NBC's Dateline trolling for racism and religious intolerance in NASCAR?
NBC's Dateline has
been looking to compile an episode on anti-Muslim attitudes here in the United States, and to kick things
off, the news program decided to take "Muslim-looking men" and a camera crew into the
Martinsville NASCAR event. We're not quite sure what the goal of this was, but you'll have to excuse us if we
don't believe that they were simply expecting a friendly and accommodating environment. Fortunately for
NASCAR, motorsports, and tolerant people everwhere, no incidents were reported.
NASCAR has since fired back at the network, stating that the actions of the Dateline crew were "outrageous" and that the network should be "ashamed." NBC is in the final year of an agreement to air a portion of NASCAR's events, and presumably this incident could be brought up during contract negotiations.
While Dateline has done many fine reports in the past, the program is arguably best known to auto enthusiasts as the organization that used pyrotechnics in 1993 to stage fires in an effort to demonstrate safety problems with side-saddle fuel tanks used on GM full-size trucks.
[Source: The Associated Press via AOL News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EC 12:15PM (4/11/2006)
If they can't find news, they will make it themself. Their suppose to report news, not make news. What was their intended outcome; get the crap kicked out of the crew, name calling? It really wouldn't matter what the venue is, there could always be someone in the crowd ready to start a fight. How is this different from yelling fire in a crowded theater?
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Raj 12:25PM (4/11/2006)
I am waiting for all the media channels in democratic countries (i.e. USA, UK, India, Australia .. rest of the democracies) to do an episode on anti-NonMuslim attitudes in the Islamic countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia etc. Some day these channels will develop the courage to do so.
I am sure NASCAR has its own share of bigots, most of the sports do, and that's no news.
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JWhite 12:25PM (4/11/2006)
It won't be brought up at contract negotiations because they already ocurred and NBC already lost to ABC/ESPN's higher bid to carry the last 17 races or so of the season starting next year. Some have said that this may be why Dateline targeted NASCAR because they had no ties to worry about.
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That One Person 12:27PM (4/11/2006)
wow...they arent getting desperate...
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Steve C. 12:31PM (4/11/2006)
Is it any wonder that NBC has a lock on last place?
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Bill 12:39PM (4/11/2006)
This kind of garbage irks me to no end.
I'm a pinko-commie urban liberal now, but I was raised hillbilly redneck. I still have the "Junior NRA Member" patch from my shooting jacket, and every once in awhile I whip it out and show it to my horrified friends and neighbors.
Dateline is just trying to provoke something so they can just point their finger and say "look at all those flag-waving racist redneck southern Nascar fans".
Nothing gets urban liberals more in a hissyfit than the existance of SUVs, guns, NASCAR, and Wal-Mart.
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Source1 12:53PM (4/11/2006)
'Nothing gets urban liberals more in a hissyfit than the existance of SUVs, guns, NASCAR, and Wal-Mart'
You forgot middle-America Christians in that list!
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Leo 1:30PM (4/11/2006)
Next they'll unload a bus full of child molester on a YMCA playground to see what happens. This is reality television meets yellow journalism and it's scary.
NASCAR fans should tell NBC to shove it.
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Marketing 101 1:45PM (4/11/2006)
"Dateline is just trying to provoke something so they can just point their finger and say "look at all those flag-waving racist redneck southern Nascar fans"."
Actually they are just trying to provoke people to watch the show because their ENTIRE PURPOSE is to sell toothpaste and tampons via commercials. Actual news is a distant second priority.
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Puff Chippy 2:54PM (4/11/2006)
#9 is right. Too many people think the purpose of network news is to report news, but it's not. Like all TV shows, the purpose is to sell eyeballs to big corporations so the corporations can then flood them with commercials. How do you get eyeballs to sell? You either scare everyone to death with reports of the bogeyman on every corner and impending danger, or you just go stir something up yourself. This was a case of the latter.
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Matt 3:09PM (4/11/2006)
I love it!
Dateline goes after Billy-bob, lefty left, roundy-round.
Please note that, although not entirely irrelevant, what happened on a show almost 13 years ago is not all that important. That's like waking up as an American and feeling sorry about seperate-but-equal laws.
I guess I'm surprised there were no incidents, but not as surprised as I would have been if they had found some relevant technology.
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SaveGas 3:30PM (4/11/2006)
# 9,
Don't like the credibility of Dateline? I bet you're the type that religiously (pun, pun, pun) watches the Faux News Channel everyday. Ahhtheres nothing more refreshing than a daily dose of right wing conspiracy.
As to NASCAR, I used to watch the 'lets go in left circles sport' up until I realized its popularity with down south yokel viewers. As an urban metrosexual, I surely cannot be grouped with the lowly ill-bred subculture of Americans south, thus I have ceased the viewing of NASCAR for life.
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Jeremy White 3:59PM (4/11/2006)
I don't consider this news... I already knew that NASCAR fans are knuckle-dragging, red-necked, idiots. Anyone who can watch cars go round and round a huge loop for hours has to have a few screws loose. Le Mans racing is for people with a little more intellect/interest in motorsport.
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GCH 7:02PM (4/11/2006)
I do not think it's necessary to trash Southern people just like that, given that bigotry is everywhere in this country and in every corner of the planet.
I think the people of Dateline were as stupid as 60 minutes trying to crash those Audi 5000 in the mid 80s or as if they would bring an illegal alien to Tom Tancredo's office to disclose his status.
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Jeremy White 5:01PM (4/12/2006)
I think it was very necessary to trash SOME Southerners like that. If it weren't for them we wouldn't have our current idiot-in-chief for a president. Of course I generalize but it is mostly southerners who are part of the "christian coalition" that put Bush in office and then holds his feet to the fire to make stupid decisions like banning stem cell research, or pushing for intelligent design teaching. To the Southerners who don't support that, I apologize.
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hitbyastick 6:58PM (4/12/2006)
Jeremy White you should apologize. Obviously you have never been down south.
Let me tell you guys something- you see tasteless NASCAR idiots everywhere, not just the southern states. It would seem that NASCAR and suburbia kind of go together for some strange reason. To say that the entire south is a bunch of worthless redneck NASCAR fools is a double overgeneralization. Southerners, at the very least, have manners and pleasant dispositions despite being caricatured and ridiculed continually by the rest of the country. These are the kinds of people that still feel and show respect for their elders, it's just sometimes they like to get drunk in the morning, and don't believe in education or dental floss. Go to Jersey if you want to find the real trash.
And I'm not saying Jersey girls are trash. Trash gets picked up.
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BrianP 10:22AM (4/13/2006)
i really hate nascar,but i have to defend them now.date line is like the national inquirer crap.if they cant find news they make it up.lets all pitch in and send them to mars so they can find out which alien is really running the USA
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Logic 4:49PM (4/13/2006)
Hey Bill, have you looked around on the streets of any metropolitan area in the US recently? What do you see? SUVs!! Escalade EXTs with 976" chrome bling rims, Yukons with 8972345697 DVD players inside, Hummer H2's with spinners, the list goes one and on. Guns? Don't get me started... Wal-Mart? Well, not in New York, yet... NASCAR? NASCAR is shit on a stick, pal.
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Mike Shepler 4:17PM (4/19/2006)
Jeremy White is a pure and simple idiot bigot!!!
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JR 5:26PM (4/24/2006)
When I heard of Dateline's knuckle-headed plan for this segment, I immediately boycotted NBC, which I believe is just one of a few ways that the public can attempt to get their point across. I also plan to write to NBC and Dateline producers and also to my congresspeople. As a born and bred Buckeye who transplanted to Tar Heel country two years ago, I've witnessed nothing but southern hospitality here and I'm disgusted with NBC for perpetuating racism and bigotry. They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one but luckily I won't be watching.
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