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GM & me, by Dan Neil Posted by JohnA [Email] (#426) [Profile/Gallery] (more from JohnA) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:32:31 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Considering the momentous events of the last week, I feel obliged to make one more notation on the General Motors Corp. bankruptcy because it might appear to put me in a ticklish position.
My job is to review automobiles without fear or favor. This is an obligation I take seriously, even if I try to do it with a light touch. Journalists are not allowed to own stock in companies that they cover precisely to avoid a conflict of interest. But behold, now that the federal government is the majority owner of GM, I am at least by proxy a stakeholder in GM. And so are you.
So where does that leave us? What if I detest the next GM vehicle I drive (it's happened before). Will I feel completely at liberty to tell you it's substandard and uncompetitive, and will you want to hear it, knowing that -- regardless of the vehicle's merits and demerits -- your tax dollars hang in the balance?
I've already gotten e-mails from readers winding me up about what they perceive as my bias against GM, which is an absolute fiction, by the way. In any event, would bias toward GM be any more acceptable?
And what if I think some future product of the company is outstanding? No matter what, won't that read as a kind of boosterism?
This wasn't an issue with Chrysler, because the ownership transfers to Fiat and because -- well, how to put this delicately -- everything Chrysler makes besides the Ram truck constitutes a rainbow of awful.
As for GM, the best thing I can do for the company is to be honest. If that means breaking out the old flamethrower, so be it.
I will welcome the day when I, as a taxpayer, get out of the car business.
The 2010 Jaguar XFR: Hel-looo Kitty!
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