NBC SAYS WORST OVER, FIRES NO ONE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993                   TAG: 9302110055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
NBC SAYS WORST OVER, FIRES NO ONE
"Dateline NBC" staffers braced for the worst, but no heads rolled Wednesday after an on-air apology for rigging a General Motors truck's gas tanks to explode on impact - and not telling viewers.
"We've suffered a black eye, but it's important for all of us to look ahead," Executive Producer Jeff Diamond told 30 to 40 staffers assembled in the show's fifth-floor offices, according to one participant.
"We made a mistake. We made a bad mistake," he said. Diamond did not dwell on the show's Nov. 17 broadcast, which led to GM's filing a defamation lawsuit Monday against NBC.
That broadcast's 15-minute segment on GM light truck fire deaths included what NBC initially called an "unscientific demonstration" of a fiery broadside crash into a GM truck.
On Tuesday night's show, "Dateline NBC" retracted that portion of the report, with co-anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips reading a detailed acknowledgement of those journalistic errors in the rigged crash. The retraction settled the lawsuit.
The crash truck, one of 4.7 million made from 1973 to 1987 with "sidesaddle" gas tanks mounted outside its frame, was fitted with incendiary devices to ensure an explosion if the gas tank broke.
NBC President Robert Wright and NBC News President Michael Gartner, in separate, internal staff memos obtained by The Associated Press, said the network would review its policies and procedures.
"I strongly believe that by taking swift, decisive action, the company will emerge stronger from this painful experience," Wright wrote. "We will urgently and intensely review what happened, as well as our policies and operating procedures." He did not elaborate.
Gartner's memo said NBC News found out Monday, after GM's news conference in Detroit, the magnitude of its problem with the crash demonstration.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB