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I know I'm not really an auto journalist. That's okay with me. I'm on a different track right now. But I do want to point something out that I've noticed over the past few days about the outlets I follow that has really frustrated me:
There has been no coverage of the "convoys."
There has been no coverage of the "convoys."
These convoys, no matter if they're in Texas or New Jersey, represent the very nexus between cars (our beat) and the political circumstances we're living through.
You can't understand them properly without the expertise our community holds. We have a responsibility to share it.
You can't understand them properly without the expertise our community holds. We have a responsibility to share it.
We can help people understand the roots of this kind of behavior, the dangers it entails, the forms of recourse authorities have to stop it, and the damage it does to the car culture we love so much.
So it's surprising that I haven't seen much if any coverage of these events from our publications.
Have some outlets been told to "stick to sports"? Maybe. But it's clear that's no argument rooted in traffic stats.
Have some outlets been told to "stick to sports"? Maybe. But it's clear that's no argument rooted in traffic stats.
My humble blog about the car-rammings at Black Lives Matter protests was one of my best-performing during my short tenure, and anyone who saw the chartbeat stats knew Deadspin did better when it looked at hard issues. You know, before.
So what's the excuse? We can afford some bullshit dissent in the comments by people who somehow don't see the danger in these convoys' behavior. That typically sorts itself out.
But if we can be honest about the problems that vehicles like the Ram TRX or the Hummer EV represent, we can be clear with readers about how unacceptable this behavior is as well.
I recognize that this is not simple for every outlet. There are readership demographic issues that come up. But if your argument is "What if our readership doesn't like the reporting we do on this?" I think there is a real question as to whether you're doing journalism any more.
I’m glad that @JasonTorchinsky has made sure there’s a lot of framework in place to start talking about this. Thanks Jason. https://twitter.com/2fast2finkel/status/1323338481192607744
