Bailout Watch 495: WaPo's Warren Brown Spreads the GM C11 Message

The mainstream media’s (MSM) reporting on GM’s “troubles” has evolved. Initially, the press told its audience that The General’s terminal glide path was all part of the wider economic meltdown. As the company augers in for its June 1 federally mandated Chapter 11, the reality of the situation is filtering down the info-food chain. The story has moved from financial reports to the general news to the sharp end: car reviews. For example: today’s Washington Post carries a review of the Pontiac G8 GXP that lauds the Australian V8 four door as “part old-fashioned American muscle car, part sophisticated European performance ride.” And then . . . “That’s good news. But here’s hoping it doesn’t come too late in the news cycle for GM.” Right: stupid news cycle. I blame the news cycle for GM’s upcoming bankruptcy.

You’ve read the headlines, heard and seen the news reports. The century-old GM, once a mainstay of American industrial might, is in trouble, at risk of no longer remaining a going concern. It messed up in the 1970s and 1980s, producing the motorized equivalent of schlock, including a bevy of Pontiacs that barely qualified as rental cars.

Pontiac, which had once truly lived up to the title “the excitement division,” became GM’s “whatever” shop.

It took time and money — tens of billions of dollars — to set all of that right. And just when it seemed that GM was getting things fixed, the bottom fell out of the national and global economies, scaring buyers out of new-car showrooms and almost putting GM out of business.

That’s too bad. And here’s hoping that GM can hold on, because the G8 GXP proves that GM can and does make darned good cars.

How times have changed. While this review’s digression doesn’t represent a “come to Jesus” moment by the Washington Post’s longtime Detroit apologist, at least Warren Brown is admitting the fact of GM’s beeline for C11. [The print version carries Brown’s byline, the online does not.] To quote Buzz Lightyear (the animated character, not the TTAC commentator), it’s not denial—it’s apology, with style! [NB: this post has been modified since publishing, because I gave Brown WAY too much credit for reality checking.]