Excellent CBC News special reports: "Red, White and the Economic Blues" - videos

[Bozita]

Well worth the time!


http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/hard_times_hard_choices/red_white_and_the_economic_blu.html

Streaming video of this feature is available on our Latest Broadcast, and will be available as an archived feature on this web page starting on Tuesday.

This special feature continues on The National until Wednesday, April 1.


Monday, March 30
Detroit Blues
Mark Kelley heads to the Motor City of Detroit, Michigan, where nearly 40% of the downtown is abandoned in this once gleaming city.
(RUNS 6:57)

Florida Foreclosures
Neil Macdonald reports from Cape Coral to track the rapid slide of real estate values in this destination state.
(RUNS 7:42)
Detroit Dazzle

Peter Mansbridge takes a look at some of the architectural and artistic treasures of Detroit, symbols of the city's by-gone automotive sector success.
(RUNS 4:01)

Tuesday, March 31
Signs of Hope in Detroit
There are plenty of signs of desperate times in the United States, as the recession there deepens. But it isn't all doom and gloom in Detroit. Mark Kelley also found some signs of hope.
(RUNS 6:58)

Wednesday, April 1
The National presents a report from California, where the economy has fallen off the cliff, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is struggling desperately to rescue it.

[Oregone]

1. I watched this and was in awe

Ive never seen pictures of Detroit like that one area where the Beaver came back (which in my opinion, isn't exactly the best news in the world). Absolute devastation. You don't see it this detailed on US news, at all.

Same thing about the protests today at the G-20. The CBC was showing this guy with a face full of blood squaring off with the police, along with other riot scenes. CNN was showing a bunch of happy peaceful protesters (and a brief clip of a window being broke, then back to the happy people).

[Bozita]

2. CBC News rented a Toyota van for it's Detroit series. Here's a note from the reporter...

I understand the anger some people may feel seeing me drive an import while shooting a story about the demise of the North American auto industry. Trust me. I get it. I flew into Detroit- and had gone through 3 different car rental companies trying to secure a mini-van (because of the cases of gear we travel with). All 3 companies said they had no vans in stock. The fourth- National- did have vans. S we reserved it. I was told it would be a Chevy. When we took our shuttle to the lot, I discovered it was a Toyota. I returned to the counter, to request my Chevy, and was told they had none left. They only had two...and they were long gone. I was dumbfounded. I spoke to the gentleman who was parking the returns to see if any Chevies, or any North American vans for that matter, were available. He said simply, "Not these days." How could that be, I wondered? He explained to me the Big 3 were not leasing fleets of vehicles to rental car companies as they had in the past. So the vast majority of new cars available to rental companies were all imports. I scanned the lot. I saw only a handful of North American made cars. Mostly compacts. I knew this was my introduction to the problem affecting Windsor and Detroit. My cameraman and I swallowed hard, then loaded our Toyota, and drove off into discover the layers and layers of complications that start in a car lot, and end up in the homes of auto workers.

Posted by: Mark Kelley, The National
April 2, 2009 10:13 AM

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/hard_times_hard_choices/red_white_and_the_economic_blu.html
The note came from the responses at the link.