[bwilson4web]

Hi,

For years, there has been a practice of putting out sensational but false claims so self-proclaimed news organizations could publish a story about the false claim. In some cases, formerly fact-checking news organizations would get suckered in an report a story about a story about a false claim. For example, Matt Drudge, Andrew Breitbart or James O'Keefe sourced stories have shown a pattern of false claims echoed by self-proclaimed but overtly biased 'news' sources. Then lazy or complicit news companies run a story about a story and become complicit in many false claims. It is a familiar pattern so when I heard this in my morning podcast:

http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/daily/?p=16442

. . .
GOLDEN STATE MANDATE (subscription required)
Here we go again. California is dredging up another proposal forcing car companies to sell thousands of electric vehicles or zero-emission cars. According to the Wall Street Journal, the proposal requires that 5.5 percent of all new-car sales by 2018 would have to be zero-emission. That amounts to 81,000 vehicles. That number would rise to 14 percent by 2025, translating into 227,000 electric or fuel-cell cars. The rule applies to automakers that sell 20,000 vehicles or more a year in the state. But the car companies say there isn’t enough demand and that the infrastructure to support them isn’t there yet. Here’s my Autoline Insight. This is the third time that California has tried to force the issue on EVs. The prior efforts failed because while you can force automakers to build electric cars, you can’t force consumers to buy them. And not enough people bought them.
. . .

Remember, GM crushed every EV1 rather than let owners buy them. Only a few electric vehicles survived the 1990s EV mandate, the Toyota RAV-4 being a notable example. GM in particular made sure no one could buy them!

Well I noticed Google news had a recent burst of electric car skeptic reports:

• Homes not quite ready to charge electric cars
• Dead Battery Jitters
• Greenwashing - Electric Cars and Innovation Stalled

Now this could have just been a random occurrence of critical articles . . . but the abuses by those who exploit news media makes heightened awareness when the pattern appears to be repeating.

Bob Wilson