Business and Blogging, Case Studies, Our Philosophy
Don’t pick fights with someone who buys bandwidth by the barrel.
Monday, June 26th, 2006This week’s Business Week profiles General Motors’ battle with the New York Times over some unpleasant accusations made about GM by Times columnist Tom Friedman. The dust-up is the clearest case study yet about the power of blogs to rebut negative media coverage.
When Friedman called GM a “crack dealer” and stated that the company was “dangerous to America’s future,” GM took offense and submitted a strongly worded letter to the editor. The Times refused to print it due to what the paper felt was uncivilized language (GM executive Brian Akre had the audacity to call the Friedman column “rubbish.”)
GM pulled the letter and instead posted its rebuttal on its corporate blog. That’s when all hell broke loose.
Akre not only posted his letter, but he included email correspondence with the Times that made the paper look foolish, arrogant, and out of touch.
The post was picked up by other media including Automotive News and autoblog.com (two important publications for GM) and now Business Week. Friedman responded with another column on June 14, so GM hit the Times again with another blog post.
The moral of this story is that the monpoly on published news once enjoyed by media heavyweights is over. Companies long accustomed to taking a beating at the hands of the print and broadcast media need suffer in silence no longer. Through the power of the blogoshpere, they now have a voice and a seat at the media table. This is a golden opportunity and it’s there for the taking.
Lots of Mileage Out of “Rubbish” [Business Week]
A Quick Fix For The Gas Addicts [New York Times]
GM Turns to Web Power [Automotive News]
GM Takes Friedman From New York Times To Task [Autoblog.com]
