Columnists Slam Phones In Cars
By Bill Menezes

Texas cattlemen had Oprah, now the wireless industry has Click and Clack.

Car advice pundits Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Boston-accented voices behind the nationally syndicated "Car Talk" newspaper column and radio show, slammed the use of cellular phones while driving as "immoral, unethical, inconsiderate and downright stupid."

"I know we're going to get tons of hate mail, but that's our position," Ray Magliozzi wrote in a column released for publication in the last week of November. "We think cell phones in cars are unsafe."

The latest broadside by the Magliozzi brothers (also known as Click and Clack, the Tappit Brothers) may not exactly rank with Oprah Winfrey's disparaging remarks about beef during a 1996 show she did about mad cow disease. Those words landed the media giant in Texas court after several cattle producers sued her for defamation, a case the industry lost last February.

But with a weekly column appearing internationally in some 300 newspapers plus their weekly, hour-long talk show syndicated to 500 National Public Radio affiliates, the Magliozzis may have one of the broadest public audiences of anyone criticizing the use of car phones as dangerous.

"It's a very serious issue, and they intended to be provocative about it," Doug Berman, "Car Talk's" producer, said of the column. "They expect a response. It's our opinion these things ought to be illegal to use while driving."

Several government academic studies have raised questions in the past two years about the effect of car phones on driver safety, with no conclusive answers.

Concurrently a number of state lawmakers have unsuccessfully proposed laws to prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving.

"I do feel very strongly that when somebody has that kind of an audience it borders on irresponsible to jump to these kinds of erroneous conclusions that are not based on any kinds of facts," PCIA spokeswoman Brenda Maxfield said when asked about the column.

The industry has addressed the issue primarily with an education campaign stressing the responsible use of phones in vehicles and by pointing out the safety benefits of having the phone handy in case of a crime or accident, a point supported by numerous law enforcement agencies.

"We've worked with states and localities before to educate consumers," said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. "Taking a stance that effectively would encourage people not to have their phones in their car is potentially anti-safety."

"I think what Tom and Ray would say to that is it's the equivalent of the alcoholic beverage industry saying, 'Know When to Say When,'" Berman said. "It's a public service campaign designed to blunt the type of criticism Tom and Ray are levying."