Criticism of Fox News' coverage of the Ford layoffs

News Hounds, a web site that is devoted to analyzing the coverage on Fox News, posted a critique of Neil Cavuto’s coverage of the Ford Motor Co. announcement yesterday that it was closing plants and laying off 30,000 workers.

News Hounds wrote: “Six minutes into Fox’s “premiere business news” program, Your World w/Neil Cavuto, Fox got around to reporting the biggest business news of the year: that the Ford Motor Company plans to layoff of as many as 30,000 workers and close 14 of its plants. (In contrast, the BBC led with this story.)”

Later, it noted, “Cavuto introduced Mark Gilles of Automobile magazine and Malcom Bricklin, the CEO of Visionary Vehicles. Cavuto turned to Gilles first and asked, ‘Mark, is it a big deal?’

“Gilles said, ‘I think it’s a huge deal.’ He said Ford is a ‘massive employer’ and the jobs are ‘very high paying,’ unlike ‘the employees at Wal-Mart’ or people who ‘flip burgers’ at McDonalds.”

Obviously, News Hounds thinks that Fox and Cavuto downplayed an important business story and should have been more aggressive in leading Monday’s show with the Ford story.