[bhauer]

You think so? I see it the other way.

Top Gear is the Daily Show of automobile journalism. Although it's entertainment, a surprising number of its viewers would cite it as their primary source of auto news.

Just as with the Daily Show audience, the Top Gear audience isn't thinking very critically about every subject presented. With that kind of audience, it's all about appearances. Merely having heard that there has been a kerfuffle over their prior coverage of Tesla is sufficient for viewers to think, "well, perhaps what I saw about Tesla on Top Gear wasn't quite accurate." In other words, since loud and silly is all that this audience can perceive, I think Musk did the right thing.

I was skeptical of Musk's reaction to the Times, but in net, I think Tesla came out of that looking seriously intolerant of journalistic hijinks. And many people respect that.

[kbenson]

I've actually thought the same thing regarding Top Gear for quite a while, and said as much in another offshoot of this thread (prior to reading this).

I was also on the side of it being a slight misstep for Tesla to make as much of an issue of the NYT and Top Gear problems, but in hindsight I think it's paid off for them. There's been so much good press now that people thinking back on the events may have a different opinion than when they first heard about it, and Tesla was less well known.

[sliverstorm]

loud and silly is all that this audience can perceive

Jesus, is there some bad blood between HN and Top Gear? Or is this the bad blood, the Tesla thing?

On second thought, I could see that being it. HN pretty much idolizes Musk after all.

[bhauer]

I love Top Gear. I love it for being loud and silly.

But, whether you and I see it as entertainment is somewhat moot when, like the Daily Show, much of its audience actually gleans the totality of their auto news intake from this entertainment show. Because, frankly, many are not interested in watching the serious news shows, automotive or otherwise.