Not everything seen on the nightly news should be taken as the truth, even when shown on a reputable news station like ABC; everyone knows how sneaky and dangerous video editing can be when footage is put in the wrong hands.

Toyota has asked president of ABC News David Westin to retract and issue an apology for an unfairly reported story by ABC news reporter Brian Ross.

Ross’ report centered on a test conducted by an Illinois professor David Gilbert, which claimed to figure out a way to induce an unintentional acceleration in Toyotas without the triggering of an error code, which would permit the mechanics of the Toyota to diagnose the problem. Gilberts test was intended to show that it is theoretically possible for Toyotas to accelerate without command while failing to show signs of doing so afterwards. Videos like this are the reason why sales at a used Camry Champaign dealership might have spiraled downwards following the recalls.

During the report there is a scene where Ross is driving a Toyota and there is a cut scene that shows an unintended acceleration via a tachometer as it acts uncharacteristically. The video clip of the tachometer was actually filmed while the car was stationary and parked, but the editing team threw it into the scene seamlessly creating the effect as if the tachometer was in fact surging.

After the video was aired, there was concern about its validity and the online news version was eventually reedited to be truthful.

This was not the only aspect of the news story that turned out to be false. When Gilbert conducted the test on the Toyota he had previously reconfigured and rewired the vehicle to respond the way he wanted it to. Gilbert rewired the Toyota to accelerate without command and without generating the error code, which can be done on several other cars including Honda, Subaru, Chevrolet and Ford. The rewiring of the car to gain unfavorable responses was not something unique to Toyota.

None of this was revealed in the aired version of the report. Test drive a Camry for yourself at your local preowned Prius Champaign dealership.