ABC News’ Brian Ross is a true journalist. He doesn’t just
read the news. He goes out and finds it. He was one of the first reporters
on the runaway Toyota’s story, and has dug in to find the facts
rather than just relying on what others say in “he said, she said”
journalism. For instance, he found out that Southern Illinois University
Professor David Gilbert had examined the acceleration issue
and shown that Toyota was wrong in claiming runaway acceleration could
not occur without generating error codes, and that brakes would stop a
runaway vehicle. Ross and Dr. Gilbert demonstrated this on
the ABC Nightly News.
Toyota’s U.S. and Japanese presidents appeared before Congress humbly,
promising that they want nothing more than for the facts to come out.
But recently Brian Ross reported that Toyota has been pulling its ads
from ABC stations, apparently to punish ABC for its reporting. This can
only fuel suspicion that Toyota is talking about candor, but engaging
in cover-up.
- Stuart Ollanik
ABC News, The Blotter from Brian Ross, “Runaway Toyotas”
Two Judges Refuse to Seal the Record in Toyota Document Discovery Abuse
Case, Product Liability Blog Nov. 17, 2009
What was Toyota Doing About Unintended Acceleration Five Years Ago?, Product
Liability Blog Mar. 23, 2010