Bailout Watch 231: Jet-gate
I waited until now to repost this ABC report on “Jet-gate” because I wanted to put this story into some sort of context. While members of TTAC’s Best and Brightest have defended the CEO’s travel arrangements as either a drop in the bucket or CEO SOP, that’s not the kind of context I’m talking about. I mean the wider issue of the mainstream media’s (MSM) treatment of the auto industry. The change in tenor is palpable. Before the Congressional hearings, the MSM treated the automakers with kid gloves. And no wonder. Back in the day (less than six months ago), GM pumped over $2b into advertising. Add in the budgets for Chrysler and Ford and you can see how that whole hand, feed, bite prevention thing works. Now that The Big 2.8 have been unveiled as mortally wounded, the gloves are off. For some. Is it any coincidence that the jet chasing reporter hails from ABC, not CBS? I don’t think so. Where was Rush and Sean when this story was aborning? Driving promo cars from “our friends at GM” and slipping mentions into their rants. So be it. These days, the MSM “gets it”– if only because they can afford to do so. More importantly, there’s the internet. Not only can you read the real deal here on TTAC, but there’s now a worldwide webwise conspiracy of souls digging, prodding and rooting for the truth. We live in terrible, wonderful times.
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
Wow, rmwill. By your logic, a citizen that believes in caring for their fellow man needs psychological help. You may not like socialism (or even socialism lite like we have in Canada) but to equate it with mental illness is ridiculous. Had you suggested Gardiner Westbound need psych counselling because he is giddy at the prospect of tens or hudreds of thousands of people laying awake at night wondering how they are going to pay their bills, then I would agree. But it seems obvious that you don't care about them, but only what it will cost you. And mikey: please stop with the bullshit threats. TTAC, and you, are better than that.
FYI. If you fly in on a jet like that, a luxury car is usually provided FREE by the company you buy fuel from (actually, another vehicle is likely provided for the crew as well). There are often NOT lower cost choices on the airport for fuel, and I really doubt there are in DC. The reason for the restricted competition for fuel at airports is almost always municipal interference for reasons of revenue or cronyism. In the case of DC, the ADIZ caused most of the low end GA companies to go bankrupt years ago. As for the blow hard Turk's comments, even a minimum wage worker will likely cost more than 40k a year due to regulation these days. Also, no matter what system you use to value the CEO's time, having him fly commercial is just plane stupid (pun intended).
If the Detroit automakers wanted Gardiner Westbound's love, I guess they should have treated him better.
dean: Your latter characterization was my intent.