 |
         
|
It was a frightful day of economic news. "Consumers have closed up their wallets in collective economic shock," was how Sandra Hughes put it on CBS, with stores being shuttered by Mervyn's, Linens 'n' Things and Circuit City. NBC's Chris Jansing called October's retail sales statistics "nothing short of disastrous, much worse than forecast." Executives from Detroit's Big Three automobile companies trooped up to Capitol Hill to plead for $25bn in federal loans to help make their healthcare payments. CNBC's Phil LeBeau told us that the firms are "facing a cash crunch with sales at a 25-year low." General Motors, for example, is "burning through more than $1bn a month." ABC's Betsy Stark (no link) checked the selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 9.7% in two days, and warned that "tomorrow is likely to bring more bad news" as unemployment statistics for October are expected to record another 200,000 cut from payrolls.
Seth Doane, at CBS, has been running a depressing series for the last five months on economic hard times, dubbed The Other America. Doane's latest installment focused on the Dakota Restaurant in Elkhart Ind, which may be forced out of business because of the slowdown at the local RV plant. His video cameras were on hand as owner Glen Meert warned his workforce that they have 30 days to find a new job--in a town with an unemployment rate that is worse than 10%.
There is no problem with Doane's relentlessly downbeat focus--in these times his beat seems appropriate--but perhaps his series' title will soon need a tweak. How about The Actual America?
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
