Posted on 06/21/2008 10:51:22 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Media Myth: Nine Worst Business Stories
(of the Last 50 Years)
Executive Summary
9. Food Lion Accused of Repackaging Meat
8. Oprah's Beef with Beef
7. ‘Dateline’s' Exploding Trucks
6. Rolling Jeeps
5. Silicone Breast Implants
4. Accelerating Audis
3. Wendy’s Finger Food
2. Alar-ming Apples
1. DDT
By Nathan Burchfiel
9. Food Lion Accused of Repackaging Meat
Report: ABC “Primetime Live” – Nov. 5, 1992
Story: ABC conducted an undercover report on Food Lion grocery stores, alleging the chain’s delis were selling expired meat and other products.
Impact: Hundreds – if not thousands – of Food Lion workers lost their jobs as stores closed in the report’s aftermath. ABC’s reporting tactics were revealed to be unethical.
| Read More |
8. Oprah’s Beef with Beef
Report: “Oprah” – April 6, 1996
Story: Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show featured a segment on mad cow disease in which an industry opponent suggested the U.S. beef supply was at risk for contamination. Winfrey famously said it “stopped [her] cold from eating another burger.”
Impact: Cattle futures plunged the day after the show aired, which pundits called the “Oprah crash.” A group of Texas cattle farmers sued Winfrey for $12 million.
| Read More |
7. ‘Dateline’s' Exploding Trucks
Report: NBC “Dateline” – Nov. 17, 1992
Story: "Dateline” reported General Motors trucks were at risk for exploding in side-impact collisions due to the placement of fuel tanks, and used footage of a fiery crash to illustrate the risk.
Impact: Numerous lawsuits were filed against GM. It was later revealed that NBC had rigged the demonstration by placing ignition devices near the gas tank.
| Read More |
6. Rolling Jeeps
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Dec. 21, 1980
Story: Based on a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, CBS “60 Minutes” reported that Jeeps were at unusually high risk for rollovers, using dramatic images of rolling Jeeps with dummy passengers flying out of the vehicles.
Impact: Jeep sales plummeted 65 percent by 1981, and the rollover stereotype is still parroted by other media. However, it was revealed that the IIHS study got only eight rollovers in 435 tests and that the conditions were hardly “normal.”
| Read More |
5. Silicone Breast Implants
Report: CBS “Face to Face” – Dec. 10, 1990
Story: Connie Chung reported that silicone breast implants were leading to a variety of dangerous side effects, including flu-like symptoms, extreme fatigue, fevers, hair loss, “bizarre skin rashes” and tissue disease.
Impact: The FDA partially banned silicone implants in 1992. Manufacturers were sued for billions of dollars, and Dow Corning filed for bankruptcy in 1995 as a result. But the FDA lifted the ban in November 2006, calling silicone “safe and effective.” |
| Read More |
4. Accelerating Audis
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Nov. 23, 1986
Story: “60 Minutes” reported that several models of vehicles, especially the Audi 5000, were prone to sudden acceleration that had resulted in numerous injuries and deaths.
Impact: Audi sales fell from 74,000 in 1985 to 23,000 in 1988. Lawsuits sought upwards of $5 billion and analysts suggested the backlash was so bad, Volkswagen should consider pulling Audi from the U.S. market. A 1989 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report attributed the crashes to “pedal misapplication,” not a manufacturing defect.
| Read More |
3. Wendy’s Finger Food
Report: ABC “Good Morning America” – March 24, 2005
Story: A California woman claimed to have found a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili. Various broadcast media outlets reported the story.
Impact: Wendy’s reported a drop in sales across the country, including 20-to-50-percent losses in the San Francisco area where the story broke. At least 20 “copycats” claimed to find everything from fingernails to chicken bones in their own food between the original reports and the revelation that the woman had staged the incident so she could sue Wendy’s.
| Read More |
2. Alar-ming Apples
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Feb. 26, 1989
Story: Based on a study from the leftist Natural Resources Defense Council, “60 Minutes” reported that a chemical used on apples caused cancer.
Impact: Apple prices dropped more than 18 percent in the months following the report. The U.S. Department of Agriculture bought out $9.5 million worth of unsold apples to keep farmers afloat, and apple growers sued CBS and NRDC. The segment is now known as one of the most overblown food scares in journalism’s history.
| Read More |
1. DDT
Report: Various – Beginning in 1962
Story: Based on the claims of environmental activist Rachel Carson, various media reported dangers posed by the pesticide DDT. Reports attributed massive bird and fish deaths to DDT. The New York Times reported pesticides were being found in stillborn babies, and one report claimed it was “seriously affecting man through sex organ changes.”
Impact: The federal government eventually banned DDT, and its use was severely limited worldwide. In 1970, the National Academy of Sciences reported DDT had prevented “500 million deaths due to malaria that would otherwise have been inevitable” in the previous two decades. In the face of high malaria rates in the third world, the World Health Organization reinstated DDT in 2006. Read More
Surprised the global warming myth didn’t make the top nine. It has the potential to be the most expensive and destructive myth ever.
Add to these the Janet Cooke and Jason Blair and Dan Rather debacles, and the media have zero credibility. None. They have squandered their stock in trade, done in by their own zealotry.
***Alar...The segment is now known as one of the most overblown food scares in journalism’s history. ****
And my Mother-in-law and worthless brother-in-law (If you know him he probably owes you money) SWALLOWED IT! Hook, line and sinker.
and don’t get me started on his “Radon” scare!
I would add saccharin causes cancer and make it a top ten list.
Behold the fruits of ecohobbit liberalism:
“Sri Lanka alone saw a dramatic increase in cases of malaria after it stopped using DDT – from a low of 17 cases to more than half a million in 1969.”
Now wonder the jihadists and libscum get alone so well. They are both death cults.
So, I wonder if opra still refuses to eat hamburgers...
In a sense, it's stunning that there should even be such a list.
"News reporting" suggests that one is reporting "news" -- an event or happening that is valuable for other people to know about.
It also suggests that one is "reporting". I.e., sharing the established and researched facts of the matter with his audience.
Yet, we find that "modern journalism" has concocted their own "facts" and "reported" them in such a way as to misguide and mislead the audience.
What real purpose do the media serve if they are to behave in such a way?
So far as I can see, the exclusive role of the federally licensed news media is to serve the Democrat agenda. And one has to ask, "Can we, as a people, really justify such a role?".
Give me one good reason why the next Republican administration should not deny the networks a broadcasting license?
Missing from the list: “We are all at risk for AIDS!” (Oprah said 20% of US would be dead in 5 years.)
I had just bought a new ‘84 Audi 5000 when Ed Bradley did this hit piece.
Not mentioned in Bradley’s report was the fact that CBS had to drill holes in the transmission and apply air pressure at 250 psi to get the effect they blithely reported. A doctored test really put the kibosh on sale of the 5000.
I drove my ‘84 Audi until 2001. It never did accelerate unexpectedly on me. But then I knew the difference between the accelerator and brake.
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