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Media
Myth: Nine Worst Business Stories
(of the Last 50 Years)
Executive Summary
9. Food Lion Accused of Repackaging Meat
8. Oprah's Beef with Beef
7. ‘Dateline’s'
Exploding Trucks
6. Rolling Jeeps
5. Silicone Breast
Implants
4. Accelerating
Audis
3. Wendy’s Finger
Food
2. Alar-ming Apples
1. DDT
Read the Full Report
PDF Version
By Nathan Burchfiel
9. Food Lion
Accused of Repackaging Meat
Report: ABC “Primetime Live” – Nov. 5, 1992
Story: ABC conducted an undercover report on Food Lion
grocery stores, alleging the chain’s delis were selling expired meat
and other products.
Impact: Hundreds – if not thousands – of Food Lion workers
lost their jobs as stores closed in the report’s aftermath. ABC’s
reporting tactics were revealed to be unethical.
8. Oprah’s Beef with Beef
Report: “Oprah” – April 6, 1996
Story: Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show featured a segment
on mad cow disease in which an industry opponent suggested the U.S.
beef supply was at risk for contamination. Winfrey famously said it
“stopped [her] cold from eating another burger.”
Impact: Cattle futures plunged the day after the show aired,
which pundits called the “Oprah crash.” A group of Texas cattle
farmers sued Winfrey for $12 million.
7. ‘Dateline’s' Exploding Trucks
Report: NBC “Dateline” – Nov. 17, 1992
Story: "Dateline” reported General Motors trucks were at risk
for exploding in side-impact collisions due to the placement of fuel
tanks, and used footage of a fiery crash to illustrate the risk.
Impact: Numerous lawsuits were filed against GM. It was later
revealed that NBC had rigged the demonstration by placing ignition
devices near the gas tank.
6. Rolling Jeeps
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Dec. 21, 1980
Story: Based on a study from the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety, CBS “60 Minutes” reported that Jeeps were at
unusually high risk for rollovers, using dramatic images of rolling
Jeeps with dummy passengers flying out of the vehicles.
Impact: Jeep sales plummeted 65 percent by 1981, and the
rollover stereotype is still parroted by other media. However, it
was revealed that the IIHS study got only eight rollovers in 435
tests and that the conditions were hardly “normal.”
5. Silicone Breast
Implants
Report: CBS “Face to Face” – Dec. 10, 1990
Story: Connie Chung reported that silicone breast implants
were leading to a variety of dangerous side effects, including
flu-like symptoms, extreme fatigue, fevers, hair loss, “bizarre skin
rashes” and tissue disease.
Impact: The FDA partially banned silicone implants in 1992.
Manufacturers were sued for billions of dollars, and Dow Corning
filed for bankruptcy in 1995 as a result. But the FDA lifted the ban
in November 2006, calling silicone “safe and effective.” |
4. Accelerating
Audis
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Nov. 23, 1986
Story: “60 Minutes” reported that several models of vehicles,
especially the Audi 5000, were prone to sudden acceleration that had
resulted in numerous injuries and deaths.
Impact: Audi sales fell from 74,000 in 1985 to 23,000 in
1988. Lawsuits sought upwards of $5 billion and analysts suggested
the backlash was so bad, Volkswagen should consider pulling Audi
from the U.S. market. A 1989 National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration report attributed the crashes to “pedal
misapplication,” not a manufacturing defect.
3. Wendy’s Finger Food
Report: ABC “Good Morning America” – March 24, 2005
Story: A California woman claimed to have found a severed
finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili. Various broadcast media outlets
reported the story.
Impact: Wendy’s reported a drop in sales across the country,
including 20-to-50-percent losses in the San Francisco area where
the story broke. At least 20 “copycats” claimed to find everything
from fingernails to chicken bones in their own food between the
original reports and the revelation that the woman had staged the
incident so she could sue Wendy’s.
2. Alar-ming Apples
Report: CBS “60 Minutes” – Feb. 26, 1989
Story: Based on a study from the leftist Natural Resources
Defense Council, “60 Minutes” reported that a chemical used on
apples caused cancer.
Impact: Apple prices dropped more than 18 percent in the
months following the report. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
bought out $9.5 million worth of unsold apples to keep farmers
afloat, and apple growers sued CBS and NRDC. The segment is now
known as one of the most overblown food scares in journalism’s
history.
1. DDT
Report: Various – Beginning in 1962
Story: Based on the claims of environmental activist Rachel
Carson, various media reported dangers posed by the pesticide DDT.
Reports attributed massive bird and fish deaths to DDT. The New York
Times reported pesticides were being found in stillborn babies, and
one report claimed it was “seriously affecting man through sex organ
changes.”
Impact: The federal government eventually banned DDT, and its
use was severely limited worldwide. In 1970, the National Academy of
Sciences reported DDT had prevented “500 million deaths due to
malaria that would otherwise have been inevitable” in the previous
two decades. In the face of high malaria rates in the third world,
the World Health Organization reinstated DDT in 2006.
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