News media unfriendly to the Prius?

There's a lot of false information about the Prius specifically and hybrids in general out there and the media buys right into it. The American car industry is hurting and they are working hard to promote domestic car sales too. We need to continue to dispel the myths and it's a long uphill battle.

 

The news media are about, well, news. And it's not news that the Prius gets great gas mileage. It *is* news if there's something wrong in paradise, like that the car that is kicking the butts of everything coming out of Detroit is killing blind people. Yeah, baby!

Even if it's a stretch to make the "facts" fit the story, it's still scoopier to focus on other efforts than to have to repeat yet again that no car compares to the Prius if you want good gas mileage, blah, blah, blah. Nothing to see here, flip the channel.

Oohing and ahhing over Detroit's 35-mpg cars doesn't work so well if you throw in the Prius alongside. It's easier to ignore it to make the story they want to tell a little stronger.

I don't know about the report you saw, but it's possible it was a video press release, which are film reports produced by companies or organizations to look like local news reports but which focus the information to their viewpoint. There are more of them out there than most people know, because hiring actual reporters and film editors cuts into profits.

 

There's a certain amount of resentment floating around for how
Toyota kicked our butts up one side and down the other. For a while
they could ignore the "up one side" part, because it was still
sort of a fringe thing and they could just sort of poke fun at
the "hypermilers" and economy-seekers. Now here comes the "down
the other", and they have no defense left, so they resort to
posturing and fisticuffs. Human nature for thousands of years.
"They do it better so we hate them", stated by the undiscerning
knuckle-draggers who are too lazy to dig in and learn *why* and
*how* they did it better.
.
We've already seen the press twist a whole bunch of stories that
started all positive, into sensationalist tripe that bashes
hybrids and their drivers as "american lifestyle"-threatening
freaks. Once in a great while a good, well thought out story
comes along, but most of it is just trash that isn't helping
to solve anything.
.
_H*

 

It depends

First you have to know your Media Owner. Lots of Media is owned by people who have specific opinions and agendas.

Second, are they lazy? Lots of 'stories' these days are just some big businesses press releases. That certainly goes for 99.9% of what passes for 'auto reviews' in any print publication. They're just puff pieces.

Third, do they think they are crusading journalists. Without something to crusade against these guys get the shakes.

Fourth, are they looking for Ratings/Sales. This is usually the 'If it Bleeds it Leads' school. They will take anything and blow it up to the be the greatest threat to humanity since the Big Bang.

Fifth, are you reading the Onion or Weekly World News? Clues are headlines like "Di Hydrogen Monoxide Threatens over 2/3 of Planet Surface" and "New Study Reveals Birth is the Leading Cause of Death".

Come to think of it, these days, it's really getting hard to tell #5 from all the others

That and the fact that it really pains most media types to report ANYTHING good unless it involves puppies, kittens, drain pipes and trees. Seriously, what percentage of news coverage of Any subject you choose is positive?