Electrek Loonyland: After the Referrals Scandal Goes International, Fred Lambert Doubles Down

What is it about these wacky new-school post-enthusiast autowriters? Prior to last week, I thought that Wayne “50 percent of the time I am an automotive journalist” Gerdes of CleanMPG was probably the loosest screw in the business, what with the drafting at 70 mph and letting a Ranger run wild through a subdivision with the engine off. It didn’t help my estimation of Wayne’s sanity that the payoffs he received for risking life and limb in the service of advertorial content were so Mickey Mouse. Why risk running over an animal or child just to save a few pennies on fuel and/or pick up a couple grand from an automaker?

Electek‘s Fred Lambert is playing for slightly higher stakes, as we revealed in last week’s piece on his double life as “impartial” electric car journalist and compensated Tesla referrer. In fact, since we ran the article Fred managed to get his eighth referral, entitling him to a second $7,200 Tesla Powerwall and bringing the total potential take for his advocacy into the $30,000 range. And while he never found the time to return my e-mails or engage with me regarding his behavior, when Automotive News decided to put him on blast he didn’t hesitate to start getting ugly with young Katie Burke about what he perceived as a “non-story.”

Nor did he think twice about implying that he would kill a Ford employee — a threat he retracted and blamed on his phone.

You’d think Mr. Lambert might want to keep his head down right now, but he’s doubling down, including publicizing an email he sent Automotive News after finding out they were planning a story on his referrals:

You have to admire the balls on this fellow — his complaint basically amounts to “THIS WOMAN TOOK ME SERIOUSLY WHEN I SAID I DIDN’T WANT TO COMMENT.” Like Wayne Gerdes, he appears to be utterly befuddled as to why anybody would have a problem with him earning five-figure benefits from Tesla even as he purports to report objectively on Tesla and its competitors. A whole army of Twitterati is busying itself pointing out hilarious contradictions between the way Fred covers Tesla and the way he covers everybody else.

What’s next for Fred? Former cross-country speeder and Tesla Autopilot pioneer Alex Roy has announced his intent to take Fred down by nearly any means necessary. Three of the four former TTAC E-I-Cs are publicly lampooning him. In fact, this is the first time I’ve agreed with both Ed and Bertel on something since around the time of Obama’s re-election.

So why does any of this matter? Several of the B&B have delivered supremely world-weary, faux-cynical diatribes about how “everybody is for sale” and “there’s nothing unusual about this.” What I would suggest here is that the average would-be electric vehicle buyer has no idea that Fred is suspiciously close to being an outright Tesla shill who could be holding Tesla stock at the same time that he is writing pro-Tesla “journalism.” They don’t have the luxury of having read a decade’s worth of reporting by TTAC and other outlets on the perils and pitfalls of automotive journalism. In other words, they’re about as well-informed on electric vehicles as most of TTAC’s readers would be regarding sailboats or a particular medical treatment. This is how bad journalism and problematic content drives the good stuff off the market — by being signal-boosted through automotive PR and blogger mutual admiration societies even as the writers receive cash or prizes from the companies on which they are ostensibly reporting.

I can’t do anything to prevent those EV intenders from visiting Fred’s website and using his referral code to further enrich him. It might not even be my job to do so. But what I can do is this: provide some context and some additional information for those buyers who are willing to take a critical or questioning look at the situation. That’s why we are here — to tell the truth. It was the mission when Robert Farago founded this site. It’s still my mission today. Thanks for reading.

[Images via Twitter]