THUMB AWARDS

Thumbs up: To Channel 4 for a strong series on auto repair fraud that actually named names. Television news ought to be more than color radar and happy talk. After getting blitzed in the ratings, Channel 4 seems to have chosen the right way to recoup.

Thumbs up: To Fred K. New-berry, a Dallas stockbroker who spent four years and $2000 combatting a DWI charge. Originally given a three-day sentence and a $50 fine reduced to probation, Newber-ry fought the conviction and eventually won a reversal. The DA’s office wanted to retry the case, but was persuaded by Police Chief Don Byrd to drop the charges. Turns out one of the arresting officers was lying.

Thumbs down: To the Dallas Police Department for covering up the reasons for the dismissal of Newberry’s DWI charge. The facts came out only after the state attorney general ruled that certain details of police internal affairs investigations must be made public. The perjured officer received a 30-day suspension.

Thumbs up: To the Better Business Bureau for nailing Eagle Clothes of New York, the bankrupt parent company of Dallas’s E.M. Kahn stores. Eagle was advertising $120 Pierre Cardin suits it didn’t have in stock, and claiming that it would give away $65 digital watches with clothing purchases. When customers complained that they were denied watches, one company official said that when people in New York say “clothing” they mean something different than people in Dallas do. The BBB, sometimes a toothless watchdog, seems to have gotten a good bite on the hucksters: After the Bureau publicized the fraud, the state attorney general’s office obtained an injunction stopping the ads.