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The Story of the Day would hardly have been worthy of passing mention had not the Consumer Product Safety Commission been in the spotlight with Tuesday's flap (text link) over its expanded powers and continued coverage of the safety of imported toys. On the latter issue, by the way, CBS had Sandra Hughes file The Truth About Toys feature on $15 home testing kits for lead paint, whose sales have skyrocketed, despite their designation by the CPSC as "unreliable."
Anyway CBS chose as its overblown lead the revelations, first published in the Washington Post, that $60,000 had been paid by businesses regulated by the CPSC for 30 trips by its acting chairwoman Nancy Nord and her predecessor Hal Stratton. The amount of money--from the toy industry, the fireworks industry and appliance makers--is small and NBC's Tom Costello (no link) pointed out that "there is no suggestion anything illegal occurred." Still CBS' Nancy Cordes found unidentified "critics" to assert that "it is a sign this agency has lost its way--protecting industries, not consumers."
It seems to be more of a sign that CBS is making a mountain out of a molehill.
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