Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September/October edition of Dealer magazine

Journalism, by definition, is impartial, with reporters bound by their sacred oath to write just the facts—not swayed by bias, opinion, personal gain or profit.

Unfortunately, the readers can no longer trust the press or worse, they select only sources that expresses their own personal opinion slanted to agree with their politics or religious beliefs.

Feeding the beast, most reporters and publications today have strayed so far from reporting the news it is pure fantasy. No longer the truth but rather a Grimm Fairytale manufactured by the whims of the writers no longer resembling journalism.

Readers and viewers no longer expect the truth from the sources they choose but rather they select the media, print, and broadcast sources that serve some semblance of truth. It’s not just the car business—the media corruption has invaded every medium to the point where the public no longer trusts any reporters.

Hey Mr. DJ

Fifty years ago, I settled down and began my career in the retail automotive industry. Granted, I had started off as a disc jockey and an executive in the radio business. It was only by fate following the result from a painful divorce that caused me to shift careers, and I landed in the car business. Car sales was never meant to be a permanent job. I was only going to do this for a short time and return to radio.

As a write these words, I am smiling as I remember my impression of the car business. The money was crazy. As a car salesman I was making more than I had ever made as a top executive in one of the largest, most successful radio stations in the country.

While I had planned to go back to radio, the car business was sucking me in. And I was really good at it. Of course, my ability to craft scripts and speak to audiences was a talent I had carried over from the radio business. I have always been a flamboyant, larger-than-life character, a showoff and exhibitionist; this was an ingrained talent left over from being disc jockey.

Maintaining Standards

But regardless of my brash mannerisms, I’ve always held myself to the highest levels of honesty and integrity.

Since I was in high school, I have been talented writer. It was something that caused me to excel as in the radio business, and even though that talent was still suppressed in the car business, it was still deep inside screaming to get out.

I consider myself a journalist to this day. There I admitted it. When I left the retail side of the car business and started my own company, I began writing for car business magazines. As an award-winning journalist, I have written columns for five major magazines in the automobile industry over the last 40 years.

I am still a voracious reader of everything published in automotive business , U.S. and Canadian as well as several overseas publications.

All of this is to state: I AM ASHAMED OF WHAT IS CURRENTLY WRITTEN IN AUTOMOBILE PUBLICATIONS.

It wasn’t always this way. I’ve been reading these publications since the 1970s. Let me make this perfectly clear, these are my personal opinions. I’m talking about a number of the magazines and other publications written by alleged journalists., editors, and owners. I read all of the Detroit publications as well as European releases—the most correct in my opinion.

Electric Vehicle Politics

What I’m talking about is the high stakes game of EV cars, SUVs and trucks that politicians, vendors, and manufacturers have a lot of money on the table for. I’m going to lay it out and you can search your heart for what seems right. I might be wrong but let’s take a look at the facts that might seem to be misrepresented by several media sources.

In January 2021, there was a new U.S. President and a radical shift of politics when it comes to the automobile industry. Most notably, gasoline powered cars and trucks would be outlawed in most states. Petroleum pumping in the U.S. would be set down and alternative sources of energy, wind and solar farms, would be expanded. The Green New Deal.

Here’s where it went sideways. In a number of Executive Orders, the Biden Administration created a $7,500 rebate/tax credit. The manufacturers and the vendors weren’t crazy. “Free Money” to build EVs, notably from the Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Virtually every manufacturer except Toyota was playing the game.

Automakers Reaction

Jim Farley at Ford Motor company looked at his hand and went “All In” to the center of the table—including building Ford’s Blue Oval City a massive, $6 billion, six-square-mile electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturing complex in Tennessee. Ford was All In and throwing billions at EV production.

General Motors was a little more cautious but still had a lot of chips in the center of the table. They committed Cadillac and Buick to total EV production (lesser selling vehicles) but only some Chevys and other models were totally committed. I had it from inside sources that GM was still hedging the bet that the politics might change in the next election.

Remember, although GM was hedging the bet, Ford pushed all of the chips in perhaps because the Ford family is staunchly committed to one political party.

Ford’s Farley went so far as to give the dealers an option to commit $1 million to EV shift in their dealerships. They had a reasonable amount of time to make this commitment, thankfully most of them held back and relayed the commitment. Ford lost $4.7 billion on EV sales last year alone. That’s not counting the billions of plants and other invests in EVs.

EV Fire—and Lack Therefore

Unfortunately, there was a problem with EV sales. The public wasn’t playing. There was, and still is many reasons why the public isn’t buying and won’t buy an Electric Car.

First there was two carrier ships where EV luxury cars were destroyed, and the fires couldn’t be extinguished. Then the news continued breaking where literally hundreds of EVs were catching fire in a myriad of different circumstances, including residential homes and parking garages.

But beyond the issue of fires, car buyers are worried about:

1. Affordability, as EVs cost considerably more than ICE cars, SUVs and trucks.
2. Range, most manufactures quotes have been found to be false and were made to revise. Plus, any accessories turned on dramatically reduces range and cold weather climate greatly reduces the range to near zero—an EV in Wyoming would be absurd.
3. Can’t find a place to charge. Even with the deal with Tesla charging stations, you still have to go out of your way to find a changer. When you get there, many of the chargers are broken.
4. Charging takes too long, and drivers have to wait for other customers to charge their EV.
5. It’s expensive to charge an EV at home and dangerous to burning your home down. Plus, you have to pay a lot to change your electric home fitting for an EV.
6. Batteries cost upwards of $10,000 to change, usually after eight years. The vehicle is worth a lot less used after part of the battery is used up. Used EVs have a great used car loss because trade in is worth less.
7. Slightly chipped battery causes extreme danger and requires total change immediately.
8. EVs is that because most battery production is coming China, as is most minerals.
9. Insurance is three times as much as regular ICE vehicles.

Seeking Truth on EVs

So, we know a lot of reasons why the public is rejecting EVs. They don’t want to buy them and they’re staying away from them. Here’s where journalistic corruption, vendors and political power come into play.

The answer should be obvious. That answer is they don’t want to risk losing a lot of way if politics takes a sharp turn.

Every publication, page after page, wonderful photos and articles about EVs. All of the articles in every publication seems as if the publishers, editors and alleged journalists didn’t get the message. Excuse me guys and gals … “EVs are dead, everybody’s switching to Hybrids. EVs aren’t selling, the manufacturers are closing plants. The party’s over.”

I’ll tell you why. Panic is setting in; they are scared to death that perhaps another political party might win the election—especially the vendors, who are also the advertisers. I have never seen so much downright shameful journalism at supporting protection. The union is supposed to do that but not a publication that claims to be journalism. Vendors that are pocketing huge amounts of money are in danger of losing everything.

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