Wednesday, March 3, 2010

New York Times plumps GM, trashes Toyota, Never Mentions Elephant in Room

Clyde MiddletonPosted by Clyde Middleton Mar 3rd 2010 at 7:15 am in New York Times, media bias

 In spite of shrinking resources, market share, and credibility, the venerable Gray Lady has poured resources into trashing Toyota, the chief competitor of the paper’s drinking buddies — the White House and the UAW.
Look at the depth of their investigations, which, by  the way, far exceed the number of documents or years the New York Times reviewed while “vetting” candidate Obama:
Of the 12,700 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration consumer complaints analyzed by The Times, the Ford Motor Company had the most, about 3,500.
Toyota ranked second, with about 3,000 complaints, but those were linked to far more accidents — 1,000 — compared to 450 crashes for Ford.
Ford
Odd.  Taking the time to trash Ford while they’re at it?  How comprehensive of them. More:
A separate examination by The Times of transport ministry records in Japan revealed a similar finding. In reports since 2001, Toyota vehicles have been cited with a greater frequency in complaints of sudden acceleration than those of other major carmakers.
toyota
Missing from this article is any mention of the ownership interests of the federal government. They somehow missed mentioning it as well in this other above-the-website-fold article.
The bloom on the GM rose gets a better perspective in Business Week:
Sales to businesses and government buyers drove GM’s growth. While Chevrolet posted a 32 percent increase, deliveries to dealerships were up only 1 percent, GM said. Chevrolet makes up 70 percent of the company’s U.S. volume.
Ford Motor Co., based in Dearborn, Michigan, may say sales rose 33 percent, while Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler Group LLC probably will post an 18 percent decline, according to the average estimates.
If not for the federal baby-daddy, GM would not have faired so well – 1% growth in dealership deliveries is insignificant. Further, it seems that Ford is doing better – but that didn’t fit the Times’s narrative.

Big Journalism