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The day's major domestic story was the follow-up to Monday's federal deadlines for General Motors and Chrysler to put their business plans in order. Both ABC and NBC followed GM's new boss Frederick Henderson back to Detroit. "The old GM is dead and a new one is emerging," CNBC's Phil LeBeau announced on NBC, "the goal--a smaller, leaner and profitable company." LeBeau envisioned a GM comprising of just two divisions--Cadillac and Chevrolet--with hundreds of dealerships dropped and European operations scaled back. ABC's Chris Bury heard the "bankruptcy timebomb ticking" in Motor City. He saw "more plant closings, more cuts in wages and healthcare."
ABC's Bury cautioned that "none of the frantic efforts under way matter much if Americans do not start buying more cars." In 2005, CBS' Anthony Mason reminded us, the nationwide market for new vehicles was almost 17m units; it is now on track for a 9m annual rate. Mason summarized "a new package of buyer incentives" including protection in the event of layoffs, guaranteed trade-in values when new purchases are made, tax deductions and a possible plan to subsidize the exchange of "old gas-guzzling clunkers for new fuel-efficient cars."
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