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2. PICTURES ARE EVERYTHING. The firm that NBC hired staged just two crashes. GM trucks do not, of course, explode in half of all sideways collisions, or there wouldn't be many left on the road. So the consultants helped things along. As GM later demonstrated, the truck that did burn -- apparently because it had an ill-fitting gas-tank cap, made for a different truck -- ignited for only about 15 sec. But to ensure that its images were graphic, NBC used tightly edited shots in which the flames looked much worse.
3. TRUST THE EXPERTS. NBC's testers insisted that the rockets wouldn't matter unless fuel was spilled, and that on the actual day the explosion was sparked by a broken headlamp anyway. The producers were so taken with this reasoning that they forgot the basic question, Is it fair? The essential contract is not with any source or expert, but with the reader or viewer, who is entitled to the facts to judge for himself.
4. CIRCLE THE WAGONS. Journalists are so often assailed by news subjects protesting stories that are fair and true -- but inconvenient -- that they tend to dismiss all complaints. It was ill advised of the story's producers to answer GM without consulting NBC's legal department or journalistic superiors. It was loyal but just as unwise for Gartner to reaffirm the story later without checking. Even the ablest journalist sometimes gets things wrong.
What will this episode mean for NBC News? Theories last week ranged from short-term embarrassment all the way up to demise. The most probable result is that all TV-news shows will look for more about celebrities, crime and vastly less complex scandals. The safety of GM trucks is exactly the kind of issue that popular news programs should address. But instead of making sure that they do it right, skittish producers and executives will probably be inclined for a while not to do it at all.