Thanks for the coverage, I think?
March 9, 2010 by J-Rod
The Sunday, March 7 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a story about the new Polaris EV. The story entitled, “Can Green Be Gold?” ran as an “exclusive” in the Sunday edition. I enjoyed some of the off-road-focused article and thought the author – David Phelps – did a good job of interviewing multiple sources and gaining feedback from Polaris about its new electric vehicle, but thought it was still too unbalanced.
Before I go on, I must say the Star Tribune has been less than kind to ATVs in recent years and has featured many one-sided stories (at least that’s my take) against the operation of OHVs. Many articles have focused on their alleged destruction of the environment, noise and even injuries and death. I was pleased to see the paper see the new EV as a positive business story, but displeased with so much focus on noise and the environment. And yet nothing concrete was mentioned about electric vehicles and their impact on our future environment. Nor how much of the environment it takes to build one/dispose of one compared to a normal gas-powered machine. In addition, what about the EV’s potential for indoor use (as one of my trusted colleagues pointed out)? No mention.
Even the story’s pull quote (which is in bold and as large as the subhead) featured Matthew Norton of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and not someone from the U.S. Military, Polaris or its defense team. He said, “The Quiet is a huge benefit. It will alleviate a lot of the discord that happens when people are forced to live near lots of noisy machines. But it will not alleviate soil disturbance and damage to vegetation.” (Source: Star Tribune)
A better quote would have been from Matt Homan, vice president of the Polaris off-road division, when he said, “You’re saving money on gas and you’re paying for the benefits of stealth and being green.” (Source: Star Tribune)
Here are the other hidden verbal attacks on our current OHVs/ATVs.
The story describes current ATVs as:
Noisy, disruptive to the environment, scary for wildlife (so is man!) and disruptive to herds and multi-acre neighborhoods.
Here’s the most opinionated and unnecessary portion of the story, “Norton added that quiet machines might also allow riders to go places they shouldn’t be, such as private property, without alerting others to their presence.” (Source: Star Tribune)
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Arg! Of course another eco-Nazi grass eater failing to report the other side’s story. How many trees or energy to recycle did it take to produce the paper this garbage is printed on. Better tell all that wildlife to quit walking around in single file, it causes erosion and tramples the grass.
Write him back J-Rod.
Use his self-absorbed, crusader quote assuming immediate eco-destruction “quiet machines might also allow riders to go places they shouldn’t be” as a model for a response. Send him this in your response…
- and words left unprotected and free for the use of any biased so-called journalists are subject to the whims and manipulation of the user, and they neither know nor care for their intentions.
J9
JRod, nice analysis of this “journalism” report. I did not read the Star Tribune article (the link took me somewhere else) but am quite familiar with the paper’s style. I certainly hope the reporter acknowledged Polaris’s efforts to expand their market, increase their business, and potentially provide jobs for Minnesotans. The “green” impact should be clear, and surely has great potential for expansion.
Keep your eye on that newspaper, my friend, and let them know you’re watching. Write a letter.
Glenn Hansen
Thanks for the comments. Glenn, there was also a business angle and that part of the story was good. It mentioned Polaris’ need for improvement in difficult financial times,the military contract (need for at least 4,000 vehicles over three years) and a quote from the defense manager, interviewed a Polaris dealer for his feedback (good!), a DNR official and even a stock analyst (another positive) so the writer definitely had multiple sources and created a nice business story.
For the most part it was a good business story, but I feel it lost its focus when the story introduced the “environmental advocacy” aspects and used too many negative terms (negative to the environment) to describe current gasoline-powered machines.
The link only takes you to the hold page for the exclusive story topics, but not the story (it exclusive to the Sunday print).
Scan it and post it up.
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