Many moons ago when my blog gills were infinitely greener than they are now I managed to get into a little discussion with GM’s head marketing mullah, Michael Wiley, about the various merits of their Smallblock Blog. (Read here.)

I’ve remained sceptical about the prozac-infused nature of GM’s blogging ever since.

And so, it seems, is Tom Rapsas at DM News.

Running on fumes. I hate to pick on GM. My family drives two GM cars. But its corporate blog appears little more than an extension of the marketing department, churning out a one-way sales spiel that I fear few listen to (see fastlane.gmblogs.com).

GM uses several bloggers, and a recent look showed a variety of stories. There was advance word on three new Saturn models. There was a blog on a recent TV appearance by the CEO. In short, it was good news all the time. But in the same period I read these positive blog entries, mainstream press suggested GM was going through its biggest crisis ever. In a span of about 10 days, the company had offered buyouts to 100,000 hourly workers to try to avert a strike. There was the announced layoff of 500 white-collar workers. Then there was a massive accounting restatement that cut the company’s debt ratings and sent its stock plummeting.

As this news came out, I kept visiting the GM site, waiting for any of the GM bloggers to give me insight into what was going on. But the good news blog entries kept coming. It was as if the bloggers were living in a bubble, oblivious to the negative news all around them — the reality almost certainly being that someone from corporate squashed the idea of dealing with these issues directly.

Not only does ask the right questions of GM’s blogs but he then goes on to do a compare and contrast with The Tinbasher whilst throwing quite a few salient pointers for any other prospective corporate bloggers out there.

You don’t know how you’ve made my day, Tom. ;-)