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NBC was the network that won the scoop two weeks ago about infant car seats. The magazine Consumer Reports had conducted crash tests and found that ten out of twelve major brands had "failed disastrously." So it was only right that NBC should lead with the expose of the flaws in those same tests. Crashes purportedly staged at 38 mph had actually occurred at twice the speed. All three networks covered the story, making the magazine's retraction the Story of the Day.

NBC's Tom Costello filed both stories, on the seats' supposed failure, and on Consumer Reports' admitted failure. The magazine "is indeed in damage control," Costello declared, after the federal NHTSA had checked its results and contradicted them. The magazine had hired an outside firm to conduct the crashes.

CBS' Bob Orr and ABC's Lisa Stark also filed on the same story. Stark, in A Closer Look, called it a "huge black eye for a magazine millions have come to depend on." Yet none of the three reports made an estimate of the financial damage Consumer Reports may have caused, either to the unfairly accused manufacturers or to any parents who may have discarded seats they believed to be flawed and purchased replacements.

Andrew Tyndall 1/19/07 6:58:42 pm

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