Broadside Blog

NBC News/NASCAR

Here is a story showing how news is "created" not reported. Wonder if the various news agencies are funding the illegal protests?

NASCAR outraged by 'Dateline' racial story approach UPDATE: NASCAR said it was "outrageous" that "Dateline NBC" targeted one of its race tracks last weekend for a possible segment on anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. NASCAR said NBC confirmed it was sending Muslim-looking men to a race, along with a camera crew to film fans' reactions. The NBC crew was "apparently on site in Martinsville, Va., walked around and no one bothered them," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Wednesday. "It is outrageous that a news organization of NBC's stature would stoop to the level of going out to create news instead of reporting news," Poston said. "Any legitimate journalist in America should be embarrassed by this stunt. The obvious intent by NBC was to evoke reaction, and we are confident our fans won't take the bait," he said. NASCAR is in the final year of a broadcasting agreement with NBC Sports. "'Dateline' is looking into this story," NBC said in a statement. "We were intrigued by the results of a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll and other articles regarding increasing anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States. "It's very early on in our newsgathering process, but be assured we will be visiting a number of locations across the country and are confident that our reporting team is pursuing this story in a fair manner," it said.(ESPN.com/AP)(4-6-2006)
UPDATE: Bruton Smith, theTexas Motor Speedway owner, said the FBI will be here paying attention this weekend to see if NBC follows last weekend's NASCAR sting operation at Martinsville, where the network brought in Muslims for the Nextel Cup race and followed them around with hidden cameras to judge racism in the stock-car racing crowd. NBC has been one of NASCAR's television network partners since 2001, carrying the second half of the Nextel Cup season. But NBC's contract runs out at the end of this season and the network has declined to renew its NASCAR sponsorship, deciding instead to concentrate on NFL games.(Winston Salem Journal)(4-8-2006)

posted by Jay @ 12:58 PM