Toyota: The Media Owe You an Apology

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Media Outlets Share the Blame

Every year in America tens of thousands of individuals die in automotive accidents, while hundreds of thousands are injured. In my youth I was in more than my fair share. I'm fortunate that no one was ever hurt or killed, because I see now that I caused most of those accidents. Not that they were my fault, per se; they happened because I didn't anticipate the other drivers' mistakes and I cut the margin for error far too thin.

Not once did the vehicle I was driving do anything but what it was supposed to do, and it was always under my control. In those cases I failed as a driver. That's a lesson the media need to learn: Driver error causes the vast majority of accidents. And you don't have to be drunk to contribute to the accident.

I don't mean to single out CBS for criticism. Plenty of other media outlets share the blame. For 30 years they have treated us to Jeep, Suzuki, and Isuzu Trooper rollovers, Audi unintended acceleration, side-saddle gas tanks exploding, police cars catching on fire, Firestone tires blowing out, and then the Toyota case. And each time the media took the word of those with a vested financial interest in the outcome—and every time they got burned for doing so.

The first job of a journalist is to ask, "Is this information true?" It's obvious that when it comes to automobiles, that's the last question the broadcast media want answered.

Ed Wallace is a recipient of the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business journalism, given by the Anderson School of Business at UCLA, and is a member of the American Historical Assn. He reviews new cars every Friday morning at 7:15 on Fox Four's Good Day, contributes articles to Businessweek.com, and hosts the top-rated daytime talk show, Wheels, 8:00 to 1:00 Saturdays on 570 KLIF AM. E-mail: wheels570@sbcglobal.net, and read all of Ed's work at his news site, www.insideautomotive.com.