In “Power Problem,” our review of pre-financial crisis lending and Wall Street coverage (the link only goes to the top of the story: for a hardcopy, please write editors@cjr.org) we praised the same paper for its lonely work on Ameriquest and found the absence of more reporting on abusive lenders and Wall Street backers to be the big reason the public was so caught off guard by the crash.
This kind of work is, as I say, hard and expensive, and we need more of it.
Also, other media outlets—and I’m not naming names here—ought to err on the side of generosity in crediting this kind of work. It seems to me that that kind of acknowledgment goes beyond courtesy and becomes a form of mutual support that can be returned later, when the other paper needs it.
LaHood tells owners of recalled Toyota cars to stop driving them
I heard that on NPR news at 11 AM, EST, and thought, "There's an example of world-class stupidity." Sure enough, back in the car at noon, LaHood was pulling out the "I misspoke" excuse. Apparently by late August, 2009, Toyota had 52 complaints of sudden acceleration for the entire 2008 model year. Sure, if you keep driving your affected Toyota the odds of an incident over the course of a year are probably modestly higher than getting hit by lighting, but....
I saw some coverage of this story on the TV news yesterday and was reminded of why I don't watch TV news. A bit less sensationalism, please?
Back in the day, my driver's ed class covered what to do when an accelerator pedal gets stuck. Given that the instruction takes, what, maybe thirty seconds of class time, it strikes me as odd that people are treating it as if it's a huge mystery. ("Your goal is to slow the car and pull over, First apply the brakes, using both feet if necessary. If that fails, put the car in neutral. If all else fails kill the ignition, but remember that you'll lose power to your brakes and steering.")
The upside of all of this, I suppose, is that there should finally be some good deals and incentives for Toyotas in the coming months, and you may finally be able to get a deal on a relatively recent trade-in.
#1 Posted by Aaron, CJR on Wed 3 Feb 2010 at 03:09 PM
Well done, Dean! This is another important facet of the overall Toyota scandal.
As you know, Ken Bensinger and others at the Los Angeles Times have been truly brilliant in uncovering this scandal and reporting about it, beginning last year. I believe they deserve the Pulitzer prize and/or other accolades for their efforts, which have been trailblazing. While the scandal just keeps on growing, with no end in sight, the brilliance of Ken and the others warrants enormous thanks from American consumers, whose lives may be saved in the process.
See, e.g., http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/toyota-and-lexus-vehicles-are-unsafe/
Keep up the good work!
Timothy D. Naegele
Attorney at Law
Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles
www.naegele.com
P.S. I do not practice personal injury law, and never have.
#2 Posted by Timothy D. Naegele, CJR on Wed 3 Feb 2010 at 06:19 PM
Pulitzer Prize... PUHHHHHLEEZE.
Biased reporting. Marginal to poor writing skills. Rehashing the same stories to say the same thing in different ways to keep a story running. Stretching the truth, twisting words, leaving out facts. Should I go on? If that deserves an accolade, then newspapers deserve the fate of irrelevance that they seem to be heading towards.
#3 Posted by Ronnie Brewster-Smith, CJR on Fri 19 Feb 2010 at 10:38 AM
There is another defect that they are trying to keep under wraps. Their computers are malfunctioning and causing transmission damage. The end cost of repairs are 4500 because you have to replace the computer once you replace the transmission. I have sent them emails, called them, and their favorite thing to say is that if it is not under warranty, they can't help me. This website http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/rav4/65156-2001-rav4-transmission-problems/ and many others have many people complaining abou the same thing. Just google 2001 rav4 ecm transmission issues. Now I have a 6000 (that I owe) junk sculpture and a job that will let me go if the public transportation makes me late one more time. Thanks alot Toyota!
#4 Posted by Lisa, CJR on Sun 21 Feb 2010 at 11:43 PM
While Ken Bensinger and his colleagues at the LATimes have done remarkable work, we should also give a nod of respect to Jeremy Finley at WSMV-TV in Nashville, who began doing investigative reports on runaway Toyotas in October 2007 (cq). Unfortunately, Jeremy could get no traction nationally -- WSMV doesn't have the clout of the Times, NHTSA would not back his reports, there had been no spectacular crashes with multiple fatalaties, and news outlets (including his) were still skittish about becoming the next '60 Minutes.'
In fact, the media in general were slow on this story. In early 2008, I was the petitioner to NHTSA in DP-08001, seeking an investigation based on NHTSA database numbers showing the 2006-07 Tacoma was 32 times more likely to be the subject of an unintended acceleration complaint than any other model of light truck, a conclusion NHTSA acknowledged was accurate. As a retired AP editor, I thought I would have some credibility with editors, so I wrote several asking them to look into it. But as far as media was concerned, I might as well have been asking them to do stories on black helicopters and the New World Order; impugning Toyota back then was just crazy talk.
I told some other Toyota owners who had been SUA victims then that no one would write about Toyota's flaws until people started dying. And unfortunately, that proved to be the case.
#5 Posted by William Kronholm, CJR on Sat 27 Feb 2010 at 11:55 AM
Now that the facts, not speculation, are known, It is time for the LA Times to acknowledge that they got it wrong when it comes to electronic throttle controls, and allowed themselves to be used by plaintiff's attorneys and their consultants to advance groundless lawsuites.
#6 Posted by Mike Michels, CJR on Wed 9 Feb 2011 at 12:56 AM