Those who watch ABC’s World News Tonight are probably familiar with one of the broadcast’s segments titled, A Sign of the Times. An on-going news-magazine piece, the regular feature highlights adventures in popular culture that cause one to take a step back, reflect and internalize the current events of our time. Recently, pieces from the segment have centered on the economy. Among those featured include the stories of a 53-year-old Massachusetts woman who fatally shot herself up learning that her home was to be foreclosed upon; how the National Debt Clock in Times Square ran out of digits as debt passed $1 Trillion; and the fact that retailers and police have seen a spike in shop lifting as a result of the poor economy.

Although news stations don’t normally report on themselves, ABC could have easily added their own November 30, 2008 broadcast to the Sign of the Times segment. While reporting on a possible bailout for the auto industry, anchor Dan Harris grouped the components of the bailout into three classifications: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Good, he said, came in the form of hybrid and electric cars currently on Detroit’s drawing boards. The bad included debt carried by Ford, GM and Chrysler. What he classified as ugly—“those bloated CEO salaries and union contracts”—was nothing short of mind-boggling.

It’s obvious that the fat-cats who run the auto-industry posses greed unlike any man-kind has ever before experienced. However, comparing their incomprehensible figures with the living wages provided by union contracts is outrageous. Despite being an easy scapegoat, unions and union contracts do nothing but provide good wages and decent benefits to those who sweat to make a living.

Those looking to blame ought to point their fingers at industry CEOs, who in their ever-lasting greed, recently refused to give up the luxury of their private jets, despite knowing the economic state in which their companies currently reside.

What many—including media outlets—seem to forget is the fact that whether or not Washington provides Detroit with a bailout, CEO’s of the auto industry will be living on their plump pay checks and hefty buy-outs for the rest of their lives, while the blue-collar, hard-working men and women who act as the backbone of America will be left to deal with the turmoil of layoffs at the height of recession. So desperate is our country for financial relief, however, that our own news organizations are beginning to lump the exuberant salaries of executives with the mainstream salaries of workers under the same umbrella. That truly is a sign of the times.