305 The Newspaper Episode

Gary Comerford (: 00:02

If you've been following this podcast for a while, you'll know that I'm a big fan of education and fighting misinformation. We've done a number of episodes on misinformation over the years with people such as Colin Walker from the ECIU. But one area we haven't covered in detail is the national press's approach to this. If we look at social media, it's easy to see that there are a number of loud voices on there that appear to be influencing.

A lot of other people. The number of comments that talk about similar things, the cars weigh too much, they burst into flames, and the batteries die after three years, is too much to be a sheer coincidence. Which means there's a concerted effort from certain people to try and knock EVs back. There's a case to say that a lot of this is funded by big oil, although for social media, I don't have any empirical data to support that claim.

But when we come to the mainstream media, the influence is a lot more obvious and traceable.

Gary Comerford (: 01:15

But when we come to the mainstream media, the influence is a lot more obvious and traceable.

Gary Comerford (: 01:26

Hi, I'm Gary, and this is EV Musings, a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles, and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners. Many thanks for joining me today. Don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, hit the little notification bell. You know all the normal things. Thank you very much. On today's show, we'll be looking at EVs in the media. Last year, a friend of the podcast, Dan Caesar, posted something which showed the disparity.

Between public sentiment on EVs and the media sentiment. Now, I'll quote from his post. Whether it's by accident or design, a few members of the UK press represent unreliable narrators on electric vehicles and renewables. I'm at pains to point out that this is not the majority. In fact, there are many expert EV journalists who are working for newspapers who have been named. But what unites the others is that they're lack of

Gary Comerford (: 02:27

Whether it's by accident or design, a few members of the UK press represent unreliable narrators on electric vehicles and renewables. I am at pains to point out that this is not the majority. In fact, there are many EV expert journalists, many who of who work for newspapers named. But what unites the others is that their lack of real world experience of EVs. The post then went on to show how various different UK newspapers position themselves when it comes to being pro.

Or anti-EV. I'll link the post in the show notes so you can see for yourself. I do want to point out here that I'm not talking about articles and posts that point out flaws with EVs, although if you're pointing out flaws but not also pointing out the similar flaws in ICE vehicles, then I'm probably going to be taking issue with that. I'm talking about publications that will post one-sided, inaccurate articles that soak confusion and misinformation. But D smog.

An organization that charts and catalogues climate disinformation in the media did point out a few years ago that papers such as the Daily Telegraph were hosting editorials and articles from journalists who were linked to think tanks in Tufton Street, funded by the Koch brothers in the US. These think tanks were climate denying, and hence the articles were very much anti-renewables and EVs. But it's not all doom and gloom.

There are several UK publications that seem to be posting more and more positive articles. The Guardian is one, and I did an interview with Jasper Jolly from The Guardian last year for an article he wrote on buying a second hand electric car. I also note that previously negative publications such as the aforementioned Telegraph and the Daily Mail are also starting to post fewer and fewer negative stories about EVs and climate, although anything that involves somebody's poor experience with charging.

or travelling long distances is treated exactly as you would expect it to be treated.

Gary Comerford (: 04:29

But I want to talk today a little about the role of the mainstream media in EV uptake. And to do that, I'm joined by Tom Riley. Now I think that was a great discussion with Tom, and it just goes to prove that with many areas of mainstream media, the pressures being applied to journalists are quite intense and often produce the wrong results in the long term. It's also good to hear that a lot of the mainstream media are starting to come around to things like EVs.

Tom's comment about the Sun newspaper discussing the MG as the best car whilst also trying to denigrate EVs was quite interesting, I thought.

Gary Comerford (: 05:10

There's a link to Tom's newsletter, The Fast Charge, in the show notes. Please subscribe if you can. He puts out really good, really well-researched articles and materials every week, and it's well worth a read. I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show. It was put together this week with the help of Tom Riley from the Fast Charge newsletter. Many thanks for his time.

If you've reached this part of the podcast and are still listening, thank you. Why not let me know you've got to this point by messaging me at musingzv.bskysocial with the words Paddling in the mainstream. Hashtag if you know you know, nothing else. And thanks as always to my co-founder Simon. You know he's been accused of being a Tesla lover, he's been accused of being a Tesla hater. He's certainly got some things to say about his Model Y that are not too complimentary.

Tom Riley (: 05:25

But the one thing he's always maintained

I must not lust after Musk

Gary Comerford (: 05:17

thanks for listening. Bye bye now.