A story on "Dateline NBC" that reported that GM pickup trucks were prone to fiery explosions upon impact turned out, upon close examination with slow-motion playback, to have been a hoax. The producers of the report had overfilled the gas tank, put on a cap that didn't fit, and to top it off, rigged a couple of model rocket engines on the gas tank to ignite just before impact. In a swift and unprecedented apology, NBC declared that the use of incendiary devices "was a bad idea from start to finish." "This unscientific demonstration," the apology continued, "was not representative of an actual side-impact collision." And: "We have... concluded that unscientific demonstrations should have no place in hard news stories at NBC. That's our new policy."

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