Comments on: Daily Podcast: TTAC and Brock Yates Part Company

By: jerseydevil

jerseydevil — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:34:35 +0000

ya that was fast – i was not familiar with his work, but from what i read here, i suspect that he was not particularly happy with the immediate and not always flattering feedback that this forum provides. C&D, like all paper magazines, is more of a bully pulpit- this is more of a soap box. Different venues, different styles.

Oh well, we got lieberman back, in my book he’s worth a few yateses.

By: Johnster

Johnster — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:08:08 +0000

Brock Yates. A great writer who had his time in the sun and, sadly, that time has passed. Increasingly, he comes off as just another crabby old man, sort-of-like Andy Rooney.

Brock Yates. Let us place laurels on his head and lead him gently to the gate.

By: Alex Dykes

Alex Dykes — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:56:37 +0000

Mini Clubman: Even worse with the suicide door is that despite the veil of being British, the door is not swapped over to the other side with RHD models. If I was on the other side of the pond, I might feel a bit slighted.

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:41:51 +0000

Jonny Lieberman

Neither of my parents did it. Nor my aunt. I doubt that any of their friends did it. None of my college-teaching friends have done it, either. There was one prof where my parents taught who, I learned from a former student there who later became a girlfriend did quite a bit of this. She was appalled by it. He apparently didn’t seem to try very hard to hide it, either. And he was not exactly a young stud, or even an old stud. He was probably mid-60s when she was there. Maybe that was his cover.

By: hurls

hurls — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:12:15 +0000

Last one to hit it out of the park? Well it wasn’t a 400k unit a year car like the mustang.. but how about the Miata?

Or the Mini?

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:41:23 +0000

Stephan Wilkinson: Can’t comment on high school teachers, but all my friends that teach college boff their students.

They see it as a perk of the job.

This goes for female professors, too.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:15:42 +0000

RF, good send out to a guy who’s earned a lot of respect over the years. Despite what differences occurred during his short tenure, both he and TTAC will be fine. Good professionalism on the part of TTAC – A refreshing change from most sites.

By: Acd

Acd — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:46:04 +0000

Satch Carlson moved to California and is writing a monthly column for Hemming’s Sports & Exotic Car.

By: frontline

frontline — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:16:05 +0000

What am I missing? Why dosen’t R&T and C&D get on line with a similar format to TTAC. Autoweek had great forums, especially the photochops and they just faded away. I felt very guilty to let my Autoweek subscription go. It is the end of an era.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:10:41 +0000

I believe Satch is still in Anchorage, where he porked a variety of his students. Fortunately, 16 was then the age of consent in Alaska, though he did get fired.

Funny, I’ve known well only two male high-school teachers as an adult, and Gino and Jamie had both boffed students, though it never came to light…

By: tdoyle

tdoyle — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:09:20 +0000

An editorial from Paul Niedermeyer would make me feel better…

By: Johnny Canada

Johnny Canada — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:35:49 +0000

Screwed again.

By: rodster205

rodster205 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:59:09 +0000

Here’s an idea: Satch Carlson

If he’s still alive, and can be located in Alaska.

By: timoted

timoted — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:14:16 +0000

We will probably never know the reason for Mr. Yates’ departure. If we were meant to know, it would have been explained.

By: SherbornSean

SherbornSean — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:09:29 +0000

It takes a strong sense of self-confidence to write editorials for TTAC and then watch the fray tear them apart. It keeps you honest in a way that hand selected letters to the editor a month later do not.

By: starlightmica (Richard Chen)

starlightmica (Richard Chen) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:03:40 +0000

I’m also guessing that 800 words is cramping Yates’ style, but that’s just my SWAG. Not to worry, I think TTAC will be fine without him.

By: milo5151

milo5151 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:36:18 +0000

The three articles from Brock showed one glaring reality. I don’t think his heart was in it. Going from the largest albeit declining automotive magazine in the world to a (respectfully) less than prime time web site (that’s the way I like it btw) was probably more than the guy could handle. He probably thought he was going to show the young whipper snappers how it was done. The reality is that the old school media doesn’t know how it’s done because they are still living in the past.

By: Kman

Kman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:06:28 +0000

With due and sincere respect to Mr. Yates, I find this for the better. In all honesty, I find his writings are a caricature of cliché anti-gummint rants.

I bet he was a handful (not to say a PITA) to manage, eh RF?

By: HEATHROI

HEATHROI — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:50:19 +0000

Call it a day? he barely made it to lunch time, a little explaination would be good especially since he was trumpeted with some vigour to the TTAC community.

By: KevPod1

KevPod1 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:28:55 +0000

Oh, come on, Robert. Are you just going to leave the elephant/800-lb. gorilla/Pontiac Aztek in the room sitting there unaddressed?

WTF happened? Was he a jerk or was it money, musical differences or what?

I’m sure you realize that there’s a certain mystery involved when a high-profile, much-heralded contributor departs after just three contributions. Consider reducing the coyness factor.

This gives me an opportunity to address something I’ve been meaning to say for some weeks now about the podcasts. Basically, they aren’t up to the standard of the blog.

The blog offers uber-high level writing and insight into vehicles and their origins. The ‘casts, not so much.

What I experience with the podcasts is a lot of “How stupid can they get???” faux outrage. It’s fatiguing, it’s one-note and it seems contrived to suit the exigencies of the medium.

As it happens, the current podcast isn’t so bad on this score. Previous ones, though, are limned with terms like “insane,” “ridiculous” and “crazy.”

I’m sure the automakers do lots of insane, ridiculous and crazy things. I also know that there’s such a thing as bombast fatigue.

Basically, the TTAC podcasts remind me of my teenage years, when we were cool but everyone else was fucking stoopid.

Did I actually hear in the previous podcast that a female CNN reporter shouldn’t report on a sexy car because she isn’t “hot,” and that’s totally ridiculous on heir part and what are they thinking? C’mon guys.

Kevin

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:21:57 +0000

why am I not surprised?

By: keepaustinweird

keepaustinweird — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:47:59 +0000

We weren’t missing the old man before he got here, and we still won’t be missing him after leaving TTAC almost as fast as Cher left Gregg Allman.

What little he did contribute here seemed like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

By: willman

willman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:15:09 +0000

Man that stinks!
I was very excited about the Old Media + New Media meetup.

By: mastermik

mastermik — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:07:04 +0000

that was rather quick… do we get an explanation, RF?

By: 6G74

6G74 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:03:31 +0000

Oy, that was pointless. And quick. Ah well, his wasn’t nearly my favorite writing on this website.