In anticipation of Michigan's GOP primary the liberal media have been
playing up Barack Obama as the savior of Detroit and turning Mitt Romney
into its villain. Even though the auto bailout has cost taxpayers $14 billion [1] the liberal media have been championing Detroit's "comeback" as a victory for the Obama administration.
On Thursday's CBS Evening News, Dean Reynolds practically
crowed, as he asked GM Chairman Daniel Akerson: "Did President Obama
save General Motors?" Reynolds then pointed out how Romney "argued the
bailout was unnecessary, and that the regular bankruptcy process would
have made GM and Chrysler stronger companies" and asked, "Would that
have happened?" Akerson, dutifully responded that if not for the
bailout: "You could have written off this company, this industry and
this country."
Over on ABC's World News, anchor Diane Sawyer cheered: "What a
comeback, tonight, for an American giant, General Motors, announcing a
$7.6 billion profit last year -- the biggest in the 103-year history of
GM. And this rebound comes just two years after GM emerged from
bankruptcy, with the help of that bailout by taxpayers." (More on those CBS and ABC takes [2].)
NBC's Brian Williams, couldn't wait to tell his viewers about the success of the government bailout as he opened Thursday's NBC Nightly News:
"Good evening. After something of a near death experience, a huge
government bailout, and a lot of hard work General Motors, that
thoroughly American brand name, is tonight reporting its largest ever
profit for last year, $7.6 billion." The previous night Williams
proclaimed: "The fight for Michigan as Mitt Romney scrambles to explain
to the voters in his home state why he thought the auto industry should
be allowed to fail."
On Thursday morning, CNN's Soledad O'Brien also cast Romney as the enemy of Detroit as she grilled Republican Congressman and Romney special advisor Mike Rogers: "He was against the bailout, and the bailout looking back now, has been successful. Isn't that just standing on the wrong side at the end of the day?"
On Wednesday's World News ABC's David Muir, in a preview of the
Michigan primary, charged: "Michigan was once considered hallowed
ground for Romney, it's where he grew up, where his father George was
President of American Motors in the 1950s and later Governor." Muir
continued: "Tonight, Romney is hoping voters remember those roots. But
many blue-collar voters here remember something else, what Mitt Romney
said about the auto bailout, writing this op-ed, 'Let Detroit Go
Bankrupt,' arguing: 'If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the
bailout, you can kiss the American automotive industry good-bye.'"
Muir then found three Chrysler workers to brag about how the Obama
administration's auto bailout had "worked" and "it would have been
devastating" if Romney had his way. Muir, as the MRC's Brent Baker [3] noticed, went on to cue up the workers to confirm "all of you had your jobs saved?"
Muir did note that "Romney says it's the billions in government bailout
money that came with it that was a sweetheart deal for the unions,' but
countered with a sympathetic 'Michigan mother' who declared: "It
worked. The results show for themselves. We are on our way back. We are
being profitable again." Muir proceeded to a man who, he relayed, "says
it wasn't just his job saved, it was the police officer, the teacher."
Muir did challenge the mother: "There is an argument, that
it shouldn't have been the government. It should have been a private
entity," but then allowed her to rebut, "Yes, but who? Who has the
money? What private entity would have saved an industry? Oprah? Where
are we going to get that money from?"
Viewers of the current hype over Obama's bailout got an early preview of
it, in the furor over Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad. On the February
8, 2012 Today show, advertising executive Donny Deutsch
condemned critics who thought the ad doubled as a campaign contribution
to Obama as he denounced: "Republicans should be quiet because by saying
this is a Barack ad, you're saying this is America the beautiful,
America is on its way back....They're looking like fools....And by the
way, Barack did make the move to save the auto industry. Like him or
not, that's a fact." Earlier in the discussion, Deutsch's fellow
panelist, attorney Star Jones, expressed the same sentiment: "The truth
hurts. I mean, if, in fact, the country is coming back and it benefits
this administration, then they reap that benefit."
NBC's Matt Lauer laid the groundwork for the current round of Obama
bailout celebration and Romney criticism back on the December 8, 2011 Today
show when he pushed Romney endorser and former Vice President Dan
Quayle to admit that the former Massachusetts governor was wrong:
"[He] said, 'You know what? Let Chrysler fail.'...There would have been
thousands of jobs lost. Did he get it wrong? Did President Obama get it
right by bailing out the auto industry?"
Going even further back, NBC's David Gregory, back on the June 3, 2011 Today show hailed that the auto bailout was a "gutsy call by the President." That same morning, over on CBS's The Early Show,
the aforementioned Reynolds cheered: "the President is coming to this
Jeep assembly plant his policies have directly affected. It was closed
shortly after Chrysler declared bankruptcy, and the company's future as a
whole was in serious doubt. But two years after the government rode to
the rescue with taxpayer dollars, Chrysler is humming along, posting a
10% increase in sales in May, upgrading facilities, and returning people
to work."
-- Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.