On Feb. 8, General Motors announced it was suing NBC over a "Dateline NBC" program that showed a GM truck with side-mounted fuel tanks bursting into flames during a crash test. 
   Although GM had lost a Georgia case over the safety of the side-mounted gas tanks, GM maintained its trucks were safe. The automaker  used a nationally-televised news conference to show how the truck in the NBC story was rigged to explode with toy rocket motors.
   NBC paid GM $2 million and apologized for the misrepresentations. GM dropped its suit.