Note: We spell Ueber with the - correct - extra "e" to avoid confusion with a company name.
Life as a journalist is hard. If you don't believe it, check out Lewis Lapham: Rookie Reporter.
That was 1957, and nothing has changed, except for the internet.
Today, rookies are called interns, and the plum jobs still go to those who lived through the experience.
One specialty in the multi-facetted world of not-writing-books-for-money is the motor journalist, the auto journalist. They report for every sort of media outlet, from the run of the mill tabloid to the glossy car magazine, from the one minute NPR segment to the half hour Your motor and You TV show.
The kind of person who gravitates to writing about motors tends to be outgoing, more self-assured and certainly much louder than, say, the classical music specialist. Motor journalists make the description of a McPherson strut sound sexy and their photographer brethren have the enviable job of presenting not very dressed women on, in, and around shiny cars, bikes, and trucks.
If you are interested in a hierarchy of the motor journo trade, it goes something like this: luxury cars, bikes, all other cars, trucks, agricultural, followed by the rest of the utility movers.
These journalists have real power, and auto makers take good care of them when they invite them to their regular road tests.
One important part of caring for auto journalists are gifts.
While you and I are pleased to find a bonbon, or a piece of candy on the pillow of our Motel California, auto journalists are used to finer things. Standard shwag is a given, and they take that with the sort of cultivated disdain that says I am doing you a favor by taking your pens, your stationary, the mug and what not.
The stars of the motor mags are accustomed to better: TV sets, brand name coats, a smart phone or a tablet computer - that's the level.
And they will claim what's due. There are episodes of the gentlemen (mostly) sprinting out of their hotel rooms half a minute after opening the door for the first time, arriving out of breath at the event organizers (ladies, mostly), puffing up into a majestic posture: where's my flat screen TV/monitor?
Some will boot their laptops only after the Ueber-shwag is settled.
Next time you buy a luxury car:
1. Negotiate the price
2. When asked for your field of work, say journalism, unless you are a lawyer
Enjoy the ride.
[Update 3/16/2016] We found this German study of corruption in German journalism. It has extensive examples from the auto industry but also, unlike our post, details from other industries and is well worth reading (it is in German, though).
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