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ABC Takes a Swipe at
American Auto Industry
Gibson continues media focus on
declining Big Three automakers, despite other companies’ new
factories.
By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
June 2, 2006
Newly-installed “World News Tonight” anchor Charles
Gibson painted the American auto industry in dire straits on the
June 1 broadcast, continuing his network’s habit of ignoring where
the industry is growing: outside of Detroit’s “Big Three.”
“There was more bad news for the American
auto industry today. General Motors (NYSE:
GM) and
Chrysler (NYSE:
DCX)
posted double digit declines in sales for May,” while Ford (NYSE:
F)
lost 2 percent, Gibson reported, blaming “high fuel prices and
increasing demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.”
While Gibson added that Toyota (NYSE:
TM)
and Honda (NYSE:
HMC) saw increases
of 17 and 16 percent respectively, he left out just how American
those Japanese companies are, expanding jobs and capital investment
in production facilities throughout the United States.
“Honda announced plans for its sixth North
American car assembly factory last month and Toyota will open a
plant in Texas this year,”
Bloomberg News reported on June 2.
The
Associated Press
reported on May 28 that Honda’s new 1,500-job plant slated for the
Midwest is just one part of a “$1.18 billion global expansion,” and
should boost North American “production capacity from 1.4 million to
1.6 million vehicles a year.”
Aside from direct employment in the new plant, Honda’s suppliers in
Ohio are expected to see gains in business from increased domestic
production. “The supplier jobs – that's huge,” the AP quoted Erich
Merkle, an analyst with automotive research firm IRN, Inc. “You're
going to have to see Honda's supplier base expand to keep up with
demand,” he added.
As for Toyota,
ReliablePlant.com
recently noted that 20 years after opening its “first wholly owned
U.S. facility” in Kentucky, the Japanese automaker now “directly
employs 38,000” workers in North America with a total of $16.8
billion invested in everything from sales and manufacturing to
“financial services and design.”
Aside from the jobs foreign automakers produce within the United
States, millions of investors benefit from holding stock in these
companies – another angle which ABC has left out of its stories.
Pessimistic reporting on the U.S. auto
industry is nothing new for ABC News. In March, the
Business & Media Institute documented how the network portrayed Detroit’s problems as a pox on
the entire U.S. auto industry, and how it found a downside to the
plan by Kia Motors to open a plant in
West Point, Ga.
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