Network Is Fined Over `Dateline NBC' Trucking Story

BANGOR, Maine - The news nearly made Daphne Izer cry: A federal jury ruled that "Dateline NBC" defamed a trucker and a trucking company during a broadcast on safety problems in the industry.

"If one certain tired trucker had gotten the sleep he should have in 1993, none of us would be here today," said Izer, whose son and three other teenagers died when a big rig hit their car on the Maine Turnpike.

The accident was the inspiration for the two-part "Dateline NBC" documentary in 1995. But the show amounted to defamation, jurors said yesterday in ordering National Broadcasting Co. to pay $525,000 in damages.

Trucker Peter Kennedy and Classic Carriers of Waterville said "Dateline" representatives misled them into thinking they were participating in a positive story on the trucking industry.

The accuracy of the report, which featured Kennedy making a cross-country haul from California to Massachusetts, was not at issue.

But the jury of five men and four women found that NBC, senior correspondent Fred Francis and independent producer Alan Handel were guilty of negligence, misrepresentation and infliction of emotional distress.

It awarded $300,000 to Ray Veilleux, owner of Classic Carriers, and $175,000 to Kennedy, who said he became depressed and suicidal. It also awarded $50,000 to Ray Veilleux's wife, Kelly, for damage the program caused their marriage.

NBC insisted the only promise it made to Veilleux and Kennedy was to accurately report on the cross-country trip. In the program, Kennedy admitted falsifying his log so he could drive more consecutive hours than legally allowed.

Attorney Bill Robitzek, who represented the trucking firm, said the pressure to drive extra hours came from Kennedy's accommodating the TV crew.

The civil trial was held amid a string of media embarrassments.

-- CNN retracted its story that the U.S. military used nerve gas during the Vietnam War.

-- The Cincinnati Enquirer apologized to Chiquita Brands International and renounced stories it published about the company's business practices in Central America. Fired Enquirer reporter Michael Gallagher and his lawyers went to court to request that he not be compelled to testify before a grand jury about accusations he raided Chiquita's voice-mail system. A hearing on the request was postponed.

-- Last month, a Boston Globe columnist resigned after admitting she fabricated people and quotations.

-- In May, editors at The New Republic apologized after discovering an associate editor fabricated stories.