"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" — Army counsel, Joseph Welch to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Army-McCarthy hearings
Our intrepid reviewer, Robert Farago, writing for his The Truth About Cars, describes the recent termination of his column from the San Francisco Chronicle, which occurred suspiciously following an unfavorable review of the Subaru Tribeca ran in a recent issue (read the Jalopnik version here).
If, as his sources attest, Farago was silenced after Subaru reps objected to the 800-word, one-star clusterfuck, the paper's automotive section should cease to be. Chronicle bosses can plausibly deny Farago's claims, but automotive consumers, who are beginning to get wise to media subterfuge where it lives and breeds, won't long stand for a press that cowers when advertisers — the same companies their editorial charter demands are covered without bias — threaten to take their ad-media graft elsewhere. Farago explains:
Of course, the truth is relative. Or so automotive manufacturers and their minions would have us believe. In fact, the Subaru B9 Tribeca is both subjectively (to the best of my knowledge and experience) and empirically a dreadful machine that besmirches the reputation of its manufacturer. Sure, the B9 handles well. The review pointed this out. But to suggest that it's an SUV worthy of its manufacturer's hype ("The end of the SUV as we know it" and "The ideal balance of power and refinement") is to become a co-conspirator in Subaru's attempts to mislead the public.
Farago's flat candor, inability to squelch an instinctual disgust for suckiness and deft weaving of more analogies than an SAT test are the reasons we wanted him in the first place. That's why we're keeping him.
The Truth Be Told [The Truth About Cars]
Related:
Jalopnik Reviews: 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca Limited, Part 1 [internal]