Anyway, here's the kicker: my dad, who was an executive at Volkswagen, received an anonymous letter in the 90ies, from people who claimed they had engineered this scare, and who offered their "services". Could have been a hoax, but considering how engineered the whole thing was and how effective, I am not so sure.
So I am ever so slightly skeptical when I hear of unintended acceleration stories, and I think your trust in 60 minutes and the rest of the media is, er, misplaced.
>> If there were a shred of truth to this the press and in
>> particular news magazines like 60 minutes as well as WSJ
>> and NYT would be all over this
> In the 80ies, it was 60 minutes who manufactured an
> "unintended acceleration" story, pretty much out of thin air.
Unless you think that investigative journalism has a strong interest for Sudden Acceleration, the take-away here is that they have a strong interest in scandal and stories that sell newspapers/airtime/whatever. The US government conspiring to protect the domestic auto market is exactly the kind of scandal that sells newspapers.
> If there were a shred of truth to this the press and in particular news magazines like 60 minutes as well as WSJ and NYT would be all over this
ROTFLMAO!!!
In the 80ies, it was 60 minutes who manufactured an "unintended acceleration" story, pretty much out of thin air. Well, some compressed air as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_unintended_acceleration#...
What they claimed was physically impossible, and never happened. More here:
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cjm_18.htm
Anyway, here's the kicker: my dad, who was an executive at Volkswagen, received an anonymous letter in the 90ies, from people who claimed they had engineered this scare, and who offered their "services". Could have been a hoax, but considering how engineered the whole thing was and how effective, I am not so sure.
So I am ever so slightly skeptical when I hear of unintended acceleration stories, and I think your trust in 60 minutes and the rest of the media is, er, misplaced.