside attorneys at NBC’s request, concludes that a rigged crash in a Nov. 17 “Dateline NBC” segment about the safety of GM pickup trucks reflected “lapsed judgment--serious lapses--by persons generally well-intentioned and well-qualified.”

Responding to the 70-page report, NBC President Robert C. Wright acknowledged that the 15-minute segment’s 55-second crash sequence--which GM had vigorously protested--was “flawed journalism.” Wright said that sequence and the subsequent “incomplete” in-house investigation of it were “indefensible.”

We knew that.

Actually, Wright was merely affixing an exclamation point to something that all America had known since “Dateline NBC” issued an on-air retraction and apology Feb. 9 for the crash sequence, in which igniters had been mounted beneath two pickup trucks. One truck exploded and burst into flames. But when the segment aired, viewers were not told about the igniters.

The non-disclosure of igniters has been widely reported. But NBC’s investigators also found, among many other things, that “Dateline NBC” journalists used editing techniques that made a small blaze in one of the trucks seem like a “larger and more threatening fire.”

This is just another example of how visuals can mislead an unsuspecting public. And how television, because of its technology, can seamlessly weave fantasy from reality.

The humiliating retraction/apology resulted in GM dropping its defamation lawsuit against NBC, and the entire “Dateline NBC” affair put the network’s news division and its highest management under a dark cloud. The crash sequence was initially defended by NBC News President Michael C. Gartner, who has since resigned.

On Monday, NBC announced the resignations of “Dateline NBC” executive producer Jeff Diamond, senior producer David Rummel and Robert Read, the field producer for the Nov. 17 segment. Michele Gillen, the reporter for the segment, was named to an anchor position at NBC-affiliate WTVJ-TV in Miami.

If you believe that Diamond, Rummel and Read weren’t pressured to resign, then you believe in incredible coincidences--in this case that all three decided independently to quit on the same day.

As if to justify the original hiring of Diamond and Rummel, NBC pointed out in a press release that the former previously was a senior producer at “20/20” and that the latter previously worked at both “20/20” and “60 Minutes.” Curiously omitted from the resignation announcement was the pedigree of Read, who worked for “20/20” and then the syndicated tabloid series “Inside Edition” before joining “Dateline NBC.”

Thus, Read’s career could be viewed as a metaphor for a sorry phenomenon of contemporary TV--the blurring of traditional lines separating tabloids and legitimate news.

Meanwhile, how much did Gartner know and when did he know it? Wright said that GM’s complaints about the controversial segment’s fairness didn’t reach Gartner or his second-in-command, Don Browne, until “the days immediately preceding” a GM press conference announcing its suit on Feb. 8.

As a result of that communications failure, David McCormick has been named to the newly created position of NBC News ombudsman. McCormick will also review all investigative and long-form pieces before they air.

“Anyone should feel free to contact him with questions of standards, fairness, accuracy, etc.,” said Browne, currently the acting president of the news division. “We want to improve our system for handling complaints.”

That will please the subjects of other “Dateline NBC” stories who have contacted The Times with unfairness complaints of their own since hearing of the GM fiasco. Now they can contact McCormick, who, one hopes, will investigate the gripes of relative small fry as aggressively as NBC has now done, finally, with corporate giant GM.

In fact, given the number of complaints that flow to this column about networks and stations being unresponsive or rude to callers with complaints, the ombudsman concept is one that should be adopted universally in broadcasting. And, when it comes to accountability, why not go a step further and adopt something that has been a staple of newspapers almost since their inception? Yes, the alien, the outrageous, the bizarre, the unthinkable. . . .

Letters to the editor.

Allotting time at the end of each hour for a paltry few letters--both pro and con--has not harmed the ratings of that CBS behemoth “60 Minutes.” So why not weekly letters to “Dateline NBC,” for example, or weekly letters to “20/20”? Why not slice a few minutes of inane anchor patter from local newscasts--or occasionally not show a car chase--and instead use that time to read the opinions of viewers and of people who have either good things or bad things to say about the way they were covered in stories? Every day!

The “Dateline NBC” incident demonstrates the danger of a news program that seeks to insulate itself from accountability. Those who make their living from television almost always get the last word on the public airwaves. For a few minutes per newscast, why not grant the same privilege to the public?

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