White House Blog Has a Word with Edmunds (Updated)
BY Nancy Scola | Friday, October 30 2009
UPDATE: On the off chance you don't read "Fast Lane," the blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, here's a pointer to a post in which he gives a high five to the White House for getting his back against Edmunds on Cash for Clunkers. Pile on!
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The White House blog has been going after Edmunds. Who's that?, you're asking yourself. Noted conservative thinker John Edmunds?* No, no, it's Edmunds.com, the automotive website where you can look up the value of a used car or get some advice on what you should drive next. The site, whose CEO Jeremy Anwyl has been a critic of the Cash-for-Clunkers program since this summer, just released an analysis that found that many of the cars traded in during the program would have been traded in even if the program had not existed. The White House was not pleased, and in a post on WhiteHouse.gov by new media director Macon Phillips, it made that clear:
On the same day that we found out that motor vehicle output added 1.7% to economic growth in the third quarter -- the largest contribution to quarterly growth in over a decade -- Edmunds.com has released a faulty analysis suggesting that the Cash for Clunkers program had no meaningful impact on our economy or on overall auto sales. This is the latest of several critical “analyses” of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV. Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn’t withstand even basic scrutiny.
Silicon Alley's Joe Weisenthal is of the opinion that the White House blog's pointed critique of Edmunds.com over Cash for Clunkers, a program that has run its course, makes the Obama White House look thin-skinned. (A variation on the word "stupid" pops up in Weisenthal's post.) The White House new media operation is in some ways a strange hybrid. Organized in the White House hierarchy as part of the White House communications team, it seems to be using its innovative blog here as more or less the online component of the traditional White House press operation -- albeit with a more bloggy, calling-folks out-by-name feel to it. Smart? Inappropriate? Inevitable, given the flattened way media works today where information flows from sources traditional and otherwise? You be the judge, and let us know in the comments.
*Note: Not an actual person. (Photo credit: ThreadedThoughts)