Daily Podcast: Another Milestone
How did Stevie Wonder go from "You Haven't Done Nothin'" to "I Just Called to Say I Love You?" The easy answer is money (they don't call it "selling out" for nothing). But I wonder. I wonder if Wonder woke-up one day and found the anger that informed his masterful mid-career music had disappeared. The birth of his first daughter– immortalized in the song "Isn't she lovely?"– signaled the empty-calorie crooning to follow. Maybe he just mellowed-out. But I can't help but, uh, cogitate what kind of music Wonder might have unleashed upon the world if he'd kept his edge. Of course, that sort of whatifitude can really bum a guy out. How many of the heroes of our youth descended into mediocrity? How many ended-up lost in a drug-addled haze? How many stayed on stage too long, making the faithful wince at their lost powers? Anyway, it seems TTAC is gaining a bit of financial traction; that's an honest-to-God Ford ad on the home page. I just want to mark the occasion by assuring you that success won't change TTAC. As long as I'm at the helm, we'll keep living just enough, just enough for the city.
More by Robert Farago
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The key to this seems to be to avoid the Stockholm syndrome, where you begin to have sympathy for your captors! Or in the case of autojournalism, begin to drink the kool-aid they serve on junkets. As much as we all dislike opposing commentary on what we do, it's important for anyone to listen when someone else is critical. Our press has long ago sold out, hence the need for TTAC and the web in general. So long as you are keeping the TRUTH in TTAC, you'll get readers and the readers become important to advertisers. Congrats, Bob - I hope this site remains an important voice about the modern automobile. And good for Ford for having the balls to advertise here...
Cheers for TTAC. I remember writing you a short email of encouragement after an editorial that said something at the end like 'I'll be here until the money runs out'. I could see then that TTAC was a good thing, I felt like I was kinda in on the ground floor, and I hoped it would succeed. With every editorial about changes to the site I would hold my breath and hope it would not water down. Looking around it would appear that you have stayed true AND prospered. A rare thing, indeed. Feed the Fire.
Hooray for TTAC! I always thought Ford worked the best with their Internet detractors after learning the hard way from the (failed) lawsuit against Blue Oval News. So kudos to them too.
Lets see whether you rip a Ford product a new one anytime soon . . . . . and should you do so, lets see what happens to their advertising.