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Leaving the day's headlines aside, the economy continues to dominate the networks' news agenda even in its feature coverage. The collapse of the housing market has hit the inland economy of southern California--Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario--harder than almost any other region, NBC's George Lewis told us. It has "some of the highest unemployment numbers in the country," predicted to rise to 12.5% by early 2010. "It would not be as bad as the Great Depression," was Lewis' consolation, "but bad enough if you are looking for work right now."
For a tearjerker, ABC's Neal Karlinsky brought us the plight of the homeless. Street people will be fed this Thanksgiving because of a food drive organized by Brendan Brenden Foster, an eleven-year-old boy. Foster saw the hungry homeless as he traveled home from hospital where he was told that his leukemia was terminal and he had two weeks to live. He "decided to focus all his remaining energy on feeding the homeless" until he died in his mother's arms last week.
A cheerful Thanksgiving note was struck by ABC's Ryan Owens (embargoed link). He showed us filling station signs with gasoline priced in the ones. A family minivan trip from Dallas to grandmother's house in St Louis and back would have cost $205 for the Fourth of July holiday, Owens calculated. For Thanksgiving the tag for the round trip will be $94.
CBS' Anthony Mason brought us the Fisker Karma, the plug-in hybrid automobile, backed by the government of Qatar, that will go on sale before Chevrolet's Volt. The Karma is designed by Henrik Fisker, who has worked for BMW and Aston Martin. Its top speed is 125 mph; its efficiency is 100 mpg; its entire roof is a curved solar panel; its purchase price is $80,000.
Tiger Woods felt the downside of the automobile news coming out of Detroit as Buick Motors canceled its sponsorship contract with the golf star, even though he is "the gold-plated brand of American advertising," as NBC's Mike Taibbi put it. Taibbi generalized that hard corporate times will blow a cold wind through the world of big-time sports, even though bailed-out Citigroup is still naming the New York Mets' new ballfield and part-nationalized AIG still has its logo on Manchester United's players' chests. General Motors has not only cut Woods, it will not run a single commercial during the NFL's Super Bowl telecast and has axed its sponsorship for NBC Sports' marquee event, the Olympic Games.
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