Car Dealers' Protest

In late September, the Portland Oregonian carried a syndicated column by Chicago Daily News Writer Mike Royko lambasting the average automobile salesman as a "sneaky liar" and lamenting the fact that "the cornerstone of our economy is based on double-talking, deceitful confidence men." Warming to his subject, Royko added: "No other major industry takes it for granted that we know the salesmen are lying and that they know we know they are lying. Even an alderman tries to keep up an honest front."

The splenetic outburst was sent out to 100 papers but stirred up organized protest only in Portland. There the Auto Dealers Association decided to withdraw, for 30 days, their classified ads in the Newhouse-owned Oregonian and its sister paper, the Oregon Journal. "Not that we were trying to intimidate or look for power," explained Chevrolet Dealer Ron Tonkin. "We just wanted to be heard."

Oregonian Publisher Robert Notson, whose paper stands to lose at least $100,000 from the advertising boycott, declared: "I don't enjoy the loss of business, but I also don't enjoy the suggestion that an outside group can in effect shape our editorial policy." The paper conceded in an editorial note, however, that Royko's "generalizations" were "unwarranted, certainly in the Portland area."

By week's end the dealers were beginning to act a little sheepish about the whole affair. One of their colleagues, Chevrolet Dealer Lyman Slack, called the boycott "as poor a display of business judgment as I've seen in many a year."

Meanwhile, car dealers all over Chicago were phoning Mike Royko in protest. In a follow-up piece he wrote that he would stand his ground until "I start hearing from happy car buyers and satisfied service-department customers." The Oregonian prudently decided not to run the second column.

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