Harley Davidson Wimps Out?

It's hard to think of anything more contrary to the brand they've tried to build than not doing what you wanted to do because you're afraid of protests. It'll be fun trying to salvage their reputation after this.

UPDATE: There is some debate about the facts. See the comments.

UPDATE: Due to the events of a few days later, it looks as if the CNN story was 'fake news.'

14 comments:

Joel Leggett said...

Grim, am I missing something or did you not read the story you linked to. Some unidentified "administration source" says Harley Davidson canceled the visit. Harley Davidson said there was no visit planned for either the factory or their museum. However, they did publicly state that they would welcome a visit from the president, as they have for the last five presidents. Please explain how that demonstrates "Harley Davidson wimps out." I don't recommend just relying on CNN's headlines as a source of accurate reporting. It looks like, if anything, the "administration source" was mistaken, ill-informed, or the planning for this visit was executed with the same care as the roll out for the visa/refugee initiative (lack of communication between necessary parties). If Harley was afraid to host the president they wouldn't publicly invite him to visit.

Anonymous said...

Dad29 lives in Wisconsin,so we have a local source for this news.


http://dad29.blogspot.com/2017/02/harley-cancels-trump-appearance.html



Joel Leggett said...

Uh, your local news source links right back to and quotes the very same CNN story Grim linked to in the first place.

Grim said...

All the stories I can find about it track to CNN as the source. I suppose CNN could possibly have made it up, although the logic of the move is clear enough given how Uber's been punished for even having the appearance of supporting Trump. If it were any corporation besides Harley, that logic would be enough to make the move plausible. But it's so much against their brand that I'd have to think it would make them think twice.

Joel Leggett said...

I guess it's possible Harley is lying about the visit but they claim no such visit was ever scheduled and they have extended an invitation for Trump to visit their plant. If they were looking to avoid protests associated with a visit why extend an invitation? I think this is more exaggeration than lying by CNN. I'm am more willing to accept Harley's public statement than a claim from an anonymous "administration source."

Anonymous said...

uh Joel, Dad29 is very tuned into local politics. Don't dismiss his take on the local politics he has written often about the company and has a grasp of their politics, including being over taxed, and being located in a swing state. Take a look at all of these blog posts:

http://dad29.blogspot.com/search?q=Harley-Davidson

Second CNN is extremely biased and partisan. There not called the Clinton News Network for nothing.

Third, Harley is a global company with plants all over the world
http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/h-d/en_US/company/locations.html

So are the Globalists or Nationalist/populists?

Grim said...

CNN's bias plays into Joel's reading, though. On the "CNN is lying" horn of the dilemma, CNN's so-called administrative source is fake; as D29 points out, a Soros-backed 'protest' group is claiming credit for canceling a visit that was never planned. CNN is a plausible source for disseminating this misinformation. Some central planner sent the fake story to CNN, and had the pre-planned 'protest' group ready to claim credit for the canceling of a visit that was never supposed to happen.

On the "Harley Davidson is hiding the truth" horn, there really was a visit. The claim that it was never on the schedule is either a deception or a shaded truth (e.g., the visit was never published on the schedule for security reasons, but corporate officers had agreed to it and were planning to have it). They had plausible reasons for backing out, and -- on this model -- the reason for pretending the visit was 'never scheduled' is that it might cut down on the damage to the brand.

Both of these horns are plausible readings of the facts in evidence. I wonder how many of these "guess who is telling the truth?" stories we're going to have to deal with in the Trump era?

E Hines said...

What's your source for there really was a visit?

The only visit the ABC affiliate at Anonymous' comment link above was willing to identify was to Milwaukee. Harley-Davidson was never involved, except through the affiliate's citing CNN and the latter's carefully anonymous source.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

I'm not claiming a source that would determine as true that there 'really was a visit.' I'm entertaining two hypotheticals, on one of which there really was, and on the other of which there never was.

E Hines said...

Per the mid-day-ish White House Press briefing in progress, a meeting between Harley and Trump was discussed, with no location yet in mind. The final resolution was that it would be easier for Harley's execs to go to DC than for Trump to go to Harley's facility. Date of the meet is tbd.

Eric Hines

Christopher B said...

I have begun assuming that any story in the FNM about Trump is written in the most hyserically negative language that can be tortured out of the facts by methods way worse than waterboarding, for instance this header in the NY Daily News regarding a raid on a terrorist in Yemen

First President Trump-ordered raid kills 8-year-old American girl, six years after her teenage brother died in drone strike

Grim said...

Indeed, the same raid that was just discussed here under the heading of "A Former Operator Writes on Yemen." I was aware of the child's death -- The Intercept wrote about it too. Whose fault is it that al Qaeda's children keep ending up right next to al Qaeda principals? Not the Navy SEALs, I assure you, who would very much prefer to meet them in a fair fight if one could be arranged.

E Hines said...

I'm not convinced that a fair fight with SEALs would be all that fair.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

I should hope not. They'd hardly be doing their jobs if it were.