Retraction of Article Posted January 23, 2017

In November of last year, I asked you, our loyal readership, for your input on how to guide this website into the future. You spoke to the tune of 300 comments, and I replied with the following:

When it comes to politics, we must walk a fine line, and we must define the meaning of political discussion. There’s no doubt that politics, government, regulation, and the automotive industry are intertwined like a well-stirred spaghetti. If we’re to ignore those aspects of the automotive environment in America and globally, we aren’t doing our jobs. However, there’s a vast difference between politics and partisan rhetoric. It’s the latter that’s become an issue.

So, we’ll eschew partisan rhetoric unless it’s germane to the story at hand. Otherwise, TTAC will not take part in the dissemination of rhetoric itself. Still, we’re about to enter a new era in American politics, where rhetoric plays an even more active role than it has in years and decades past. Keep this in mind when reading our reports. We cannot and should not ignore the words escaping the mouths of politicians, elected officials, regulators, and bureaucrats. To do so would be a disservice to you.

Well, dear readers, I’ve done you a disservice.

Yesterday, I approved the publication of an article that didn’t meet the standard outlined above. After reading your comments and emails, I decided it would be best to retract the article.

Unfortunately, retracting the article caused some fallout. Bark has decided to move on. I wish him the best of luck.

I truly believe every cloud has a silver lining. I’m far from infallible and make mistakes daily. However, I always make it a priority to learn from missteps so they are not repeated in the future. In this case, I’ve gained some perspective in what TTAC needs to do in the future.

1. Focus on the cars and the industry: A number of you mentioned the article yesterday must have done “huge traffic,” but the reality is our best-performing articles are those that directly relate to cars or the automotive industry. As I promised you before, I intend to sharpen that focus. I hope you can forgive me for my moment of personal and professional weakness in not holding our content to the standard you all expect.
2. Be inclusive: Before you bemoan inclusion, remember that we all have one thing in common — we love cars. We should do our best to serve those who love cars and the industry regardless of gender, race, or political belief. The reality is more people in America would rather look at cat memes than read about cars, and we can’t afford to ostracize a group of people just for the sake of sharing an opinion about something completely unrelated to the topic that’s brought all of us here in the first place. I personally apologize to those people excluded by commentary posted by TTAC in the past.

Thank you for sticking with us.