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ABC News itself was at the center of the day's developments in the ongoing Toyota runaway story. It was three weeks ago that Brian Ross had showcased an experiment by Professor David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University that demonstrated how to produce uncontrollable acceleration by manipulating a car's electronics. The professor showed Ross the runaway even as the automaker was insisting that its problems were purely mechanical. CBS' Dean Reynolds noticed "a new aggressiveness" as Toyota's consultants at a firm called Exponent "sought to debunk both the research and what was called ABC's 'dramatized report.'" Exponent claimed that Gilbert's conclusions were based on "extreme improbability" and were "essentially meaningless."
For his part, Ross was not on hand, so ABC had David Muir cover Exponent's presentation. Muir did not mention the accusation of "dramatization" against Ross but he did repeat the charges against the professor: "Gilbert's scenario could not have happened in the real world and Toyota could easily manipulate the same results, not only with a Toyota, but with several other cars too." NBC did not mention Toyota's press conference.
That very afternoon, a Toyota Prius happened to experience a jammed accelerator while driving along I-8 in San Diego. The car reached speeds of 90 mph before it was intercepted by the Highway Patrol and brought safely to a halt. Ben Tracy kicked off CBS' newscast with a brief verbal summary of the incident.
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