A Tabloid Touch In the Nightly News
Date: 14 February 1993
By Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert
EVER since the Presidential campaign, the television news business seems to have been suffering from an identity crisis. Appearing on MTV and "Larry King Live," the candidates proved that network news divisions could no longer place their upstart competitors in a different league. Now a few tiny rockets have made such condescension even harder. Last week, in an extraordinary public confession, NBC apologized for errors it had made in a report on General Motors trucks that aired on its news magazine show "Dateline NBC" in November. As part of the report, "Dateline NBC" broadcast a crash demonstration purporting to show one of the trucks bursting into flame as a result of a collision. In fact, the demonstration had been rigged: the truck had been outfitted with rocket-like "sparking devices" to insure that it would explode if the gas tank leaked.
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Reed Sells TV Stake
Date: 15 February 1993
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Reed International P.L.C. has sold its stake in the B-Sky-B satellite television venture for $89.1 million. Reed said last week that it wanted to concentrate on publishing and information. It sold the 3.66 percent stake in B-Sky-B to the other partners in the venture: the Granada Group P.L.C., Pearson P.L.C. and Chargeurs S.A. The sale price, Reed said, was more than its investment in the satellite television concern, which offers news, sports, entertainment and films.
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Business Diary/February 7-12
Date: 14 February 1993
By Hubert B. Herring Companies And Now, the News: G.m., G.m., Then A Word On G.m
Hubert
Even with the battering it's taken in recent years, General Motors remains larger than life. And last week, true to form, it dominated the news -- a public-relations bull's-eye one day, a mind-boggling loss the next. First, refusing to just lick its wounds after a jury held it responsible for a teen-ager's death in a G.M. pickup, the company roared onto the offensive, suing NBC for tampering with a truck in a news report. It scored a direct hit, as NBC -- to settle the suit -- issued a stunningly long (three-and-a-half-minute) on-air apology. Then, with no qualms about kicking the downed network, the auto maker suspended advertising on all NBC News programs. (After just a day, however, saying it was satisfied with the apology, it rescinded that ban.) And to thicken the plot, a judge dealt G.M. a setback in its grand plan to close numerous plants -- and gave at least a temporary reprieve to 2,500 auto workers whose jobs are threatened. Saying that by accepting tax abatements G.M. had effectively promised to keep its Willow Run plant, in Ypsilanti, Mich., open through the 1990's, the judge blocked it from closing the plant. G.M. had planned to close it this summer and consolidate operations in Arlington, Tex. Calling the ruling "unprecedented and contrary to both the facts and the law," G.M. said it would appeal. The company had tried to forfeit the tax breaks, but Doug Winters, the Ypsilanti city attorney, said, "We want the jobs, not the money. G.M. is not above the law." Sprinting for the Red Has Carl Lewis gone into accounting? He must have, the way records are getting broken. But corporate America surely hopes these records will last. First, Ford reported a $7.4 billion loss for 1992, mainly because of its retiree accounting, erasing I.B.M.'s recent record for the nation's largest loss. But its title lasted just a day, as General Motors came in with a stunning $23.5 billion figure. Without the special charges, though, there were signs of improving operations. G.M. stock did well, ending the week at $40.625, while Ford shares slipped to $49.25. A Poorer Sears, a New Sears Another fixture of the corporate landscape dumped some hefty numbers onto its balance sheet last week. In reporting a $3.9 billion deficit, Sears, Roebuck cited hurricane-related losses at its Allstate Insurance unit and the costs of scrapping its catalogue. Not to mention its charge for retiree benefits -- $1.87 billion. Later in the week, after pausing to let the news sink in, the retailer looked squarely at the future, vowing to spend $4 billion to give its stores face lifts. More Shrinkage at I.B.M. It may have to rename itself I.B. if it gets any smaller. I.B.M. only recently said it would cut its work force by 25,000, but word spread last week that it could be more like 40,000. The numbers tell the tale of the incredible shrinking company. Workers: 407,000 in 1986, 300,000 at the end of '92 . . . and 260,000 at the end of '93? Stock price: over $100 last summer, $50.75 on Friday. Short Chapter at Random House Joni Evans has had a bumpy ride at Random House. In 1987 she was recruited to start her own imprint. Then she was named to head the adult trade division. That lasted just a few years, and she then created Turtle Bay Books. But now Turtle Bay is no more. Ms. Evans said she always thought "it would be three to four years before we broke even, and I thought he did, too." But "he" -- Alberto Vitale, Random House chairman -- said, "Conditions have changed." Survival of the Techiest It makes the head spin. You're slogging through the evening's cable offerings -- the 12 talk shows, the 15 football games -- when some long-distance company calls to explain its convoluted advantages. Now it's all getting mixed up together; the cable and phone businesses are cross-breeding, embarking on an odd Darwinian struggle. Last week, in the first deal of its kind, Southwestern Bell agreed to buy two cable systems from Hauser Communications -- the onset of a race to deliver all manner of communications services, like more cable offerings than you'll ever keep track of. Soon, perhaps, you'll reach for the phone to turn on a movie, or turn on the set to call Aunt Nellie -- or finally, in low-tech despair, sit down and read a book. Hello, Phone -- Get Me Rewrite Meanwhile, phone technology moves relentlessly on. In Nynex's latest bid to improve the human lot, you can say "Mom" and the phone calls your mom. And only yours, mind you. Other voices get other moms. In the system Nynex will soon begin testing, each household member compiles a separate voice directory of dozens of names. Is the system perfect? Well, no. Nynex officials concede that if Dana Carvey barked out "Barbara," the former First Lady's phone could easily ring. HB>THE ECONOMY Clinton Works the Crowd President Clinton laid it out succinctly. "With all these economic improvements, we aren't generating new jobs," he said at his "town meeting." And the deficit, he said, "is about $50 billion a year bigger than I was told." Questioners veered to other topics, but Mr. Clinton kept steering back to the economy. On Wednesday he will propose higher taxes and painful budget cuts, and he wanted to soften up his audience -- to assure them his plan would be "fair to all Americans." He did offer one specific: he will seek to raise the corporate tax rate -- a message he then gave to 200 executives and lobbyists at the White House. Read Their Lips: 'Don't Touch' In casting about for a billion here, a billion there, to hack from the deficit, Mr. Clinton will have to look hard at many sacred items. But some things are more sacred than others -- like Social Security cost-of-living increases. His budget director, Leon Panetta, had proposed a one-year freeze, but Mr. Clinton -- possibly with visions of irate retirees at the White House barricades -- put his machete away. A freeze, falling hardest on the poor, is a far cry from soaking the rich. But he has not ruled out increasing taxes on benefits, since that would not affect low-income people. Inflation Stays in Check Inflation is well under control even as economic growth gains momentum. Prices at the wholesale level rose a modest 0.2 percent in January. Over the past year the Producer Price Index has risen just 1.8 percent -- a minor gain for an expanding economy. Detroit vs. Japan: No Contest Detroit was armed for battle. Thinking the time was right and the new Administration sympathetic, it had spent serious money preparing to file complaints seeking steep duties on imported cars. But once its plans leaked out, the rock-throwing started. Cries of protectionism filled the air, foreign auto makers and governments trained their heavy lobbying guns on Detroit, and even Mickey Kantor, the top American trade official, voiced qualms. The final blow came when General Motors, bombarded by Japanese pressure, defected. The auto makers, while insisting they had a strong case, saw that without a united front they had no chance and backed off. The move was a reprieve for the Administration, which would have been forced to resolve this sticky issue quickly. INTERNATIONAL Speed. Freedom. . . . Tolls? Autobahn. The very word spits out images of untamed horsepower, foot to the Porsche floor, the ultimate open road -- in short, freedom. With no tolls, and long stretches with no speed limits, the network of superhighways has deep resonance for Germany, and the world. But again, yesterday's sacred cow becomes today's hamburger. The realities: severe congestion and a German economy whose horsepower is dwindling. So Bonn plans the unthinkable: charging user fees on the Autobahn and eventually privatizing it. Well, there are still video games. Bonjour, Vietnam On the first visit by a Western leader since 1975, Francois Mitterrand promised to double aid to Vietnam -- if human rights improve -- and urged Washington to end its economic embargo. Local radio said the visit showed that the West saw Vietnam's "will to join the mainstream economy." Tax the Other Guy, Not Saudi Oil Saudi Arabia is worried. There's a lot of talk about taxes to cut oil use. And now that Saudi Arabia has replaced Russia as the largest oil producer, the Saudis have the most to lose. This threat also comes just as Saudi Arabia is trying to pare OPEC output to push prices higher. So the Saudi oil minister, Hisham M. Nazer, in Houston last week, pulled out all the stops. Citing "constant discrimination against oil," he called environmentalists' policies "alarming." Oil import fees "defy the logic of geology and economics." And, citing the crying need for global economic growth, he said, "Abject poverty is indeed the worst environmental pollutant."
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Why Would Anybody Want To Be Owner of The Post?
Date: 15 February 1993
By William Glaberson
William Glaberson
For sale: Newspaper losing $300,000 a week with poor niche in highly competitive market. Unique opportunity. Previous owners have lost tens of millions of dollars. Such an ad never appeared in The New York Post, but a candid description of the business challenges facing anyone buying New York City's most troubled tabloid newspaper would describe it that way.
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Litigation Journalism Is a Scourge
Date: 15 February 1993
By Carole Gorney
Carole Gorney
Litigation blackmail is being committed in the United States every day, aided and abetted by journalists, lawyers and public relations consultants. In a practice euphemistically called litigation journalism, lawyers are hiring public relations consultants to schedule talk-show appearances and newspaper interviews for their clients in an obvious attempt to generate public sympathy and apply pressure on the defendants.
While NBC's video of a staged crash of a G.M. truck would seem to be an outrageous example of litigation journalism, the episode was in most ways atypical. The drama may have been doctored by tiny rockets attached to the truck but at least the video did not appear before the trial began and it is difficult to assess what impact it may have had on the jury decision.
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Feeling Vindicated, G.M. Plans No Publicity Drive
Date: 15 February 1993
By Stuart Elliott
Stuart Elliott
The General Motors Corporation says it has no plans to mount an advertising campaign, or a public relations effort, addressing either the apology made to it by NBC News for broadcasting a rigged crash test of G.M. pickup trucks, or a broader dispute about the safety of its vehicles. The automotive giant has joined a growing list of companies selling to consumers that now find their communications strategies questioned in the wake of television news coverage of problems or crises involving their products and services.
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Again: It's Hillary Rodham Clinton. Got That?
Date: 14 February 1993
By Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly
What, Hillary Rodham Clinton's press secretary would like to know, is in a name? "The fact is," the press secretary, Lisa Caputo, said recently in mild exasperation. "Hillary Rodham Clinton has been the First Lady's name all along, since 1982. We're at a loss as to why people think this is something that we're just trying to change now."
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Britain and Iran Harden Positions on Rushdie
Date: 15 February 1993
By William E. Schmidt
William Schmidt
Britain and Iran marked the fourth anniversary of Teheran's death edict against Salman Rushdie today with an intensifying war of words: Iranian clerics vowed again that they would never retract the death sentence, and London warned that unless they did, the two nations would be unable to resume full diplomatic relations. The exchange came as Britain and the Islamic republic appeared to be hardening their public positions over the fate of the author, whose 1989 book, "The Satanic Verses," led to the decree or fatwa, based on charged that he blasphemed against Islam. Over the weekend, Iranian religious leaders reaffirmed the death sentence, and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's leading cleric, dismissed concerns in Britain and other Western nations over Mr. Rushdie.
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