Politics and Motorcycling

Well, if I'm honest, I had no plans to write anything today. I had planned to re-watch Burn Notice, maybe grab lunch with my wife, but this story has been on my mind. While I was waiting for the Amazon app to open, I opened the MCN site. If you were an early adopter to this story and clicked that link, you would notice that the tone of Motorcycle Consumer News has changed quite a bit. If you decided to take the easy way out and need an explanation, here it is: the first link to the original article has changed from one that talked about how Motorcycle Consumer News received a cease and desist letter from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, to one that doesn't reference the letter at all. I am not saying that MCN did anything wrong, really, as the editor over there did exactly what I would have done in his situation. He did some research, wrote an article, and when the lawyers associated with that article contacted him, he kinda bragged about it. He then changed the article in a manner that put the issue that he believed enough in to write about in the spotlight. Nothing wrong with that at all, no matter the reason for the change. It got me wondering, though. Would I have written anything had it been published this way in the first place?

Probably not, because here's the thing. Political bullshit sells.

I will admit that I was sucked in a bit by the drama. You will have to admit that you were too.

People viewing that article brought an increase of 3686.7% in viewership to my site. It is the most viewed piece on my site, and to get those numbers people other than me had to have shared it.

While I want to grow viewership, this is not how I want to do it. I want to be the quirky friend that you turn to when you need to know more about that bike you have been drooling over. I want to be the guy that has the epic photo from last weekend's race. I want to have fun writing about motorcycles.

The More On Motorcycles New Years resolution is to focus on the stories that promote the motorcycle industry. I will still bring the news as it happens and that might not always be positive. I will more than likely have to bring up politics from time to time, but only when those politics are threatening to harsh our collective mellow as motorcyclists. In short, given the choice between a political post and watching Burn Notice, I am going to keep the laptop closed. Judge me if you must.