'60 Minutes' admits error in dubbing noises over quiet Tesla electric car

The Associated Press
April 1, 2014 at 5:21PM

NEW YORK — CBS News says an editor made an "audio error" in dubbing the sound of a loud traditional car engine over footage of the much quieter Tesla electric car in a "60 Minutes" story that aired Sunday.

Spokesman Kevin Tedesco said Tuesday the loud car audio has been edited out of the online version of the story on Tesla founder Elon Musk. Anchor Scott Pelley reported the story, and CBS said he wasn't aware of the added audio ahead of time.

The revving sound, as opposed to the much quieter windlike noise of a Tesla, was noticed by the auto enthusiast website Jalopnik.com. Writer Robert Sorokanich said it almost sounded like a motorcycle.

"It's one thing to dub exciting motor noises over a mundane-sounding car, but to plop engine sounds on a car that most folks realize is nearly silent? That just seems ... bizarre," he wrote.

Tesla had no comment on the editing, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

It's been a rough year at television's most popular newsmagazine, with correspondent Lara Logan still on leave after an internal CBS report questioned her reporting and objectivity on a story about an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Critics also questioned the show's reporting on stories involving the National Security Agency and Amazon.

about the writer

about the writer

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
card image
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece