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Both NBC and CBS introduced a multimedia feature series on the horrible state of the economy. CBS anchor Katie Couric kicked off a series dubbed Children of the Recession produced in partnership with USA Today. Couric's first entry profiled Safe Families, an eight-city charity for "economic orphans." Children who would otherwise be placed in the foster care system because their parents have hit hard times become temporary guests of the charity's volunteers, sometimes for a few days, at other times for more than a year.
The Elkhart Project is a year-long multimedia project of NBC News and msnbc.com profiling the Indiana manufacturing town that was once the center of the recreational vehicle industry and now suffers 20% unemployment. It seems that Elkhart's new major industry consists of posing as the poster town for hard times. CBS' Seth Doane (here and here) told us about its shuttered Dakota Restaurant. All three White House correspondents--ABC's Jake Tapper, CBS' Chip Reid, NBC's Chuck Todd--covered its need for fiscal stimulus. CBS' Dean Reynolds and ABC's Bill Weir used Elkhart to illustrate the scourge of joblessness. NBC's Kevin Tibbles showed us care packages for the hungry. ABC' Weir, again, offered the prospect of green jobs.
Now NBC's Tibbles visits again. He checked out the town's Time Was Museum to show that other industries, too, had come and gone even before Elkhart earned the nickname Trailer Town. Once upon a time Elkhart made musical instruments from the world--and then it was the home of Alka-Seltzer.
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