I couldn't agree more with your last sentence (The media should stop printing what "they think" as fact!)! Unfortunately, they do alot of that in all kinds of areas. I studied journalism in college, and I can't believe alot of what passes as "news" these days. The writers are either too lazy to do the research, or can't get details, so they just fill in the blanks. It's even worse that their editors then approve the stuff and print it!
I love Pontiac, and always have. I don't know what I would do if they went away, or didn't offer a vehicle to meet my needs. That would be a very sad day for me. I hate to feel selfish, but I will. I just saw a G8 GXP in person at the Chicago Auto Show yesterday, and as long as I can buy mine next spring as planned, I can deal with whatever happens. I hang on to my vehicles, so I won't need to worry about what to do next for another 10 - 12 years!
__________________
Joe Morgan
'93 Sunbird SE 3.1/5-speed 14.869 @ 90.96
'00 Grand Prix GTP Sedan 13.689 @ 100.97
2009.5 G8 GXP WH 6M onyx/red no roof 13.043 @ 109.19 BONE STOCK!
If you watched the NBC world news tonight with Brian Williams you would think Pontiac just shut the doors today. The graphic was "Pontiac End of the Line" I just watched it again and if you listen closely he did say the brand is being demoted, but if you missed the word demoted you would think that Pontiac is no more. The guy they interviewed was looking back on the older models and speaking of the cars as if the line is completely dead. At the end they just said what a good ride it WAS....The media skews things so badly....That story will do nothing more than scare away more people that may have purchased GM vehicles...I love my 09 G8 GT and just hope that that story and other similar stories being posted are not a self-fulling prophecy....The more you put it out there in the media, the more people talk about it and the more people begin to believe it...Just yesterday at work I had someone tell me Pontiac was closing and had to explain that as of right now, that is not the case. So annoying...
If you watched the NBC world news tonight with Brian Williams you would think Pontiac just shut the doors today. The graphic was "Pontiac End of the Line" I just watched it again and if you listen closely he did say the brand is being demoted, but if you missed the word demoted you would think that Pontiac is no more. The guy they interviewed was looking back on the older models and speaking of the cars as if the line is completely dead. At the end they just said what a good ride it WAS....The media skews things so badly....That story will do nothing more than scare away more people that may have purchased GM vehicles...I love my 09 G8 GT and just hope that that story and other similar stories being posted are not a self-fulling prophecy....The more you put it out there in the media, the more people talk about it and the more people begin to believe it...Just yesterday at work I had someone tell me Pontiac was closing and had to explain that as of right now, that is not the case. So annoying...
I watched it also, and almost choked on the stuffed burrito I was eating!! The way they presented it along with that "end of the line" header was without a doubt saying nothing more than Pontiac is finished! Talk about spinning the facts!
Location: SE Michigan and SW Florida (thus the name Snowbird!)
Posts: 245
NBC owes all its viewers a clarification or correction!
As far as I'm concerned, Brian Williams should be the one at the "End of the Line."
He's not just anchor, but also managing editor of NBC's evening news. To have a lasting background graphic saying one thing (End of the Line) while he says only another ("demoted") is amateurish and confusing at least. If the Pontiac brand will continue at all, then it's flat out misleading and inaccurate, aka WRONG. The duplicity reminds me of Bush on the aircraft carrier years ago, with the "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him -- but he never uttered those words.
Maybe we should watch NBC News on Saturday night, for a possible "clarification." Or maybe Sunday. Or maybe they'll wait until Lyin, er I mean Brian, returns on Monday, so that he can eat the words himself.
I may help the process along a little if I can find a way to email some mucky-muck at 30 Rockefeller Plaza or wherever the hell they are. Maybe some here will join me?
__________________ Snowbird who flies in a G8 GT.
RS 6 is gone but not forgotten ... a true supercar until the warranty ran out.
Last edited by Snowbird; 02-20-2009 at 11:12 PM.
Reason: add duplicity
I may help the process along a little if I can find a way to email some mucky-muck at 30 Rockefeller Plaza or wherever the hell they are. Maybe some here will join me?
It implies that Pontiac has ceased to exist, dead, finished. Not exactly the truth. Anyone who watched the story this evening may not even consider Pontiac now, thinking that they are gone. They should clearify their story but who knows....
Funny, absent from their story was the G8, which they could have angled as comeback performance sedan for around $30K.
__________________ 2009 G8 GT PSM
From page 8-7 in the G8 Owners Manual - "If more power is needed for passing, and the vehicle is going about 35MPH or more, push the accelerator all the way down"
Here's the email I just sent to nightly@nbc.com. I encourage others to do the same and pass the word along.
Your story last evening regarding Pontiac with the graphic showing End of the Line is VERY misleading. Brian Williams did mention once VERY BRIEFLY that the brand is being demoted, but the general public probably did not hear that word, will have no idea what that means and will not do further research to figure it out either. After watching that story the only conclusion that could have been reached would have been that Pontiac was shutting it's doors and not selling vehicles any longer. At a time when the US automakers are barely able to survive, it is very irresponsible to run a story like that which was very close to being flat out wrong. The story could have easily been presented in a positive light. It could have been stated that Pontiac will be focusing on a niche brand of performance oriented vehicles which will appeal to a completely new generation of car enthusiasts. Instead you decided to stick with the same old doom and gloom and contribute to the problem rather than to try and put a positive spin on things.
I sent a link to the online story to several members of my family and just randomly asked them to watch the article and tell me what they thought. These are college educated, well informed members of society...Here are their responses: "I think it means that Pontiac cars are going away, no more." "Sounds like they had a good run but can't keep up and will be shutting down as a result" "Wow, Pontiac is closing...I didn't even hear about that."
As you can plainly see, running that story you are doing a disservice to the public and GM and it's thousands of employees, some with their livelihood hanging by a string. That story could literally put additional people out of work. I really believe you need to run a follow-up story apologizing and present the facts, that Pontiac is not closing it's doors. Either present the facts as we know them right now, that they are planning to run Pontiac as a niche brand under the Buick/GMC/Pontiac umbrella with fewer offerings or better yet, conduct an interview with Rick Wagoner and ask him directly what the fate of Pontiac will be going forward and which models are targeted to remain.
Thanks for your time and I hope that you will run a follow-up story on the Monday evening news to present the facts.
To the astonished: News (TV, Newspaper, & some magazines) as it currently exists in this world, is not meant to inform or give a lift to your day, or to make you feel better, or be accurate or objective. It has really about two purposes only, and those are #1: to get the attention of as many minds as possible; #2: to influence those minds to make them unhappy with what's going on and to feel that the environment is dangerous and unsafe, with the side effect that nothing can be done about anything anyway (which is completely untrue). This is accomplished by creating as much sensationalism as is possible (as much as people will stomach) so as to attract attention and get you to watch them (the more that watch them the more money they make from advertising) or read them (helps them sell newspapers) ... which is done by creating stories, embellishing them, creating controversy where there was none to begin with, praying on people's natural fears by getting the object of their "news" to be looked at scornfully, hatefully, or fearfully. I guess that about covers it.
Unfortunatly the people that run TV news have no moral compass.
All they want is money. They are as bad as the people that put our economy in this mess. No, strike that THEY are as responsible as the banks and government that PUT us in this.
We gave them the freedom and responsibility to inform our free union with accurate news, too keep us free from people and governments that would try to control us by distorting the truth. Instead, our news departments have become sensationalist money grubbing corps that have no moral problem ONLY reporting what they think people want to hear.
Money is a huge part, alot of managers in media have a sales background instead of a media background so they have no clue. So you put someone in charge who knows only sales instead of media then forget the important stuff like proper management, just get sales. There are reporters and editors who have there own agenda so once they get the itch for something they will scratch till it bleeds.
Its a shame what the news biz is now. I have worked in newsrooms for 10+ years and it was just a sad palce to be. Why work a story or tell the facts, lets just add a few words to make it sound more catchy, so what if its not the truth this will sound better. I don't know why it became the norm to interject yourself in the story and stop reporting the facts.
Well, here is the email I sent to NBC. I wonder if they will follow up their report with a clarification.
Quote:
I am a regular NBC News viewer, and have up until now chosen to watch the daily news on NBC.
I am writing to you to express my disappointment in the Brian Williams piece on Pontiac which aired on Friday evening, February 20th.
I am a loyal Pontiac owner, and as such have been closely following all of the reports on GM's plans for the Pontiac brand as they go through a much needed restructuring. In all of the statements and reports that GM has made, nowhere have they stated that they plan to eliminate the Pontiac brand. GM has continued to state that they plan to make Pontiac a niche brand targeting the sporty/performance market, hopefully redirecting Pontiac back towards the kind of model line-up for which it has historically been known.
Brian Williams' report strongly implied that Pontiac is a dead brand, going so far as to the have the screen behind him read "Pontiac, End of the Line" throughout the length of the story.
I think this report did a great disservice to both Pontiac and to the American people. It is a true example of irresponsible reporting on the part of Brian Williams and NBC. In a time when many news reports state that the future of the US Automakers and our economy depend upon consumer confidence and an increase in individual spending, NBC has just put another nail in Pontiac's coffin, implying to the American consumer that Pontiac is dead and will no longer be in business. At the very least, this will greatly discourage consumers from considering Pontiac during their car purchasing decisions. And at worst it has misinformed the people by implying that the Pontiac brand will be shut down as Oldsmobile was in years past.
I truly hope that the American people do not take Brian Williams' report at face value, or it may well become a self-fulfilling prophesy, contributing to the end of a great brand of cars.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
NBC Viewer and Loyal Pontiac Owner
we were shown this press conference today at work (holden, aus.) 47000 job losses is hectic and approx 20000 are in the us. we've already had over 50% of the plant cease production in the last 2-3 months which equates to 600 odd jobs gone.
from what we've been told is what has been said in this thread pontiac a niche brand with no news on G8's for export. none have been ordered as of yet.
In turn RH/D comaros have been pushed back 12 months to 2011 and not locking in convertible.
Can't help but comment on this. Take it as a lesson. Don't trust much of what you read or see in the media.
I was a double major in mass comm (journalism and radio/tv) back in my undergrad days. The intro class in tv production, professor told us not to forget the camera doesn't lie, but it is always pointed in the direction that will support the story. It only took me a few years in the business to recognize it was no place to be if you weren't willing to fit in with and espouse a politically correct viewpoint.
Glad I got out, but at least it taught me how to scan quickly through "news" and pick out the few factual nuggets the newsperson used while presenting his or her opinion. And make no mistake, when it comes to today's press, far more of what you get is opinion than fact. If you doubt it, just pick a newspaper story at random and try picking out the facts that aren't open to some sort of interpretation. It's not unusual for me to go through a whole story and recognize that what was just presented as 'news' was nothing more than what you or I would consider an editorial. Sadly, this has become the accepted practice and most people don't seem to notice the difference.
Just look how the media handled the last presidential election. To expect them to handle the auto industries problems in a fair and objective manner is just not realistic! NBC is a JOKE!
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Snowbird who flies in a G8 GT.
