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 NEW YORK — When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop
speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick
brands, vice chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and
customers, who were up in arms.
He wrote on the company’s blog.
”The media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to paint an ugly
portrait of General Motors," began Lutz’s entry on GM’s FastLane Blog, launched
in January. The March 30 entry went on to say that widely reported remarks he
made to analysts had been ”taken out of context" and that the automaker
would not shed the brands.
As we have been warning for quite some time, it
is becoming appear ant that while Blogs are undoubtedly a powerful,
in some ways revolutionary,
advance in mass communication, there is nothing inherently anti-establishment
or liberating in their power, which can be channeled by anyone who understands
the principles of promotion and can operate a keyboard.
So it is not surprising to see the Masters of the Mainstream
Media, who currently control the national attention span, are under blog-attack
not only by a legion of Pajamahadeen but also by the political and economic
power centers with which it is at odds. Corporate and political blogs
have been around since the dawn of the ‘Sphere, but now CEO’s, PR departments,
political parties and national candidates are blogging.
Can it we long before we see the Official CIA Iraq
Blog, the Official Ronald McDonald Blog, Condi Nasty’s World, and the
counter-attack of the media moguls, the CNN Blog, Rupert Murdock’s Blog,
the Saddam Hussein Blog and Dan Rather in Pajamas.
from the Boston Globe
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