Marketplace: News Archives

Tuesday, September 12, 2000
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It's Tuesday, the 12th of September. I'm David Brancaccio.

Just a day after the Federal Trade Commission upbraided the entertainment industry for exposing kids to adult-oriented movies, video games and music, one of the biggest media companies is tightening its marketing policies. The Walt Disney Company says it will not target under-17s when doing market research on R-rated films and it won't permit upcoming attractions for R-rated films to be shown in theaters showing Disney-branded movies. Also, Disney's television network, ABC, will not permit ads for R-rated films before 9pm. Max Robins covers the television industry for TV Guide.

Robbins: "Hollywood, obviously, and this is probably the first kind of voluntary step like this we'll see, my guess is that this the first of many, are taking very seriously what the FTC has said about marketing violent and adult content programming to children. And, also that Gore and Lieberman, you know, have taken to the bully pulpit, if you will, to really make this an issue. And I think Hollywood's listening. I mean, they want this before some actual legislation is put in place."

Robins says Disney's ban on ads for R-rated films on ABC will be a challenge to enforce, since local stations fill many of those commercial slots. On Monday, the FTC concluded that the entertainment industry's inappropriate marketing of adult fare to children is pervasive. On Thursday, the Federal Communication Commission plans to discuss what broadcasters show during children's shows.

We didn't want you to go a week without word of another huge merger among venerable Wall Street powerhouses. The New York Times reported late today that Chase Manhattan is in serious talks to buy J.P. Morgan. The paper's attribution is vague, an unnamed executive close to the deal is cited. Nothing's confirmed, but given J.P. Morgan's recent stock price, one might expect Chase to pay something in the neighborhood of $30 billion. J.P. Morgan shares rose 5.2 percent today. Morgan is one of 30 stocks in the Dow and if you do the math, that one stock accounts for essentially all the Dow's 37-point rise today.

Large parts of Britain are running out of gas and truckers and farmers have sealed off refineries to protest the high price of fuel. Panic buying of gasoline has aggravated the problem. But Prime Minister Tony Blair says he will not cave in and cut fuel taxes. From London, Stephen Beard reports.

Beard: "Throughout the day the crisis has deepened. Over half the gas stations in Britain are now out of fuel. Supplies in London are expected to dry up tonight. Wales has been worst hit. Some hospitals there cancelled all non-urgent surgery because of staff shortages. Despite the rapidly worsening situation, Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a clear message to the protesters: There will be no cut in fuel tax."

Blair: "We cannot accept, as a government or as a nation, that policy should be dictated by illegal blockades, pickets or direct action."

Beard: "The protesters, farmers, truckers and cabdrivers, say they've got right on their side. The increase in the world price of crude has only added to their plight. The real problem, they say, is the 70 percent tax on gasoline in Britain. They're vowing to continue the blockades until the government reduces the tax on fuel."

Bottoms: "My name is Malcolm Bottoms. I run a fleet of six vehicles. I did have ten but I've had to cut back to six. We are here. We're not the only ones. It's happening all over the country. We are not backing down this time."

Beard: "So far the protesters have public support. The government hopes that support will evaporate as the fuel shortages grow more acute. Meanwhile the government could resort to emergency measures tomorrow with soldiers breaking the oil blockades. In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace."

There were more fireworks today in case of the popping Firestone tires on Ford SUV's. On Capitol Hill, the CEOs of the two companies were back before another congressional panel, insisting they did not recognize until May of this year the trends in the accident reports and customer complaints that pointed to defective tires. Firestone tire failures have been linked to hundreds of vehicle rollovers and nearly 90 highway deaths over the past ten years.

But there is another way to frame this question here. Why did it take so long for Washington to sit up and take notice? As Marketplace's John Dimsdale reports, safety officials say it's a question of resources.

Dimsdale: "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants the authority to require the makers of cars and car parts, and insurance companies, to give the government product test results, information about customer complaints and lawsuits and overseas equipment recalls and replacements. That last point may be particularly important given that Ford and Firestone were replacing defective tires in places like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia two years ago, unbeknownst to officials in the states. Federal regulators are also asking for bigger penalties for criminal negligence and more money for testing and standard setting for car parts like brakes and tires. At today's hearing, Ford and Firestone continued to blame each other. Firestone admitted some of their tires are defective, but claim other brands on Ford Explorers are also prone to blowouts, suggesting there may be a vehicle design defect. That implication was vehemently denied by Ford's President and CEO, Jacques Nasser."

Nasser: "Mr. Chairman, there are almost three million Goodyear tires on Ford Explorers that have not had a separation problem here in the U.S. market. Based on these facts, we know that this is a Firestone tire issue, not a vehicle issue."

Dimsdale: "So which company is right? Federal highway safety officials can't answer that question. A spokesman for NHTSA says the agency's database of fatal car crashes, of which there were more than 37,000 in 1999 alone, does not indicate whether tires caused an accident or even reliably show what brands of tires were involved. At the Consumer's Union, senior product safety counsel Sally Greenburg says there are only forty staff members in NHTSA's defects investigation office."

Greenburg: "You just can't do the kind of work I think the American consumer expects is going to be done for safety when you have that few people in charge of all the potential defects that may be out there in millions upon millions of cars."

Dimsdale: "NHTSA is investigating Goodyear's tire performance on Ford Explorers and light trucks. The agency has given Goodyear until the end of the month to submit all its relevant documents. In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace."

"Think before speaking, especially when angry." One of your mother's rules for life is now translated into a new e-mail etiquette to stop any employee from firing off offensive missiles to bosses or fellow employees. It's an electronic anger management filter for those with a short fuse. As Marketplace's Sarah Gardner reports, the folks at Qualcomm are capitalizing on the ill tempered in the latest version of their email program Eudora.

Gardner: "It's called Moodwatch. You can think of it as a sort of spellchecker for ill-mannered e-mailers. Moodwatch scans email not only for swear words and putdowns, but for aggressive, even dictatorial, words and phrases. The folks at Eudora have come up with 2.7 million of them, in fact. And they're adding more all the time. Dave Ross, an ex-Marine who's no stranger to offensive words and phrases, is director of Product Management at Eudora."

Ross: "The significance of the technology is that it's able to contextualize. Because some words and phrases aren't offensive in certain contexts but they can be in other contexts."

Gardner: "Ross declines to give examples but will direct you to Eudora's website, where you get an idea of how Moodwatch works. Little chili peppers pop up on your email copy when Moodwatch figures the writer has crossed the line. The more offensive, the more chili peppers. An example? 'You're acting like a paranoid freak lately and it's got to stop." That rates a red-hot, three chili peppers with the advice to re-phrase. Eudora's Dave Ross admits some e-mailers will cleverly escape Moodwatch's chili pepper patrol."

Ross: "It doesn't do well with sarcasm and irony, yet. But it will."

Gardner: "After playing around with Eudora today, we detected a few holes in Moodwatch's armor. An email we sent asking a colleague if they'd lost weight yet got off chili pepper free. So did one that ended with this choice of words: 'It's all your fault.' I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace."

And that's the top of our news for Tuesday. Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.33 percent. The Nasdaq fell 1.2 percent.