The reviews of the Chrysler 200 are starting to come out from various automotive news outlets, and among them was a controversial review by long-time auto critic Scott Burgess.
Burgess’ review of the Chrysler 200 wasn’t exactly the most positive review to ever be written, but the auto critic gave what he claims was his honest opinion, and as a result an advertiser raised issue with the review, edited the online article, ultimately resulting in his resignation without explanation – until now. The Detroit News, Burgess’ now former employer, and the former auto critic himself have now spoken out and explained the details of the drama that played out earlier this week.
“I quit because of the motivation behind the editing,” Burgess said while speaking on the automotive webcast Autoline After Hours. Burgess had previously remained quite mum about the situation, saying only that The Detroit News had been the best employer he had ever had. But despite the writer’s positive outlook on the paper as a whole, Burgess still admitted that it was ultimately the fact that the paper caved to pressure from an advertiser and asked the writer to alter his online review to be less harsh.
The paper’s editor and publisher, Jonathan Wolman, says that the paper was acting with good intention when seeking changes to the article, but ultimately had “made a mistake” in the way it handled the situation. Wolman admitted the paper received a complaint from a paid advertiser, but the editor still argues the changes to the review were intended to be more editorial than advertiser-driven, suggesting it was simply the wording of phrases that were particularly grating that they wished to change.
Wolman, the paper, and even Burgess still argue that the overall thrust of the article wasn’t lost in the editing, “The paper’s intent was to make an editing improvement, but we obviously handled it poorly,” Wolman said.
The original version of the article has now been restored, and includes the controversial comments such as suggesting that the Chrysler 200 is “still a dog,” and that “It’s vastly improved, but that’s only because it was so horrendous before,” among other piercing commentary.
In case you missed it, Leftlane revealed our take on the 200 yesterday, and is still available in its original, unedited and honest form.
References
1.’Resignation of Detroit…’ view
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