Automotive+Industry-AM+Period


 * FISHING FOR RED HERRINGS**

For your group's assigned topic below, read one or more of the articles provided, then use the Times Topics pages to find more articles that address this issue and how it has played out in recent news. Work to both understand the larger issues as well as to identify a "microcosm" of the issue—such as a person involved who people can relate to or focus on, like Bernie Madoff, or a small part of a larger problem, like the A.I.G. bonuses—that you can use to "sell" the issue to the public.


 * Issue: AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY **

[|Times Topics: Automotive Industry Crisis]


 * Selected Related Articles: **

[|They'd Rather Be Flying]

[|Contrite Over Misstep, Auto Chiefs Take to the Road]

[|Corporations, Tending to a Tattered Image, Clip Wings of Private Jets]


 * What is a "RED HERRING"?**

**__Red herring__** //n//. **1.** A smoked herring having a reddish colour. **2.** (**More revelent to the topic and wiki**) Something that draws attention away from the central issue.
[From its use to distract hunting dogs from the trail.] (Just for ha ha's)

As we will see, the red herrings presented when going through clips and images of the 2008-2009 Automotive Industry Crisis will sway public opinion to an extreme side, in most cases against the industries' biggest three car companies. As well, the discussion of red herrings will be further emphasized with **microcosms**, which something like the "small picture", rather than the large, broad message.


 * ISSUE BACKGROUND**

One of the largest industries in the U.S., it's consist of vehicles, including the "big three" in the Automotive Industry: Ford, Chrysler, and GM. One of the major issues surrounding the automotive industry is the rapid decrementation of the industry's economic performance, due to crisis that affect the oil intake of the U.S., the inefficient "guzzling" of large motor vehicles, which is typical of American cars, and failure of effective leadership in turning around this crisis.

Technically, the decline in the auto sales are also in the sense that in these times, people are withdrawn, tending to spend less money and saving up more - which is not a bad thing, however the effects of such actions aggrevates a unsteady economy, as it did with the automotive industry. Now faced with bankruptcy, the large car companies asked for federal assistance to bail out the big three.

Brief Aftermath
Of course, we all will see that Ford will be the only one of the big three to stand on its own two feet, metaphorically speaking, while GM filed for bankruptcy, losing its Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands, costing the federal government about $40 billion dollars in bailout funds and bankruptcy funds. Chrysler, however, was federally forced by President Obama to go into bankruptcy protection in April, 2009, having the automotive giant go under the protection of the Italian automaker Fiat ( New York Times, "Chrysler Files to Seek Bankruptcy Protection")


 * POTENTIAL MICROCOSMS**

The over emphasis on the "Big Three" could be a microcosm, do to the fact that, although they are a large part of the failing automobile industry, they are actually just the surface of the industry's failure to sustain itself: because of their lavish lifestyle and transporation to Washing D.C., people are focusing the the moral aspects of the heads of the Ford, Chrysler, and GM industries. Because of the huge focus on the way the big three came into D.C., some politicians believed it worthy of criticism as well as denial of decisions for the fate of the companies' economic fate.

Also part of that, the fact that the private jets the three automotive leaders had flown in to Washington is just a microcosm in itself: although the jets shows the outlandish behavior of the big three, it's not the true main concern of the automotive industry nor that of Washington D.C. - the true concern is to save about half of the total industry in the U.S., which is not focused on because people with problems are lashing out at those who are doing well in society. As in one of the article have quoted, “Price is not an issue. They are selling for image purposes, and the operation of a jet is a small overall cost in relation to a company’s image. So they are saying, ‘dump.’ ” In the processes of focusing on the planes of the big three, we don't realize the effect it has on the airplane companies supplying these planes: because of the returns on these planes, the airplane companies are consequently suffering along with the automotive industry to some extent.




 * OUTSIDE RESOURCES:**
 * The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition (Houghton Mifflin Company)
 * Red Herring Image (scottsborostories.blogspot.com)
 * Ford, GM, and Chrysler Logo Image ([])
 * GM Bankruptcy, CNN money ([])
 * Chrysler Bankruptcy, //The New York Times// ([])
 * John Cole's Editorial Cartoon on Big Three in D.C. ([])
 * Wikipedia could have been one.... (Just recognizing today's information blackout against SOPA and PIPA)