Some of you might have read my post yesterday on TTAC. I don’t have anything else to say about the gentleman (I don’t want to help his SEO presence any more than I already have) in question or his “work,” as I believe that it speaks for itself.
However, I feel that there’s a gap between what I would call the real writers in this business of automotive writing and the, well…I won’t use the word that Katt Williams would use. I’ll call them the Frauds.
I’m thankful that Mark Stevenson, my Managing Editor, has given me the space on TTAC to mercilessly expose the “writers” who suck on the collective teat of the OEMs for their very sustenance. I was text messaged by no fewer than five writers whose opinions I greatly respect yesterday, all saying that they wished they could do the same. I don’t take that freedom lightly.
I do, however, feel uncomfortable at times with the notion that there are truths that some don’t want to say. If there’s a Fraud out there, writing reviews about cars that are nothing more than copy/paste jobs from the press kits, why shouldn’t he or she be exposed? Why does it take a “Bark” to do it?
I can tell you why. It’s because there are very, very few writers in the automotive space who can craft a story out of thin air. Sam Smith can do it. Obviously, my brother can do it. Alex Roy is a marvelous storyteller. To his credit, Doug Demuro has been able to create quite a following by simply telling stories—all of his car reviews get sold to Autotrader, and they lack any “voice” whatsoever.
Most other writers need a new car to talk about every week, or they die on the vine. I have to write an editorial every Thursday at TTAC. Every single one of those pieces—and I’ve done several dozen now—has been the product of my own diseased and warped mind. I’m incredibly grateful that I had to come up that way in this biz, because it made me a stronger writer.
I’ve never gotten a press car from a fleet—partially because I live in the middle of nowhere, partially because I used to believe it could be a conflict of interest, but mostly because I just don’t want to become a car reviewer. Once you become that, it’s insanely difficult to become anything else.
I’ve done car reviews for Jalopnik, and I’m going to be doing another press event for them next month. I enjoy doing them—who wouldn’t enjoy an all-expenses paid trip to rag out somebody else’s car on track?—but I don’t ever want that to become my “brand.”
The gentleman I wrote about yesterday and his ilk could no more write a compelling story or present a case for change than they could stick to an exercise regimen. When the cars dry up, so do their paychecks.
Of course they’re Frauds. Of course they quote the playbook directly. Because they all know that it could all be taken away from them in an instant—the minute an OEM or a fleet manager decides that they don’t get cars any more, they don’t have a job.
But, damnit, what if they took a stand and decided to give real feedback for once? What if they weren’t afraid to say a car was terrible? What it, with one voice, the Frauds united and said, “We’ve had enough! We’re going to tell the Truth!”
Nah, we all know that won’t ever happen.
But there’s a war going on. Between the real writers and the Frauds. And the Frauds are getting stronger every day. I think it’s time the real writers united, too. Don’t just tell me you support me. Lend your voice and call them out. Travis Okulski did it. Mark Stevenson did it. You can too.