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After a three-day hiatus with the Story of the Day focusing on political hijinks from Illinois, the networks returned to the serious business of the imminent collapse of the Detroit-based automobile industry. All three networks led with the failure of a federal $14bn loan plan to pass the Senate as the Republican minority upheld a filibuster. CBS and ABC, with substitute anchor George Stephanopoulos, led from Capitol Hill while NBC led from Detroit.

The trio of American car firms has not collapsed yet--although ABC's Jonathan Karl pointed out that both Chrysler and General Motors have hired law firms that specialize in bankruptcy. The White House issued a statement promising to "consider other options" concerning the $14bn to keep the firms in business through the first quarter of 2009. Karl explained that "that was a reference to the $700bn financial bailout program," which, conveniently, has $15bn remaining for the Treasury Department to spend. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson reflected that "up until today the White House had insisted it would not use the giant Wall Street bailout fund for the auto industry. Now it seems the most likely source of help."

CBS anchor Katie Couric aired an interview with Ron Gettelfinger, the president of the United Autoworkers union. He predicted that bankruptcy reorganization would not save Detroit: "When one of these companies goes into Chapter 11, they are going to go from there to Chapter 7 and they are going to dissolve. The company will no longer exist."

While ABC had George Stephanopoulos of This Week anchor its newscast, his Sunday morning rivals appeared as guests on the other two newscasts. David Gregory, the newly appointed host of NBC's Meet the Press distinguished between the $14bn nixed for Detroit and the $700bn granted to Wall Street. A bank failure posed "systemic risks to the economy" while there are "a lot of questions about the future viability of the Big Three." Bob Schieffer (no link) of CBS' Face the Nation opined that "it was a very easy vote for Republicans" to oppose the Detroit loan since it was "overwhelmingly unpopular…with the public in general."

CBS' Attkisson added that it is "worth noting" that many of the Republican senators opposing the loans represented states with factories run by Detroit's competitors: BMW in South Carolina, Honda and Mercedes Benz in Alabama "to name just a few."

Andrew Tyndall 12/15/08 8:21:23 pm

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