`DATELINE' LOSES DEFAMATION SUIT

BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- ``Dateline NBC'' defamed a trucker and a trucking
company in a story about safety violations and must pay $525,000 in
damages, a jury ruled Wednesday.

Trucker Peter Kennedy and the owners of Classic Carriers, Raymond and Kathy
Veilleux, accused show staffers of misleading them into thinking they were
participating in a positive story on the trucking industry.

Instead, they said, they were defamed by the two-part series, ``Keep on
Truckin','' which depicted safety violations during a cross-country trip.

Jurors agreed, finding the network and the show had committed negligence,
misrepresentation and emotional distress.

It awarded $300,000 to Veilleux, $50,000 to his wife and $175,000 to Kennedy.

NBC insisted the only promise it made was to accurately report on a
cross-country trip that a film crew made with Kennedy. NBC also said
Kennedy admitted falsifying his log during the trip so he could drive more
consecutive hours than legally allowed.

``We're not asking you to accord us any special rights, but we are asking
that we be protected when we report the truth,'' Bernard Kubetz, a lawyer
representing the network, told jurors in closing arguments Tuesday.

But plaintiffs' attorney Bill Robitzek, in his closing argument, said,
``The press has no special protection under the laws of the United States.''

``They are not immune. They're not exempt. If they do something wrong, they
can be brought here and held accountable,'' Robitzek said.

Jurors deliberated 4 1/2 hours Tuesday, then returned for another 5 hours
of deliberations before returning their verdict.

Kubetz said he was considering whether to appeal.

The two-week civil trial in U.S. District Court was held amid a string of
embarrassments by major media companies.

CNN retracted its story that the U.S. military used nerve gas during a
Vietnam, and the Cincinnati Enquirer apologized to Chiquita Brands
International Inc. and renounced stories it wrote about the company's
business practices in Central America.

Last month, a Boston Globe columnist resigned after admitting she made up
people and quotations. In May, editors at The New Republic apologized after
discovering an associate editor fabricated stories.

The 1995 ``Dateline'' program stemmed from an accident in which a rig
driven by a trucker who falsified his logbook veered into the breakdown
lane of the Maine Turnpike and killed four teen-agers parked in a car.

``Dateline NBC'' followed up by traveling with Kennedy, who had nothing to
do with the fatal accident. It reported that Kennedy called his logbook a
``joke book'' and drove from Chicago to Boston without stopping to sleep.

Daphne Izer, one of the founders of Parents Against Tired Truckers, said
she hoped the ruling did not deter future stories. ``We need that
awareness. The public needs to know what's going on out there, and that's
what Peter Kennedy was all about,'' she said after the verdict.