CarBuzz Forgets to Mention Why Tanner Foust Would Praise Volkswagen

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

If Tanner Foust was given the keys to a Volkswagen GTI or Golf R, and told to track it at Willow Springs, all while being filmed by Volkswagen, what do you think the VW-sponsored professional driver would say about it?

Yeah, exactly. Seems CarBuzz either didn’t know or flat-out forgot to mention that Foust is sponsored by VW when it wrote a quick piece on how Foust was touting the virtues of the two cars. A piece that appears to be based on a Volkswagen media release.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I have friendly professional relationships with at least two CarBuzz employees, though I don’t know the author of this piece, and we’ve sometimes cited them as a news source — we’ve not yet had any reason to suspect they aren’t credible.

And in the interest of fairness, it really is possible the author either didn’t know about Foust’s connections to VW, or did and just honestly forget to make mention. It would be unfair of us to accuse CarBuzz of intentionally publishing a piece that reads like advertorial content as news without any evidence.

That said, we can call them out for failing to make mention of Foust’s Volkswagen ties, with the hopes of a correction if it was an honest mistake.

Even the site’s own commenters called them out for the oversight.

We’re not calling CarBuzz out for publishing the piece — we might, on a slow news day (and thus far, today appears to be a very slow news day), pluck that story and reblog it. But we’d mention Foust’s connection to VW and remind you, the reader, that Foust is unlikely to say anything bad, at least publicly, about those cars.

And if we goofed and forgot, we’d correct as soon as possible.

I don’t have any evidence to suggest CarBuzz is in any way biased towards VW. But even assuming they aren’t, a mistake like this can cause that perception. Which is a reminder to journalists to be careful to get facts right and provide necessary context, and a reminder to readers to use critical thinking when consuming content.

[Image: Volkswagen]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 14 comments
  • El scotto El scotto on Aug 01, 2021

    I always love the irony that the anti-vaxxers blithely ignore the fact that they had to have required vaccines to attend school. I won't comment on how much of their schooling was effective. As we grew older we had to get booster shots for our 1st rounds of vaccines. If you're a veteran you got vaccines for all sorts of weird stuff. Or as Jeremy Clarkson would say "diseases only heard of in a 1930's black and white movie." My union used to make tetanus shots mandatory. Cause and affect, I used to work around metal all day. I do feel sorry for then poster whose wife (I think) had extended symptoms. I was at the grocery store today. The parking lot wasn't 70% handicapped parking because we've all received polio vaccinations. Conversely, I saw people below senior citizen-aged people wearing masks. It just gets down to numbers; there is a direct correlation between the non-vaccinated and rising hospital rates. Masks form a physical barrier against airborne pathogens. The filthy non-vaccinated people need to understand that their rights end and mine begin at the end of my nose. I just want a t-shirt that says: BOOOGA! VACCINATED! BOOGA!

    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Aug 02, 2021

      First it was announced 12,313 had died as a direct result of the covid treatments. Then the figured reduced to *only* 6,207, because oops our bad. https://trialsitenews.com/cdc-shares-vaers-for-covid-19-vaccines-12313-reports-of-deaths-but-no-causal-link-according-to-agency/ Less than 50 died as a result of the failed Swine Flu vaccine in 1976: "Federal officials urged widespread vaccinations after swine flu broke out among soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, killing one of the 14 diagnosed with the illness. But the program was suspended after at least 25 people died from vaccine reactions. Other estimates put the death toll at 32 people, while about 500 others later suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome, which damages nerves and can lead to paralysis. The results cost Dr. David Sencer his job as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was fired in 1977, after 11 years on the job. Now 84 and retired, he said this week that health officials "acted on the best knowledge that we had and believed that we were doing the right thing." https://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/30/swine.flu.1976/index.html Are your "rights" worth 32 lives? 6,207? 12,313? 100,000? How about the tens to hundreds of thousands who have experienced medium to severe health problems such as blood clots and other heart issues? Was Stalin's murderous lieutenant Lazar Kaganovich right, why worry about a few broken eggs when making an omlette?

  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Aug 02, 2021

    Here's the next thing I am planning to become outraged about: https://carbuzz.com/news/ford-bronco-owners-have-the-strangest-problem

  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
Next