A N.Y. Times Opinion piece published today compares Tesla unfavorably with Ford. It’s a PR hit job on many levels from substantive to personal. I don’t care about either company (I don’t have a dog in this fight) but anyone who does might want to read it.
Freedom of the press and everything, but I’m not sure a garbage can full of assorted hits is up to the standard of “The Gray Lady” or fair to a company that makes products for a competitive marketplace.
Will it influence any car purchases? Who knows? When I’m in the market for a car I read Edmunds reviews, not The New York Times editorials.
Wendy
I suppose you might blame the NYTimes for the “opinion essay from a Car & Driver Magazine columnist” but I wouldn’t. Like blaming my local paper for the rants my aunt would send in monthly. Choosing to publish the opinion could just be getting alternate views out in to the public eye.
We already have enough Tesla cult members on the board.
I give a lot of room to opinion pieces not being representative of the paper. Even if one of the reporters issues the opinions.
Stirring some thought? More like it. Ford’s EV are good products. This is a reality Tesla will face more and more. Musk one day will be his own liability.
When the headline is fatuous and factually incorrect, it’s a pretty good indicator that the article is too. Not going to pay for a subscription to read another piece from that slanted rag.
It was mostly the usual BS delivered without actually lying. You know, the “Teslas catch fire!!” statements, while leaving out the “at 1/10 the rate of ICE cars.” Plus the typical smears and insinuations.
The only actual lie that I noticed on a quick reading was the claim that Musk said they wouldn’t deliver the Cybertruck this year. That’s patently false. Perhaps it could be made truthy by quoting something said Musk last year? Except there was no quote.
In any case, the opinion piece was pretty much BS. The NYT should be ashamed to give that sort of nonsense a platform. But then, they do just as bad or worse themselves in what they pass off as actual reporting on Tesla, so my expectations are very low.
This runs into the problem of censorship. I like Musk’s approach at Twitter, publish anything that’s legal, anything that does not violate the various speech laws, slander, defamation, copyright, etc.
Ford does not advertise in newspapers. Some dealers may, but Ford puts nearly all its marketing budget into broadcast, with a few drips for specialty magazines. In fact, Ford devotes so much of its ad budget to TV that it is one of the largest customers in the television business.
Doesn’t that included bigotries? Or saying things about political opponents that are mean lies? Or being publicly misogynistic? Seems there is plenty of slander and defamation on Twitter now.
New York Times Company owns more than just newspapers. But I wasn’t insinuating that it’s because Tesla specifically doesn’t advertise in the NYT newspaper, I was insinuating that media generally sticks together and gives more favorable coverage, and certainly gives more benefit of the doubt, to those who advertise than to those who do not advertise.
Actually I have become much more interested in suggesting it to African American leaders I know. Maybe we shall see such cases. Should be entertaining to watch. I can tell you right now who will most often lose.
Having lived in - and around - newsrooms for 40 years I can assure you that it’s the reverse. I have yet to meet people in the newsroom who aren’t automatically suspicious, nosy, and distrustful of the sales/corporate side of the business. And there are arch conservatives as well as screaming liberals and I have worked with hundreds and if there is a defining characteristic, it is not to give space to someone just because they are an advertiser.
Has it ever happened? Surely, but if/when it does it’s rare. Perhaps Tucker Carlson and that cohort excepted.
I had a boss open a restaurant twenty years ago. The first thing she did was make advertising agreements with three smaller newspapers. The agreements were for a full news story, front cover or page depending, and at least two pictures front cover and in the story. The papers gave it to her at the cost of the monthly ad contract. She got her restaurant off and running at full speed. She got that from another restaurant owner we knew.
