It's not very often that The Washington Post publishes letters to the editor that call the newspaper out for liberal bias, so Saturday's paper carried a treat from Susan Abbondanzo of Silver Spring, Maryland:
Warren Brown has again injected liberal political bias into his car review [“Too fast for this world, not fast enough for that one,” Dec. 14, The Car Pages]. This time he made a comment about a time when he thought “that ‘global warming’ was a bad joke.”
This is the second time in three weeks that Brown has done this. In his Nov. 30 review, “A reborn sedan leaves its rocky past in the dust,” he glowingly compared the 2015 Chrysler 200 to the Affordable Care Act. The majority of Americans do not approve of Obamacare. Many of us also know that global warming is a bad joke.
I object to seeing political bias in a car review and wish to advise Brown that global warming is an inaccurate term that has been replaced by “climate change.” -- Susan Abbondanzo, Silver Spring, Md.
Obviously, the car reviewer is writing an opinion column, but readers expect those opinions not to ramble into praise for the president's wonderful (if dreadfully unpopular) programs. In his December "On Wheels" review of the Dodge Charger, Brown ended with this observation about his youthful "ignorance" and climate change:
Where could I possibly drive a 707-horsepower Hellcat? On the racetrack? What’s the point?
The answer to that question rests in the ignorance and eternal optimism of youth. There once was a time when I thought that the only point of driving was going fast, burning fuel as quickly as it could be burned, getting from Point A to Point B only to race back to Point A again.
But that is when I thought oil was forever, that “global warming” was a bad joke, that there would always be enough space somewhere in the world for me to go as fast as I wanted to go without penalty.
I know much better now.
This is how the November 30 review began and ended with dazzled-by-Obamacare references:
The 2015 Chrysler 200 sedan is a motorized version of the Affordable Care Act. In this case, it is a well-conceived, exceptionally well-executed midsize family sedan that is attractive, complete (when ordered with Premium Group equipment) and affordable, especially compared with midsize sedans costing $30,000 or more....
The 200 is an impressive remake of a car that began as something of a disaster. If it is an indication of what we can expect from future work at Fiat Chrysler Automotive, I eagerly await more.
