Posted on 08/10/2005 10:24:35 AM PDT by Pikamax
Michigan Columnist Canned After Column Rips American Automakers
By Joe Strupp
Published: August 10, 2005 12:15 PM ET
NEW YORK A Michigan newspaper columnist who was fired Tuesday claims his dismissal was punishment for a column he wrote on Saturday criticizing American cars.
James Briggs, a former columnist and news editor at The Daily Telegram of Adrian, Mich., says the publisher canned him for writing the column that upset auto dealers and others so close to Detroit's auto manufacturing power houses. The publisher told E&P that auto advertisers did complain, but says there's more to it than that.
"I was in a meeting with my boss [editor Mark Lenz] and the publisher came in and berated me for half an hour," Brigg said, describing the Tuesday morning meeting at the afternoon paper. "He said I needed to understand the consequences of what I wrote."
What he wrote was a column in Saturday's paper that described his decision to switch from driving an American car to a foreign model. "Maybe I'm hitting a late rebellious streak. Maybe I'm simply unpatriotic, ungrateful or un-American," the column said, in part. "Or maybe the domestic automakers have slipped so far down that purchasing an American vehicle has become moronic. I'll go with that answer."
Briggs, 24, said he received no feedback from the newspaper until Tuesday morning when Publisher Paul Heidbreder approached him during his meeting with Lenz. "He said it was insensitive for me to write such a column given our proximity to the Big Three [automakers]," Briggs said. "He tried to get me to at least apologize and I was not going to apologize because I believe what I wrote."
Lenz, who did not respond to a request for comment, reviewed the column prior to publication, Briggs said. The column is still up on the paper's Web site as of Wednesday afternoon.
The former columnist said he was summoned to another meeting with the publisher later that day where he was dismissed. He said Heidbreder claimed the paper had lost upwards of $100,000 in auto ads because of the column.
The publisher told E&P today the termination was not based solely on the column. He also said no advertising had been lost so far, although some auto dealers had threatened to pull ads.
"The auto dealers threat was not what led to his termination," said Heidbreder, who has been publisher since early June. "His account of the events is inaccurate. But I am not going to comment further on personnel matters." The publisher also contends that when he fired Briggs, he offered to give him an explanation, but the columnist said he did not need one.
As the column states, Briggs said he wanted to write the piece to show his disgust with American cars after owning at least three General Motors vehicles, starting with a Chevy pick-up he bought from his grandfather, a former GM employee.
"I thought it would be an interesting column because we are so close to Detroit," Briggs said today. "I am also sick of people around here making other people feel bad for purchasing a foreign vehicle. I don't agree with it."
The Daily Telegraph is owned by Liberty Group Publishing of Northbrook, Ill., and has a daily circulation of 15,374.
By the time I was 24, I'd owned seventeen cars. And I was by no means rich, nor had I crashed them, and none of them were actually *new*. Buy low, sell high.
That being said, it's the international (upper officers) who are the weenies.
As an example of boneheaded domestic design, pray explain why the steering wheel of *every* current generation GM full-sized truck has the steering wheel offset to the passenger side by 1-2".
As another example of boneheaded domestic design, please explain why GM has the CSK problem with their truck engines, and why Ford decided to make the 4.6L 2V manifold out of the particular kind of plastic that they did. You know, the one that eventually (5 years, <90,000 miles, whichever comes first) cracks and sprays coolant everywhere?
I live in Alberta, Canada and as you probably know we have some extreme weather up here. As I see it the US automobile makers are very good at making heavy duty trucks and but the design of cars seems to have got lost with them.
The last US car I bought new was a Ford Escort..this car had 18 major faults in it before I even drove it off the lot. The windscreen wiper blew off as I was driving it home. It had been damaged and poorly resprayed..and the rear shocks had to be replaced after 10,000kls. I possibly bought a lemon..but there have been many such incidents around here.
So the family turned to Honda and Mazda after that..we drive an Accord 6 and a Mazda 3 both cars are top drawer. I don't care where they are built as long as they do what they are supposed to...
I recently read a lurid description of the state of Detroit..in a few words it said "don't go and live there"..is it that bad?
Disagree there. It doesn't matter where the overhead is spent (where it's built) nearly as much as where the profits go. The ideal is an American made product where the profits stay in America. Barring that, better to buy a car made elsewhere where the profits come back to America, than a car manufactured here in the U.S. where the profits go to Japan or Korea.
Disagree there. It doesn't matter where the overhead is spent (where it's built) nearly as much as where the profits go. The ideal is an American made product where the profits stay in America. Barring that, better to buy a car made elsewhere where the profits come back to America, than a car manufactured here in the U.S. where the profits go to Japan or Korea.
That is the sum total of the whole matter. If you slam your advertisers in your paper, you'll be out of business quickly. Like it or not, a paper is still a business.
I traded my last Big-3 auto for a Toyota and have no plans to go back to GM, Ford or Chrysler. The quality is lousy and the price isn't that good either.
You know those "after the apocalypse" films where people fight their way through a ruined and burned out city?
That's central Detroit.
You are correct. It is a scarey place even in the daytime.
In a way, yes. Frankly, I believe most managers will only employ opinion writers that don't stray too far off the reservation. They will allow them to disagree with the premises, but not the conclusion.
I didn't say the firing of Briggs was fair, but I do believe his employer has a right to fire him. As you might be able to tell, I don't hold major media organizations to a very high standard.
That's central Detroit.
That is a bit of an exaggeration, but as an almost lifetime resident of the Detroit area, I have to say there are some very rough parts of town. What's even more rough is the corrupt unions and government in Detroit. That said, it's hard for some here to boycott an industry that is most people (in this area) bread and butter. Most of the people I know depend on the auto industry for business, either directly or indirectly -- and they aren't union people. As the saying goes, don't poop in your own nest. The reporter did just that.
I wouldn't go back to Detroit without a platoon of mechanized infantry and a platoon of armor with air support to back them up.
They just need to level the place and start over. Anyone heard from Omni Consumer Products lately?
A disturbing fact about Detroit: There are no major retail stores inside the city limits. No Walmart, no Target, no Sears, no K-Mart, no Mervyns, no JC Penneys. Nothing.
Detroit residents have to leave the city to shop.
Not if they want to shop at say....Home Depot in Detroit
OR say Kmart in Detroit
19990 Telegraph Rd, Detroit, 48219 - (313) 537-8010
Or say they need groceries, they can shop at the Kroger in Detroit
14383 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, 48205
You are exaggerating and generalizing. I am the last person to defend Detroit, but there ARE some major chain stores inside the city limits. These are major chain stores, although there are only a few of them in the city limits. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Hm, there was a recent article on FR from the Detroit Free Press that mentioned that there weren't any.
-shrug- Oh well, Detroit can't get anything else right...
OOOH...Lookie here....a Target in Detroit?????! 8500 E 8 Mile Rd, Detroit, 48234
Sears actually has a paint store in Detroit. Sure it gets lots of business.
Can't find a Mervyn's or JC Penney in Detroit. Darn.
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