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A busy day of news saw all three newscasts assign correspondents to cover three major stories: Gov Rod I will fight Blagojevich refused to resign in the face of Illinois corruption charges; a snowstorm stretching from the Great Lakes to New England stalled pre-holiday travel; and George Bush decided to lend billions to the automobile industry. "Allowing the US auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action," the President declared as he signed off on a $17bn check for General Motors and Chrysler. The Detroit bridge loan was Story of the Day and the lead item on NBC and CBS, ABC decided to lead with the winter wonderland of weather.

The automakers' $17bn has not been approved by Congress. Instead it will be paid out of the $700bn TARP fund, established to relieve the financial industry of worthless real estate assets. Senate Republicans had voted against a loan to Detroit last week and ABC's Jonathan Karl reported from the White House that they were "furious" that their own White House had made an end run around their filibuster "but at this point there is nothing they can do to stop it." From Detroit, CNBC's Phil LeBeau pointed out on NBC that Bush's $17bn was not accompanied by an "official Car Czar--just a Chief Loan Officer, who happens to be the Treasury Secretary."

ABC's Chris Bury went down the checklist of sacrifices that will be required to put the automakers' books in order: "the big sticking point is more union concessions…another tall order is wringing more out of suppliers, themselves teetering on the brink…drop entire brands and close more dealerships." CBS' Anthony Mason contradicted the notion that the pay of General Motors' assembly line workers is above industry norms: their $29 hourly rate is one dollar higher than Honda's, one dollar lower than Toyota's. General Motors' extra $20 per hour does not derive from wages but "benefits, pensions and legacy costs," he explained.

The President's car loan expires at the end of March. ABC's Karl told us that if the automakers cannot prove that they can make profits by then they will have to repay the billions, which would mean "certain bankruptcy." CBS' Mason noted that the car business is now "essentially collapsing." He concluded that "this money will not solve Detroit's problems. It is just a bridge loan until the Obama Administration." Despite the supposed strings that Bush attached to the loan, "the reality is the Obama Administration will be able to rewrite this deal if they want." David Gregory of NBC's Meet the Press imagined the President's considerate motive for keeping the industry alive through next spring: "I do not want to leave a catastrophe for my successor on Day One."

Andrew Tyndall 12/20/08 11:40:38 pm

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