The American Spectator

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p> ARTLESS FORGERS br> Re: George Neumayr's Forged Press Credentials : /p> p>The "Mainstream Press" at this point is very much like the pedophile priests that assumed they still had the authority to do their jobs. Too late. Their transgressions have rendered them infecund and without virtue. Now they want us to shut up and stop watching their every move. Very well then. Since they've become outmoded, we should stop watching them. br> -- Beto Ochoa br> Austin, Texas /p>

In George Neumayr's essay "Forged Credentials," he quotes Jonathan Klein, a former CBS executive, as defending the "60 Minutes II" debacle at CBS by asking Americans if they trust anti-Rather bloggers -- a "guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing." I stopped trusting "60 Minutes" back in 1986 when the show ran an absurd hit piece on the Audi 5000, purporting to demonstrate it suffered from "runaway acceleration." I was watching that program with my son and some of his buddies, whose hobby was drag-bike racing. One of the things they did to increase acceleration before a run was, with the front brake on, rev the motorcycle's engine to spin the rear wheel, heat the tire and make it sticky, so better able to grip the pavement. Two fingers holding down the front brake lever were enough to prevent the bike from lunging forward despite the full power of the engine spinning the rear wheel.

These boys laughed out loud as "60 Minutes" paraded alleged expert after expert trying to demonstrate how the Audi could accelerate out of control even though the driver was firmly braking. All the "60 Minutes" ace investigative reporters had to do to prove this could not happen, they said, was climb into an Audi--or any car--and tromp down on both the accelerator and brake at the same time. The car wouldn't go anywhere. A first-year engineering student could have explained to "60 Minutes" why this is so.

p>But "60 Minutes" aired this ridiculous story, which had vast repercussions on many thousands of people as Audi sales crashed, the company was almost forced out of the market, the franchise became worthless, people working at dealerships lost their jobs, Audi 5000 owners saw the resale value of their perfectly good cars destroyed.... To all of this "60 Minutes" was indifferent. Could it be that "60 Minutes" has always been more interested in a "good" story than a truthful one? Gen. William Westmoreland might have a thing or two to say about that. br> --

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