Yellow Journalism?

[Cheleker]

Shades of the original review of The Italian Job!

If you want a laugh, read today's (3/28) Motoring section of The Seattle Times. Don't read it if you are easily angered!

A Dan Neil, supposedly an employee of the Los Angeles Times, has written an article on the MINI Clubman. Based on the tone of the article, one could be lead to believe that he's really an employee of MINI USA rather than the LA Times!

And, Dan, at least spell it MINI, as *** does, and get your facts straight!

All I could think about when I was reading the article was Jerry Everett's wonderful telegram to the newspaper after the review of The Italian Job was published and the headline shouted, "Speeding Fiats Stars of Italian Job."

Time for a another telegram?

[Dixminion]

I just discovered that a classic Clubman is a long wheelbase car. Never knew that. Don

[pigpen]

Yellow journalism? I don't think there are adequate words to describe that article. It is full of snippets ranging from "A Hard Day's Night" to "Saturday Night Live." Either a brilliant satarist or someone who enjoys reinventing pop culture to sell a few cars. Reminds me of Dick Balch and Cal Worthington.
Tom

[twenex]

Spearmint always wears out in less than 10 chews!
Can you spin it on one tire?

Here is a link to the article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004310932_miniclubman28.html

I hear rumours that the next *** MINI model is the Innocenti 1300 Export!

And my favorite quote:

"The object is to expand the Mini brand, to make the car more accessible to people who might have wanted one but couldn't wedge their fat-soft lifestyles into the regular car."

Err .. I think some mini owners here would take offense to that.

[DaveB]

is this guy old enough to have a diploma, or is this just his high school english assignment? he writes in quippy jargon like most of my students:

And it's affordable. The most exotic Mini Cooper extant — a ferocious John Cooper Works edition convertible with every option, including a sound system such as Paddy Hopkirk never dreamed — is under $40,000. The cheapest is about $19,000 and is still more fun than a barrel of strippers.

The Mini is diamond-laced Champagne, a piano-playing Shetland pony, sex on the wing of an airplane. If a Mini Cooper doesn't make you smile, you're dead.

personally, i'd rather have the barrel full of strippers, but you have to admit that he IS right when he says that "if a Mini Cooper (note the small ini) doesn't make you smile. . . "

i wish i got paid to write free advertising

[pigpen]

Hey Dave,
If my students wrote like that they'd get a lashing. No, wait...a stern reprimand...and a required rewrite...
Tom

[Cheleker]

This guy won a Pulitzer.

[BIGSHOT]

What a gaggle of anoraks!

He seems to know about as much -- or as little -- as most newspaper guys who write about cars. I think they all get their specs from Motor Trend or Car and Driver.

Politics aside, though, I think he's an entertaining read.

Dan

[minied]

My guess is he won a Pulitzer for writing about something other than automobiles. In all my years working for a newspaper, there have been only two others in the newsroom besides myself that had the slightest interest in automobiles. Sounds like the LA Times is not much different.

[twenex]

Famous quotes you never heard:

"$39,995 for a mini? Are you f'in kidding me?" -Issigonis

"Ah, this sound system that I 'never dreamed of' doesn't belong here. It belongs on the side of the road with my mini spinning up dust on it as I speed away." - Hopkirk