General Motors as David: Slaying Goliath’s Smear

 It’s something the Public Relations Team at ICMediaDirect.com continually stresses to clients – a company must avail itself to corporate blogging. The interactive world saw the wisdom of this advice on Thursday, June 1st, when some normally sedate corners of the Internet turned into a battleground of corporate messaging that ultimately demonstrated how skilled corporate blogging can be an immeasurable asset. In this instance an unusual underdog, a giant corporation fought back against a blindsided smear from an influential journalist.

Here’s what happened: a high profile columnist from the New York Times, Thomas Friedman, wrote a column crushing General Motor’s Fuel Price Protection Program and in the process accused GM of some pretty bad stuff. Among other things he wrote that GM is “more dangerous to America’s future” than any other company and that they play the role of “crack dealer” to Americans addicted to SUVs. (I take it Friedman doesn’t hold the American consumer in very high regard, either) If this wasn’t enough, Mr. Friedman accused GM, along with Ford and DaimlerChrysler, of buying votes in Congress. These are not unsubstantial charges.

Only a couple of months ago I wrote here about the blog being an instrument of public relations defense; how it’s a pure platform of control which can be used to deliver a succinct corporate message in order to clear whatever misunderstanding or charge or misconception that may be thundering about the public arena of opinion.

It seems like only yesterday that when a major media property said something bad about your company, the only recourse was to hope that people didn’t read the paper or tune in that day. Well, we’re in the Interactive Age – and this is a time where relevant people tend to miss stories of interest less than ever, as good content gets passed around the Internet like hors d’oeuvres at a cocktail party. It is the nature of the Internet that content gets to its most relevant destinations and when a name is being dragged in the mud, it’s safe to say that those who matter most to that name will be the first ones reading it.

Fortunately for GM, their FastLane blog, the very one I cited in my article in February, responded to Friedman’s piece in a rather spectacular fashion.

GM knew that 1) Friedman is, essentially, a writer and not a car maker – with the equal footing that blogs give, what used to be a slam dunk with the advantage to the hit-and-run writer, would actually be advantage to GM – building cars is GM’s territory, not Friedman’s – their expertise would end up shredding Friedman’s assertions to bits.

The issue of public message and the ability to shape its content is vital with corporate blogging. GM didn’t fly off the handle. Sure, they were probably angry, but shouldthe goal of a public response be to hurt Friedman’s feelings or win over readers? Wisely, GM set upon their response in a polite, friendly fashion. FastLane praised Friedman’s body of work and even invited him to Detroit to check up on some of their alternative fuel based solutions.

As I read FastLane counter Friedman’s charges point by point, I also pondered the scope of GM’s mini opinion coup. For starters, I had been unaware of Friedman’s article of May the 31st until I saw a blurb about the affair the following day on Drudgereport, the online scandal sheet – a real motor for online media. I clicked the link and learned of the whole affair – my attention in the matter, as a receiver of the message, was now in play.

GM’s response was not only solid enough to overpower Friedman’s insinuations, but smooth enough in its delivery to educate me about what GM is up to. I suppose GM felt that if I was there to dig up dirt (and I was), I might as well read up on GM’s stance in alternative fuels and hybrid cars (and I did, interesting stuff). These guys were turning a negative into a positive. And they had every right to. Here was a pro writer getting GM’s story wrong – what right does someone have to do that? Again, in an earlier age, GM would have had to sit there and take it, as a columnist of Friedman’s stature could move on to his next piece largely unaffected by the flap he caused.

Well, if this is what hatchet jobs are yielding in the Interactive Age, then maybe Mr. Friedman will have to be more exacting in his targets. And if his name is tarnished a bit by being countered by a high quality blog belonging to the company he attacked, well, so be it. There is a modicum of justice and a lesson in the democratization of online opinion in this story – elements that are the basis of the blog itself.

Well done, FastLane blog of GM, you’ve demonstrated why every company should have a blog. You turned a surprise attack into a positive.