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American Morning

Ford and Firestone Square Off on Capitol Hill

Aired June 19, 2001 - 10:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ford and Firestone are squaring off on Capitol Hill at hearings this morning. At issue, who is to blame for deadly rollover accidents in Ford vehicles with certain Firestone tires. More than 200 people have died in those accidents. Law makers want answers from the chief executives of both companies.

For some insights on public opinion about the Ford/Firestone very public fight, let's check in now with our Gallup poll editor-in-chief, Frank Newport, who is in Princeton, New Jersey. Frank, good morning.

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Daryn. We didn't ask the American public who is to blame in the dispute between Ford and Firestone, but we did ask some image questions just to get an initial feel for how the public is reacting to the two companies. All in all, as I'll show you, it looks like the bigger Ford Motor Company is, at least so far, coming out with a better image than Firestone/Bridgestone.

First of all, we ask a favorable/unfavorable question about the two products that are at issue here. This is the Ford Explorers here, this is Firestone tires. Neither has a pretty good image. Notice the red bar is unfavorable for the Explorer, 51 percent. Unfavorable for Firestone tires, 64. So the two products at issue both have unfavorable images just from the average American.

Now, we then asked also a split sample half about the two companies involved and this isn't surprising. For Bridgestone/Firestone, you can see more negative than positive on image overall. For the Ford Motor Company, more positive than negative. Part of it is, of course, that the Explorer is just one of many, many product offerings over here. Over here, this whole company is built around tires. We think that's partially why we find this differential.

And, of course, the two CEOs are going to be squaring off with one another, so we did ask Americans if it came down to a dispute between the two entities, whose side would you be more likely to tilt towards? And just as we saw previously, at least at this point the public would tilt more to the Ford Motor Company in terms of the believability than they would Firestone/Bridgestone. Quite a few Americans say they don't have an opinion. We'll see what happens after the testimony -- Daryn, Leon, back to you.

KAGAN: Frank, thanks so much. LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Frank.

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