Is This Apology Good Enough OR Has The Detroit News Lost Their Credibility?

Last week The Detroit News lost one of its key contributors, Scott Burgess, over a review of the new Chrysler 200, which Burgess really hammered.

Though, it is a car that many feel deserves it.

However, The Detroit News asked Burgess to edit the piece after an advertiser complained. Essentially, this is really ruining the gist of a reviewer's point. Although some of the edits weren't taking away at Burgess' disdain for the 200, any tampering due to an advertiser is exactly what is wrong with the industry today.

This finally led to an apology from the paper's editor and publisher, Jonathan Wolman. We've published an excerpt of the message down below, however, we urge you to take a look at the full note and let us know down below:

Does this apology clean things up OR has The Detroit News lost their credibility as a go-to guide for reviews?


...A few days ago, our auto reviewer, Scott Burgess, resigned in frustration after he was asked to change several passages of his review of the new Chrysler 200. This occurred after an advertiser complained that some material in the review was acerbic and disrespectful. The review had already appeared in our newspaper "Drive" section but we asked Scott to soften a few passages in the online version. The review was sharply critical of the 200 and there was no effort to change Scott's verdict or his reasoning.

While our intent was to improve the piece by making these passages less grating, our decision to make these changes after fielding an advertiser's complaint was a humbling mistake. As publisher and editor, I want to apologize to our readers and of course to Scott. Once the review was published we should have maintained the wording in all our formats and avoided any sense that we were acting at the influence of any interest aside from our readers' interest...


[Source: The Detroit News]


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Chark - 3/21/2011 9:19:19 AM

+6 Boost

The Chrysler 200 is not good enough, compared to the competition. It's barely any different than the Sebring it replaces. The "new" 300 isn't either. Shame on The Detroit News for caving to the advertisers when a truthful review was written.

800over - 3/21/2011 9:48:53 AM

+2 Boost

I agree....but at least they took responsibility (maybe only because he resigned?). I imagine there are lots of news outlets that have this type of "smoothing over" of articles but we never hear about it.

MeanVulcan - 3/21/2011 12:14:59 PM

+2 Boost

Asking a journalist to edit content based on advertising dollars is the worst you can do in journalism. If the Detroit News organization could not figure this one out from the start, they already have no credibility. Apologies AFTER THE FACT, are really worthless and tainted by any hidden motives... are they apologizing because of the backlash?

internationalmanofmystery - 3/21/2011 2:37:11 PM

-2 Boost

"Is This Apology Good Enough OR Has The Detroit News Lost Their Credibility?"

No and yes!