Thank goodness The Truth About Cars is back up
after a holiday vacation. Continually one of the more honest sites, thus living up to the site’s name, TTAC has some
interesting rants that always spur good discussion. Their
latest is all about the wonderful world of
embargos.
Sure you might know what an embargo on Iraqi oil is but what does it refer to in the automotive press? Basically it
means the car companies give auto journalists photos via email or a secure website to check out and contemplate and sit
on until an embargo date passes. These can often be weeks or months before the official release date passes.
Robert Farago at TTAC suggests this practice is antiquated, dishonest and doesn?t serve the public. It?s a dirty
secret that just lets the car companies sell a few more outdated models before the photos of the shiny new ones
surface.
As seen this weekend with our coverage of the first
photos/vehicles to see their embargos lifted we obviously are following these self-imposed guidelines. While sure we
could go live with every scrap we get, there sure wouldn?t be a second round of official photos coming our way. My
thoughts on the topic are if we can post the information we are given as soon as it?s available we?re still beating
almost everyone else to the punch. Plus you get all our quirky commentary too.
But unlike some of the folks Robert talks about, we certainly don?t cater to the auto industry just for sneak peeks at
pretty pictures. If we hate the new HHR, for example, we?re going to say so. In the next few weeks there will be so
many photos and coverage of the auto shows that I kind of appreciate the advanced planning the embargo dates
provide.
I?m not quite sure where that leaves Autoblog in the array of auto coverage out there but I think we?re straddling the
line in the right way.