Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Anyone who has read PWH's coverage of Focus/Fiesta automatic transmissions knows that she does not follow the Ford PR line. Also re: detnews, see Daniel Howes column. He does not sugar-coat auto industry problems at all.

Wow! The last posting was removed (CENSORED!!!!) It was there last night.

Plenty of posters questioning and criticizing Farley on this site. That is OK. So Ford doesn't have the power to censor. But if the Detroit Free Press (aka Democrat Party) is openly questioned – Message Censored!!!!

1000s of Ford Workers potentially going to lose their employment – but don't question Phoebe Wall Howard or her employers!

@3mvs+19LWB7Mp Correct. Farley should not get the benefit of the doubt that an outside hire like Mulally or even Hackett had. He has been a top decision maker in the company for years and had a hand in most, if not all, of the recent debacles. All the flattering coverage he receives is just baffling.

Remember JF has been a member of the Boys Club of Fords upper echelon of leadership for some time. The failed launches, high warranty, and foolish cost savings (at customer expense) have all happened on his watch regardless of where he stood on the totem pole. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

Concur with @3lgq+19LWB7Mp
Those who have had exposure to Farley have seen a very dark side, a sycophant side and the chameleon side presented to the public.
I am still waiting to see positive side to his leadership. So far I am seeing botched car launches , escalating warrantee costs, bloating leadership levels and bloating non-value add staff.
Tick Tock

Phoebe:

I give you credit for coming on here and responding. I don't think that you just reprint whatever Ford PR hands you, but there has been a pattern in your articles over the last few months of extremely flattering coverage of Jim Farley. This is a little curious because if we're being honest he has not accomplished much of anything and has already overseen some disastrous launches and recalls.

It's no secret that Farley thinks very highly of himself and has been pushing his PR team to paint a picture of him as a quirky, innovative CEO in the mold of his hero Elon Musk. It seems more like his PR team puts out the bread crumbs and you pick them up. I think the issue is that most of the profiles have little to no balance whatsoever and paint the most flattering picture of Farley. Anyone who has worked with him knows he has an extremely dark side and can be extremely temperamental and cruel to his underlings. This isn't a secret and has been touched on many, many times in Peter DeLorenzo's Autoextremist blog.

To your point, its your job to paint the whole picture - good or bad - and it seems with Farley and Ford lately its all "Good guy, car guy Farley" and little to no of the negative. For what its worth I think you are a very talented writer and journalist. I urge you to dig a little deeper on the other side of the coin when it comes to our company.

The vision and plan for the blue oval is the same global vision and plan for the "globe" which is more safety, cleanliness, and equity—it's clearly spelled out in the group Farley is humbled to be a part of (probably funded by globalist billionaires with shady motives).

If it surprises you that there your rights will be dashed on the altar of a safer, cleaner, greener, more equitable vision for the world you haven't been paying attention to the takeover in progress and if you have a problem with it you will be called a racist science denier and maybe other names.

To this day I still do not know what the Vision or Plan is for the Blue Oval! I read or hear a lot of Star Trek fantasy ideas.. Waiting to hear "SCOTTY BEAM ME UP"... I was willing to give JimF a year to see where this ship is going. What I see is a guy who does not even believe in what he is saying. In watching him speak it is like an act. I am sorry but it is not believable. I saw the Townhall when Elena spoke talk about comedy. You can tell she was read a teleprompter and was having a difficult time reading it. Well this Starship Enterprise is going to "CRASH & BURN". Once F-Series starts to go so does the Ford Motor Co. Sorry JimF but You are not a leader neither is your team. Inside of 10-15 years Ford as we know it today will be a memory.

Phoebe Wall Howard-

Sorry, but very few people trust the news (the vast majority of media) anymore. We are living in a new age. Having a reporter state their news is fair and balanced, is like a used car dealership stating that their salespeople are the most honest and have the best cars in town.

I closely follow the auto industry articles in about a dozen top national newspapers and industry publications. And I can assure all of you that The Detroit Free Press’ coverage of Ford is the most fair and balanced in the industry. In contrast, The Detroit News and Automotive News ‘read’ like they are written by Ford themselves and they either, never, or almost never, do investigative reporting of issues that might upset Ford. I am not aware of any industry or national media source that has broken as many investigative reporting stories that helped remotely so many consumers get the assistance they so desperately needed.

I would suggest that only by telling it like it is on both the positive side and the investigative/negative side can one maintain credibility. Being always negative lacks as much credibility as only spinning happy, happy, joy, joy.

Dear FordX,

You wrote, "PWH: nobody believes that someone asked you to come post here. You just lost what credibility you had left."

Please note: The reader email came into my mailbox at 7:27 a.m. ET. I read it at 7:45 a.m. I wrote and submitted my response to my editor for review at 8:54 a.m., which seemed appropriate since I was representing The Free Press. He signed off at 8:59 a.m. Posted around 9:30 a.m.

@2xlm+19LWB7Mp
PWH: nobody believes that someone asked you to come post here. You just lost what credibility you had left. Just continue on, posting Ford’s press releases and pretending they are newsworthy. The exposes, yes. Farley’s race cars, we don’t care.

A longtime Free Press reader saw the comments on this site today and asked me to reply.
Please see below, if you feel it's worth your time. Thank you in advance.

1. A beat reporter's job is to cover Ford Motor Co., its executives, its workers, its factories, its financials. That includes trends and features as well as news and investigations. Frankly, we report the good, the bad and the ugly.

2. Reporting on a global commission is spotlighting what an executive is doing in detail, and shining light on transportation agenda. This is a core mission of journalism, giving the public a look behind the curtain. The story did not come from Ford or a news release. I noticed a dry brief in another news outlet and wondered about the bigger picture.

3. Reporters at the Detroit Free Press are paid by the news company. No one receives extra money, gifts or gratuity of any kind from external sources. It's prohibited. When a reader sent me a homemade wooden thank you "card" for F-150 coverage after the Texas blackout, I reimbursed him the cost of postage, value of sc-ap wood and the lacquer used. It totaled $9.95.

4. Paid digital subscriptions in 2020 prevented layoffs after a series of furloughs. For that we are grateful. Wall Street press has since reported that our company financials are getting stronger following challenges created by a merger.

5. All executives get coverage by reporters assigned to monitor company activity. At issue is whether they grant any of the hundreds of requests. Ford does not promote stories about Jim Farley. Reporters see trends and activity that may be of public interest.

6. The Detroit Free Press was the first to report on the serious problems (with photos) related to the Ford Explorer launch, the Lincoln Aviator launch, the Police Interceptor delivery delays that bruised earnings, the 2021 Ford F-150 and Mustang Mach-E quality holds, the F-150 rust issue dominating new buyer forums, the massive Focus/Fiesta lawsuit/warranties/settlement/fallout, impact on company financials, the recent F-250 lawsuit.

7. A reporter's job is to be fair, balanced and accurate. We write what people are doing, which may be perceived as both positive and negative. All reporters depend on company information related to product design and launches but otherwise content is independently reported.

8. For me, being a news reporter at The Free Press is part of a family legacy. My great uncle, Malcolm Bingay, went along with 16 other editors/publishers in 1945 as part of the first post-war congressional delegation that General Dwight D. Eisenhower sent to Germany. Bingay was widely respected as a Detroit historian, author and humorist as well as award-winning reporter/editor at the Free Press.

9. I left the San Francisco Bay Area to come back to Detroit and cover Ford. I am honored to be a journalist in a city my family has called home since 1860.

10. Constructive feedback and criticism are always welcome. Employees inside the Glass House and various Ford factories trust me with information and documents and story ideas. Feel free to reach out with story ideas anytime. I am often working on 3-5 stories at once.

Respectfully,
Phoebe Wall Howard
Automotive Reporter/Detroit Free Press
Covering Ford since October 2017
phoward@freepress.com and 313-618-1034 (cell)

Sure they want to get on the equity bandwagon to "equalize" transportation.... because equity means getting in on some of the trillions of tax dollars being redistributed by commis

Do you think it’s a coincidence that Ford’s PR boss came from the Detroit news? PWH knows that with enough fawning coverage she can secure herself a nice PR gig.

Propaganda indeed.
Let’s call it what it is a lobbyist group to influence government to issue mandates that would be advantageous to Ford. Reading through you can pick up on all the things they need the government to mandate - like oh sure collect and sell all the customer data you want.
If Ford was so interested in public transport for the disadvantaged they wouldn’t of destroyed the public transport in Metro Detroit (to force people to buy automobiles).

most "news" is not news it is propaganda and yes much of it is paid for

@qyp+19LWB7Mp
I think Ford must be paying PWH on the side. They send her press releases, she prints them as “news.” She wins twice, getting paid extra to do less work!

It seems like every other Phoebe Wall Howard article is a fawning profile of Farley. Is she his personal biographer or something? Its getting ridiculous.