Detroit Free Press Delivers Special Edition to Congress
By Michelle Krebs December 5, 2008Every Senator and Representative in Congress are receiving on their doorstep this morning a special edition of the Detroit Free Press with a headline that screams "A Message to Washington: Invest in America."
The sole article on the front page is an editorial asking Congress to pass a rescue package for Detroit automakers.
In his explanation of why the paper was taking such unprecedented action, Editor Paul Anger noted that indeed it is the newspaper's job to inform, but "there are times when a newspaper needs to speak up for what's right."
Anger writes: "We have chronicled the U.S. auto industry since its birth, as Detroit became the world's Motor City, as cars and trucks changed the American culture and landscape, as assembly line jobs gave rise to the American middle class. Our journalists have reported the automakers' triumphs and exposed their troubles. We know this industry better than anyone.
"We know what automakers and autoworkers mean to this nation. We know what will happen if one of the auto companies is allowed to collapse. We know because this industry has been our story since it started.
"And we know that America needs this story to continue."
The page one editorial argues that the demise of any of Detroit's auto companies would put the entire U.S. economy into a tailspin.
Inside, the paper covers various aspects of the auto crisis, including an update and re-publishing by Free Press Auto Critic Mark Phelan on the "7 Myths About Detroit Automakers." He debunks the myths that have been gone unchallenged in Congress and the national media with facts.
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He says "We know this industry better than anyone."
Better than some of the committee chairman blowhards on Capitol Hill, who think they know how to run an auto company better than the engineers and financial people who actually know a thing or two about it? Sure they have made some strategic errors, but the bigger impediment to them has been Washington. And now they've been broken and are humbly kneeling down to Washington for money. Oh, the horror. Stop the insanity.
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