3 ms·

Consumer reports is funded by the Ford foundation. Interesting they didn’t mention that

3D30497420 3y ago
I'm not familiar with the Ford Foundation or its work. However, from reading their Wikipedia article, I get the sense that they are pretty independent from the Ford company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation Per Wikipedia: "Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company."
- bell-cot 3y ago
  One-layer deeper question: How much power/influence do people closely tied to Ford Motor have at the Ford Foundation? Looking here - https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/board-of-trustees/ https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/board-of-trustees/ - only Henry Ford III is an obvious "Ford Motor / Ford family" member of their Board of Trustees. Behind the scenes and deeper? Hard to know. Bigger picture: Since CR has been doing at-scale quantitative ratings of cars for decades, it should be pretty easy to run some stats, and see if they have a meaningful pro-Ford bias. Opinion: If I was running both Ford Motors and the Ford Foundation, I'd be telling CR that I wanted 100%-unvarnished-truth reviews and ratings of Ford Motors products from them. Because done-right data from CR would be a ~99%-independent check on what my underlings at Ford Motor were telling me. (And, yes, cheating in Ford's favor would be damn likely to turn into a disastrous scandal.)
  - Clubber 3y ago
    >Opinion: If I was running both Ford Motors and the Ford Foundation, I'd be telling CR that I wanted 100%-unvarnished-truth reviews and ratings of Ford Motors products from them. Because done-right data from CR would be a ~99%-independent check on what my underlings at Ford Motor were telling me. (And, yes, cheating in Ford's favor would be damn likely to turn into a disastrous scandal.) Right, but you probably wouldn't want the bad stuff published.
    - bell-cot 3y ago
      "wouldn't want the bad stuff published" meaning that I'd feel unhappy when there was bad news about Ford Motor? True. But there are half a bazillion places in the modern world where bad news about Ford Motor could originate. I'd have to be either a pathetic man-child or a control-freak mental case to think that somehow preventing CR from publishing a bit of that would give a probable net positive outcome, longer-term, for Ford Motor Co.
      - Clubber 3y ago
        >meaning that I'd feel unhappy when there was bad news about Ford Motor? True. No meaning you have good data to improve your company, that's the benefit to you. Publishing said data, particularly if you haven't improved on the data wouldn't benefit you. >I'd have to be either a pathetic man-child or a control-freak mental case to think that somehow preventing CR from publishing a bit of that would give a probable net positive outcome, longer-term, for Ford Motor Co. Or have shareholders.

I'm not familiar with the Ford Foundation or its work. However, from reading their Wikipedia article, I get the sense that they are pretty independent from the Ford company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Foundation Per Wikipedia: "Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company."

bell-cot 3y ago
One-layer deeper question: How much power/influence do people closely tied to Ford Motor have at the Ford Foundation? Looking here - https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/board-of-trustees/ https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/board-of-trustees/ - only Henry Ford III is an obvious "Ford Motor / Ford family" member of their Board of Trustees. Behind the scenes and deeper? Hard to know. Bigger picture: Since CR has been doing at-scale quantitative ratings of cars for decades, it should be pretty easy to run some stats, and see if they have a meaningful pro-Ford bias. Opinion: If I was running both Ford Motors and the Ford Foundation, I'd be telling CR that I wanted 100%-unvarnished-truth reviews and ratings of Ford Motors products from them. Because done-right data from CR would be a ~99%-independent check on what my underlings at Ford Motor were telling me. (And, yes, cheating in Ford's favor would be damn likely to turn into a disastrous scandal.)
- Clubber 3y ago
  >Opinion: If I was running both Ford Motors and the Ford Foundation, I'd be telling CR that I wanted 100%-unvarnished-truth reviews and ratings of Ford Motors products from them. Because done-right data from CR would be a ~99%-independent check on what my underlings at Ford Motor were telling me. (And, yes, cheating in Ford's favor would be damn likely to turn into a disastrous scandal.) Right, but you probably wouldn't want the bad stuff published.
  - bell-cot 3y ago
    "wouldn't want the bad stuff published" meaning that I'd feel unhappy when there was bad news about Ford Motor? True. But there are half a bazillion places in the modern world where bad news about Ford Motor could originate. I'd have to be either a pathetic man-child or a control-freak mental case to think that somehow preventing CR from publishing a bit of that would give a probable net positive outcome, longer-term, for Ford Motor Co.
    - Clubber 3y ago
      >meaning that I'd feel unhappy when there was bad news about Ford Motor? True. No meaning you have good data to improve your company, that's the benefit to you. Publishing said data, particularly if you haven't improved on the data wouldn't benefit you. >I'd have to be either a pathetic man-child or a control-freak mental case to think that somehow preventing CR from publishing a bit of that would give a probable net positive outcome, longer-term, for Ford Motor Co. Or have shareholders.