TV4 Nyhetsmorgon this morning commented yesterday’s developments in Saab. The clip has now been made available on their website.
They start the segment by interviewing Håkan Skött who represents one of the labor unions at Saab, followed up with commentary by Jens B Nordström and Robert Collin.
Robert Collin mentions that when the financial crisis hit Europe, other governments worked very hard to find ways to keep the automobile industry alive, but not so in Sweden. A bit further out in this segment he mentions that “Saab have never made the best cars(…)they are no better now than ten-twenty years ago”. He then turns a bit Saab-friendly again and points out the paradox that the Swedes are very sceptical when someone shows up with a bag of money willing to save their automobile industry.
Jens B Nordström sums the whole thing up with “not even the richest man in the world can sustain the kind of losses Saab is making now. Vladimir is rich, but not the richest.”.
I must say, the whole thing looks like the most confused analysis of the current situation that you can possibly get. On one hand they talk down the value of the cars (without touching on specifics of course — I guess even Robert got tired of his old complaint that the 9-5 is “too long”), and on the other they point out that Saab have too few customers (could it be because car reviews are generally vague and unhelpful to people who require a safe winter car?).
It is worth asking why they chose to not invite Håkan Skött properly. Why are nobody from Saab allowed to answer the allegations made by these two “impartial” observers? Is this TV4’s idea of good journalism?
