An actual auto critic ... how refreshing!
It's rare to see a member of the 4th Estate, print media, write like a blogger. But Dan Neil, a Pulitzer Prize winning auto critic for the Los Angeles Times, did just that last Wednesday when he lambasted the management of General Motors in a column that didn't mince many words at all.
Neil blasted the Detroit automaker's management for failing to make competitive vehicles, notably slamming the new Pontiac G6 as a "sales flop" despite an unprecedented multimillion dollar promotion coups giveaway on the "Oprah" television show last September. And he called for the resignation of GM's Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner for turning GM into a "morass of a business case" who missed the boat on hybrid vehicle development, handing the business to Honda and Toyota, while planning even more SUVs. "When ballclubs have losing records, players and coaches and managers get their walking papers. At GM, it's time to sweep the dugout," wrote Neil.
It wasn't long before GM caught wind of the article and pulled its advertising from the newspaper, estimated to be a whopping $10 million annually. In reports, GM's spokesman said GM dealers in California were unhappy with the coverage by the Los Angeles Times and that GM is free to advertise or not advertise where it pleases. Harumphhh!
While GM's stock held firm the day Neil's column was printed, as soon as the story about GM pulling it's advertising was picked up by the wire services and put into the hands of readers, GM's stock tanked and pulled the Dow Jones average down with it. On the same day, Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to "sell" from "hold."
Companies often pull their advertising from the media when it contains an unfavorable report about them but they rarely get zapped by the stock market like GM did. GM exacerbated and magnified the column by yanking its ads, and anyone who wasn't paying attention to the management errors at GM soon was.
If you're an employee for a corporation like that and you're caught saying something the company doesn't like, even if true, it does the same to you -- it fires you. My late Uncle Richard used to call that being "Dead right. You're right, but you're dead nonetheless." The "golden handcuffs" are the primary weapons used to keep suppliers and employees in line. The media are addicted to the money, and many times corporations get their way because the media are corporations worrying about the bottom line too. It might be helpful for a corporation to pay off critics in the short term -- or the alternative intimidation technique of threatening and actually cutting off their pay -- but the best solution is to fix the problem(s) that led to the criticism.
Neil is lucky. He's won a Pulitzer Prize for his commentary and so the Los Angeles Times can hardly fire him for speaking his mind. Plus, the Times would lose major face in journalism circles if it caved in to GM intimidation tactics. As they say, a good name is worth more than money.
When I was first starting out in journalism I was scribing for a small weekly newspaper in Connecticut. I was out of the Navy just barely over a year and had yet to earn a degree. I was paid 50 cents per column inch of printed copy and $2 for each photo I had published. It was barely cigarette money but I was doing it primarily for the experience and the clips. And it was at this job I was confronted by my first wrathful advertiser unhappy with an article I'd written.
The towns in this particular area did not have fire departments with paid firefighters. They were all volunteers. When a radio call went out, depending on how bad the fire was, trucks from several towns would show up and help put out the blaze. One time a fire erupted about a mile from the fire station of the little town that I covered. All the volunteer firefighters showed up, but no one thought to remember to bring the firetruck. While they went back to the station to get the truck and their equipment, volunteers and trucks from towns 15 miles away showed up and were able to put out the flames. The truck from the fire station a mile away was the last to arrive on scene. A young couple's gifts being stored in the house for the wedding two days hence were destroyed but no one was hurt.
As you might expect, the volunteer firefighters didn't want this embarassment getting out. But I found out about it and wrote it up for the newspaper. The firefighters were taking a lot of ribbing for it and that got them pretty hot under the collar about my story. They were looking for just about any excuse and I had made one mistake in the story. When firefighters make a "call" they don't do it by telephone they do it by radio. When I interviewed the chief of the volunteer fire department, he said "I called the crew." I paraphased the quote and, thinking I was cleaning up his slang for the newspaper, wrote that he "telephoned" the firefighters.
That was enough of a peg to hang their embarassment on and a jewelry store in town, owned by a relative of a firefighter, cancelled its advertising in the paper claiming story inaccuracies. The editor and publisher, both in their early 30s, stood by me and I'll always appreciate that support. A retraction was printed clarifying that the chief had radioed his crew and did not telephone them, and shortly thereafter the advertising was back. Apparently the laughter had died down to a dull roar by then. The burned wedding presents were replaced, and some new ones were added including a few donated by some red-faced firefighters. I don't recall them ever again forgetting the firetruck.
---Neil blasted the Detroit automaker's management for failing to make competitive vehicles, notably slamming the new Pontiac G6 as a "sales flop" despite an unprecedented multimillion dollar promotion coups giveaway on the "Oprah" television show last September. And he called for the resignation of GM's Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner for turning GM into a "morass of a business case" who missed the boat on hybrid vehicle development, handing the business to Honda and Toyota, while planning even more SUVs. "When ballclubs have losing records, players and coaches and managers get their walking papers. At GM, it's time to sweep the dugout," wrote Neil.
It wasn't long before GM caught wind of the article and pulled its advertising from the newspaper, estimated to be a whopping $10 million annually. In reports, GM's spokesman said GM dealers in California were unhappy with the coverage by the Los Angeles Times and that GM is free to advertise or not advertise where it pleases. Harumphhh!
While GM's stock held firm the day Neil's column was printed, as soon as the story about GM pulling it's advertising was picked up by the wire services and put into the hands of readers, GM's stock tanked and pulled the Dow Jones average down with it. On the same day, Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to "sell" from "hold."
Companies often pull their advertising from the media when it contains an unfavorable report about them but they rarely get zapped by the stock market like GM did. GM exacerbated and magnified the column by yanking its ads, and anyone who wasn't paying attention to the management errors at GM soon was.
If you're an employee for a corporation like that and you're caught saying something the company doesn't like, even if true, it does the same to you -- it fires you. My late Uncle Richard used to call that being "Dead right. You're right, but you're dead nonetheless." The "golden handcuffs" are the primary weapons used to keep suppliers and employees in line. The media are addicted to the money, and many times corporations get their way because the media are corporations worrying about the bottom line too. It might be helpful for a corporation to pay off critics in the short term -- or the alternative intimidation technique of threatening and actually cutting off their pay -- but the best solution is to fix the problem(s) that led to the criticism.
Neil is lucky. He's won a Pulitzer Prize for his commentary and so the Los Angeles Times can hardly fire him for speaking his mind. Plus, the Times would lose major face in journalism circles if it caved in to GM intimidation tactics. As they say, a good name is worth more than money.
When I was first starting out in journalism I was scribing for a small weekly newspaper in Connecticut. I was out of the Navy just barely over a year and had yet to earn a degree. I was paid 50 cents per column inch of printed copy and $2 for each photo I had published. It was barely cigarette money but I was doing it primarily for the experience and the clips. And it was at this job I was confronted by my first wrathful advertiser unhappy with an article I'd written.
The towns in this particular area did not have fire departments with paid firefighters. They were all volunteers. When a radio call went out, depending on how bad the fire was, trucks from several towns would show up and help put out the blaze. One time a fire erupted about a mile from the fire station of the little town that I covered. All the volunteer firefighters showed up, but no one thought to remember to bring the firetruck. While they went back to the station to get the truck and their equipment, volunteers and trucks from towns 15 miles away showed up and were able to put out the flames. The truck from the fire station a mile away was the last to arrive on scene. A young couple's gifts being stored in the house for the wedding two days hence were destroyed but no one was hurt.
As you might expect, the volunteer firefighters didn't want this embarassment getting out. But I found out about it and wrote it up for the newspaper. The firefighters were taking a lot of ribbing for it and that got them pretty hot under the collar about my story. They were looking for just about any excuse and I had made one mistake in the story. When firefighters make a "call" they don't do it by telephone they do it by radio. When I interviewed the chief of the volunteer fire department, he said "I called the crew." I paraphased the quote and, thinking I was cleaning up his slang for the newspaper, wrote that he "telephoned" the firefighters.
That was enough of a peg to hang their embarassment on and a jewelry store in town, owned by a relative of a firefighter, cancelled its advertising in the paper claiming story inaccuracies. The editor and publisher, both in their early 30s, stood by me and I'll always appreciate that support. A retraction was printed clarifying that the chief had radioed his crew and did not telephone them, and shortly thereafter the advertising was back. Apparently the laughter had died down to a dull roar by then. The burned wedding presents were replaced, and some new ones were added including a few donated by some red-faced firefighters. I don't recall them ever again forgetting the firetruck.
Time for some western style payback: A group of county commissioners from western states including Utah and Nevada are petitioning to have the Northern Snakehead declared an endangered species. If you don't recall this particular fish, it is native to Vietnam but has been found in rivers on the eastern coast of the U.S., presumably dumped there by people who had kept them as pets. Because of the Snakehead's voracious appetite and its ability to walk on land as well as swim, it's been dubbed by the media as "Frankenfish." Thousands of dollars were spent last year in Maryland trying to remove the fish from local ponds. To the eastcoasters, the fish is a menace and that's why the commissioners want to have it on the endangered species list, the Washington Times reports. Folk on the east coast meddle in the affairs of western residents, getting all sorts of pests declared endangered, the commissioners say, and this is just their way to give some people back east a taste of their own medicine. While it's doubtful the Snakehead will be made an endangered species, the commissioners are hoping just to get the point across.
---
I have updated my post: Here's my report on clo*(*($@#$%^@# Marketplace reporter Cathy Duchamp checked in with The 6th Estate and provided us with a hyperlink to the transcript of her story on closed captioning placed on her radio station's web site.
---
Porn spam Easter egg of the day:
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
posted by NEWS4A2, blood-sucking journalist @ 21:55
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home