Daily Archives: November 12, 2004

Big Media & Authority

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Daniel Henninger on big media’s declining authority:

Authority can be a function of raw power, but among free people it is sustained by esteem and trust. Should esteem and trust falter, the public will start to contest an institution’s authority. It happens all the time to political figures. It happened here to the American Catholic Church and to the legal profession, thanks to plaintiff-bar abuse. And now the public is beginning to contest the decades-old authority of the mainstream media.
Two months ago, Gallup reported that public belief in the media’s ability to report news accurately and fairly had fallen to 44%–what Gallup called a significant drop from 54% just a year ago.

GM, Ford SUV Stability Enhancements

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Greg Schneider:

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said yesterday that they are rushing to adopt a new safety technology called electronic stability control, and together they will make such systems standard on most of their large and mid-size sport-utility vehicles by the end of next year.
The nation’s two biggest automakers were quick to offer the new technology on 1.8 million vehicles after preliminary testing by the government and the insurance industry showed enormous safety benefits, especially for popular SUVs that ride high and are more likely to roll over during a crash.