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2MuchMark · 06-12-2010, 08:06 AM

Top Gear, is bullshit.

Top Gear is a comedy show that happens to be about cars, and as they have done with other cars reviewed in the program, they fabricated issues with the car to cause drama and gain ratings.

Many people are calling Top Gear out on their fallacies including:

Edmunds.com:
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...e-claimed.html

Tesla Roadster Reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson Didn't Run Out of Juice as He Claimed
Last week Jeremy Clarkson, Britain's most famous auto reviewer, reviewed a Tesla Roadster.

----------
Clarkson and crew pushing Roadster after it supposedly ran out of electricity.
----------

His test drive was recorded on video and appeared on Britain's Top Gear Web site, which is owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd. The video also appeared on YouTube as well as many dozens of automotive Web sites and blogs.

Why? For one thing, because Clarkson has attained celebrity status in many circles, but moreover because he claimed -- and the video apparently showed -- that the much-publicized $109,000 battery-electric Roadster ran out of juice after only 55 miles and then broke down!

Shocking! Outrageous! And sure to generate maximum exposure for Clarkson.

Except the Roadster, which its U.S. manufacturer claims can go 220 miles on a charge, didn't run out of electricity and didn't break down. Those two salient bits of information were fabricated. As in made up. As in didn't really happen.

OK. So Clarkson would appear to be more interested in his popularity than, say, the truth. And he would appear not to care that his reviews have financial consequences -- for the people who make, invest in, own or have placed deposits on the cars he reviews.

So Clarkson's a bum, some might say, for the reasons just mentioned and for tarnishing the reputations of Top Gear and the BBC. Some might say, Big deal, like tabloid journalism wasn't born in England!

Bad Journalism

But here's what's most distressing to real journalists and people who value good journalism: The BBC -- a supposed rock of journalistic excellence -- has done all it can to bury the story of its video.

We challenge you to find a copy of it on the Web right now (update: see Comments, below). It could be found all over the Web last week, but this week? Sorry.

Well here's what's up with that: If you want to get a company that doesn't own the copyright to a video to stop showing the video, you threaten to sue for copyright infringement.

And that's what the BBC has done. The video was widely posted on YouTube last week, but today this is all we were able to find in the YouTube spaces the video had occupied:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BBC Worldwide Ltd."

Now it is possible that the video still appears somewhere on YouTube -- and please tell us if you locate it -- but that sentence prompted by the BBC is all we could find (and we did see it multiple times) when we conducted our search earlier today.

As for the photo appearing here that was taken from the video? The one showing Clarkson beside the driver's door and other people at the rear of the Roadster pushing into a garage after it reportedly but untruthfully ran out of electricity?

Uh, huh. Sure.

A spokeswoman for Top Gear said the car was videotaped being pushed in order to show what would happen if the Roadster had run out of charge. That's interesting, because nowhere in the video were there words to that effect.

But if you believe her explanation, we've got a bridge we'd like to sell you.

Not to make a federal case out of this, but we did seek comment from Tesla about Clarkson's review. Company spokeswoman Rachel Konrad told us today that the portion of the review dealing with the short driving range and brake failure baffled the folks at the automaker's headquarters in San Carlos, California.

Each Roadster is equipped with a memory stick that acts much like a flight data recorder does, she said. That would be the so-called "black box" that accident investigators are always eager to get their mitts on when a jetliner goes down because it records systems information that might help them determine the cause of the crash.

The Roadster's memory stick works much the same way, constantly recording systems data when the sports car is in use. While Clarkson said the silver Roadster he was driving (he briefly tested a dark-gray one as well) had run out of power after only 55 miles, the vehicle's memory stick said otherwise.

Indeed, neither of the two Roadsters Clarkson drove had less than a 20 percent state of charge while the vehicles were in Clarkson's control, Konrad said, "So we at Tesla were all a bit perplexed as to why they aired footage of Clarkson and crew pushing one into a garage."

"Now we have an answer," she said.

Here's a few more:

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson under fire over Tesla electric car test drive
The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...a-electric-car

Etc,

AutoBlog:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/22/b...ar-complaints/

Etc,

Jalopnik:
http://jalopnik.com/5115617/shocking...n-out-of-juice

Etc...

06-12-2010, 08:06 AM
2MuchMark Videochat Solutions Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 48,540	Top Gear, is bullshit. Top Gear is a comedy show that happens to be about cars, and as they have done with other cars reviewed in the program, they fabricated issues with the car to cause drama and gain ratings. Many people are calling Top Gear out on their fallacies including: Edmunds.com: http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...e-claimed.html Tesla Roadster Reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson Didn't Run Out of Juice as He Claimed Last week Jeremy Clarkson, Britain's most famous auto reviewer, reviewed a Tesla Roadster. ---------- Clarkson and crew pushing Roadster after it supposedly ran out of electricity. ---------- His test drive was recorded on video and appeared on Britain's Top Gear Web site, which is owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd. The video also appeared on YouTube as well as many dozens of automotive Web sites and blogs. Why? For one thing, because Clarkson has attained celebrity status in many circles, but moreover because he claimed -- and the video apparently showed -- that the much-publicized $109,000 battery-electric Roadster ran out of juice after only 55 miles and then broke down! Shocking! Outrageous! And sure to generate maximum exposure for Clarkson. Except the Roadster, which its U.S. manufacturer claims can go 220 miles on a charge, didn't run out of electricity and didn't break down. Those two salient bits of information were fabricated. As in made up. As in didn't really happen. OK. So Clarkson would appear to be more interested in his popularity than, say, the truth. And he would appear not to care that his reviews have financial consequences -- for the people who make, invest in, own or have placed deposits on the cars he reviews. So Clarkson's a bum, some might say, for the reasons just mentioned and for tarnishing the reputations of Top Gear and the BBC. Some might say, Big deal, like tabloid journalism wasn't born in England! Bad Journalism But here's what's most distressing to real journalists and people who value good journalism: The BBC -- a supposed rock of journalistic excellence -- has done all it can to bury the story of its video. We challenge you to find a copy of it on the Web right now (update: see Comments, below). It could be found all over the Web last week, but this week? Sorry. Well here's what's up with that: If you want to get a company that doesn't own the copyright to a video to stop showing the video, you threaten to sue for copyright infringement. And that's what the BBC has done. The video was widely posted on YouTube last week, but today this is all we were able to find in the YouTube spaces the video had occupied: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BBC Worldwide Ltd." Now it is possible that the video still appears somewhere on YouTube -- and please tell us if you locate it -- but that sentence prompted by the BBC is all we could find (and we did see it multiple times) when we conducted our search earlier today. As for the photo appearing here that was taken from the video? The one showing Clarkson beside the driver's door and other people at the rear of the Roadster pushing into a garage after it reportedly but untruthfully ran out of electricity? Uh, huh. Sure. A spokeswoman for Top Gear said the car was videotaped being pushed in order to show what would happen if the Roadster had run out of charge. That's interesting, because nowhere in the video were there words to that effect. But if you believe her explanation, we've got a bridge we'd like to sell you. Not to make a federal case out of this, but we did seek comment from Tesla about Clarkson's review. Company spokeswoman Rachel Konrad told us today that the portion of the review dealing with the short driving range and brake failure baffled the folks at the automaker's headquarters in San Carlos, California. Each Roadster is equipped with a memory stick that acts much like a flight data recorder does, she said. That would be the so-called "black box" that accident investigators are always eager to get their mitts on when a jetliner goes down because it records systems information that might help them determine the cause of the crash. The Roadster's memory stick works much the same way, constantly recording systems data when the sports car is in use. While Clarkson said the silver Roadster he was driving (he briefly tested a dark-gray one as well) had run out of power after only 55 miles, the vehicle's memory stick said otherwise. Indeed, neither of the two Roadsters Clarkson drove had less than a 20 percent state of charge while the vehicles were in Clarkson's control, Konrad said, "So we at Tesla were all a bit perplexed as to why they aired footage of Clarkson and crew pushing one into a garage." "Now we have an answer," she said. Here's a few more: Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson under fire over Tesla electric car test drive The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...a-electric-car Etc, AutoBlog: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/22/b...ar-complaints/ Etc, Jalopnik: http://jalopnik.com/5115617/shocking...n-out-of-juice Etc... __________________ VideoChat Solutions \| Custom Software \| IT Support https://www.2much.net \| https://www.lcntech.com