Galaus – social grabber and bookmarking

Leading the Monday, March 9th CBS Evening News with Katie Couric was a chilling story: Just hours earlier Jim Sikes, a California Realtor, had lost control of his Toyota Prius, accelerating at times to 94 mph – even while, he claimed, he was standing on the brake pedal with both feet. But in this original story CBS reported that a California Highway Patrol officer put his car in front of the Prius, using the brakes on his larger and more powerful Ford Crown Vic to stop the Prius and save Sikes’ life.

That story was still running on CBS through its Up to the Minute news broadcast with Michelle Geilan at 4 a.m. the next morning. Only by then there was a serious problem with what they were reporting. Now CBS had aerial video of the stopped Prius behind the police cruiser. And, although the cruiser had reportedly gotten in front of Sikes’ car and physically stopped it, the video showed no evidence of that interaction whatsoever on the front bumper of the Prius. No damage, not even a scratch.

Of course the incident had happened just hours before Couric’s broadcast the night before, so presenting misinformation on air about the event was an easy mistake to make. But who was the producer that, 10 hours later, didn’t correct the story when the video showed no front-end damage to the Prius?

Then again, with all the major problems happening nonstop in the world, was a runaway Prius in California the most important story that night? Really, Katie?

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/19/2052984/how-toyota-can-hurt-the-media.html