Michigan blurred under media lens
(Last updated: 05/25/09 7:12pm)The past few years have obviously been bad ones for Michigan. Thousands of auto-related jobs have been and continue to be eliminated, the financial crisis poured salt in our wounds and our largest city is giving Chicago a run for its money in the competition for the most corrupt city government award.
Ryan Dinkgrave
Accordingly, countless regional and national newspapers, magazines and Web sites have sent their reporters here to study us, as if we are some strange backwoods area that nobody has ventured into for decades. Some of the reports are sober and honest, telling tales of innovation, perseverance and determination that give many others hope that they, too, can pull themselves out of this turmoil. Those are the good stories.
As the newspaper industry goes through either an unprecedented transformation or an accelerating descent into irrelevance and bankruptcy it is doing anything it can to sell more papers. Enter the sensational, patronizing and exploitative stories about Michigan and Detroit that do a much better job of selling issues and subscriptions than do the sober assessments.
Consider the patronizing stories that often look at sports, music and theater events and marvel at the way people use entertainment and recreation even in times of recession. A handful of writers have written in recent weeks of the Detroit Red Wings and their pursuit of the Stanley Cup, framing fans’ interest in terms of the economic conditions of our state and region.
It is such a tired cliché that one would think seasoned journalists would know to avoid it. But even longtime Detroit writer Mitch Albom took a sip of the Kool-Aid in his much-ballyhooed “The Courage of Detroit” feature in Sports Illustrated in January. Albom makes some great points in defense of Detroit and the auto industry but begs the rest of the nation to feel bad for Lions fans, as if they have no choice but to keep buying tickets and believing in this pathetic team. That kind of blind faith isn’t something to respect; it is the same notion that drove auto executives to continue ordering gas-guzzlers by the thousands when consumers wanted fuel-efficient cars.
Then there are the photojournalists who come to Michigan to visit factories that have been shuttered for decades to take pictures that they will use as symbols for what our area is today. Nevermind that on the other side of town one old plant is being given a major renovation so it can produce tomorrow’s electric cars, or that at a business incubator in a former factory down the street researchers are designing the batteries to power those cars.
The vast majority of auto-related intellectual property resides in or derives from Southeast Michigan, and with the state’s commitment to supporting the situation, this will continue to be true as the auto industry evolves. One need look no further than the research and development operations of hundreds of American and international companies concentrated in this region to see proof.
So why are these reporters sneaking into the old Packard Plant to take pictures of broken windows and debris that has been mostly dormant for 50 years? You could have run that feature in either 2009 or 1989 and there would be little difference, and yet all over our state innovation and new ways of thinking are taking root.
Maybe these journalists have a grudge. Perhaps their K car died on the New York Interstate in 1985 and they haven’t yet gotten over that disappointing vacation weekend. Maybe their grandfather lost a thumb in a machine shop in the 1950s and it still irks them. But more likely they are following the marching orders of publishers that are under pressure to boost revenues.
“If it bleeds, it leads.” Regardless of their scope or size, tragedy and drama almost always trump good news. Regardless of whether it honestly represents where we are today, acres of abandoned manufacturing facilities make for a more dramatic picture than the innovation and creativity taking place in labs, offices and homes.
And that’s a shame, because if the media had any sense of responsibility and respect, they’d offer a hand up, highlighting achievements in the face of recession. They would not keep kicking us while we are down with outdated and clichéd tales of our decline.
Ryan Dinkgrave is a State News guest columnist and a public relations graduate student. Reach him at dinkgrave@gmail.com.
Originally Published: 05/25/09 7:12pm
Rick Wagoner
05/26/09 8:34amGROSSLY INCORRECT
“ .. it is the same notion that drove auto executives to continue ordering gas-guzzlers by the thousands when consumers wanted fuel-efficient cars ..”
Auto execs (and the bumbling rookie greenhorn presidents who fire them) do NOT order cars.
People order and buy cars, Einstein.
And right now — NO ONE is ordering the Toyota Prius. Thanks to KID PRESIDENT larding up DEBT/WELFARE at 300% more than GWB and wrecking the economy. (What happened to the “tax cut?”)
D.P. Moynihan loved to say, “you have right to your opinion. But not your own facts.”
Please, someone — get a fact-checker for this page. Really amateurish. Thanks.
05/26/09 9:13amAs an addendum to this column: a story in Crain’s Detroit Business this week notes the media outlets who “have come to Detroit to report on its economic and social woes” and describes a British effort to use original historical video from Detroit residents in their documentary. Interesting: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090524/FREE/905249997
“Rick Wagoner,” the statement of mine you quoted is an opinion, meaning it is in the correct place here on the opinion page and does not require verification by a “fact-checker.”
Zeke
05/26/09 9:16am“Auto execs (and the bumbling rookie greenhorn presidents who fire them) do NOT order cars. People order and buy cars, Einstein.”
Auto execs do “order” them. They review plans and proposals from marketing teams, and select a chosen few to be prototyped and developed for retail. That’s referred to as ordering in the corporate world.
Although since all you apparently have time for is logging onto the Snews website with your typical Obama insults and cries for someone to stop the insanity, you probably have no idea how the corporate world works. Grow up, get a job, and come back when you have an iota of common sense.
What dopes
05/26/09 10:08am“Auto execs do “order” them. They review plans and proposals from marketing teams, and select a chosen few to be prototyped and developed for retail. That’s referred to as ordering in the corporate world.”
Dear Fool: SUVs sold because people WANTED to BUY THEM.
If “green” cars are so popular — why are Priuses NOT selling now? Shouldn’t they be out-selling SUVs?
Or, as in: the Senate Democrats voting 95% AGAINST the KID PRESIDENT’S “plan” to close Gitmo. They WANTED to vote no.
You dim-wits just never get it. “Goverment” and “markets” don’t buy — people buy. Like that Fat Idiot Mike Moore — bitches like Hell — nothing does anything authentic.
Correx
05/26/09 10:10am“Like that Fat Idiot Mike Moore — bitches like Hell — nothing does anything authentic.”
Like that Fat Idiot Mike Moore — bitches like Hell — never does anything authentic.
BG
05/26/09 11:03am“Dear Fool: SUVs sold because people WANTED to BUY THEM.”
Dear Jackass: You did not address Zeke’s point. You confused ordering by a customer with an exec ordering cars to be pushed to manufacturing and he called you on it. He never claimed that people didn’t want to buy them.
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Bleed Green Fool
05/26/09 11:16amYeah. Cars aren’t selling. KID PRESIDENT’s a real Einstein. Has frightened so many people, $4,000,000,000,000.00 are in savings accounts, not in the market. What a dork, what a fool, MESSIAH is.
Ford Motor paid for a lot of building at MSU with SUV sales. Not sales of Barry-mobiles. Fool/idiot/moron.
Get a brain. Read the instructions. Try to think. Slick Barry will get you some WELFARE to pay your bills.
Bleed Green Fool
05/26/09 11:17am“Ford Motor paid for a lot of building at MSU with SUV sales. Not sales of Barry-mobiles.”
And General Motors. Moron.
Zeke
05/26/09 1:34pmOkay, I’ll feed the troll.
Here’s a CNN summary of last year’s automaker performance:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/news/companies/autosales/index.htm
“For the year, GM’s sales fell 23%. Sales of its car models performed somewhat better, slipping only 16% on strong sales of its Malibu sedan.
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America
05/26/09 1:47pmI just want to know how he/she/it decides which words to put in all caps. There doesn’t really seem to be any rhyme or reason. I also want to know why they think it’s a good idea to constantly name call. When has doing that ever gotten someone to adopt the viewpoint you’re espousing?
Dan Brown
05/26/09 3:07pmMaybe there’s some sort of hidden message to them. Like, if you were to find every one of these posts, and then put them in chronological, and picked every sixth (or whatever number) word, you could find the secret code.
My guess is that it has something to do with wanting to revoke Chris Hansen’s degree. But I haven’t cracked the code yet.
^correction
05/26/09 3:08pm*‘chronological order’
Bleed Green Fool
05/26/09 8:07pmâ .. it is the same notion that drove [Detroit] auto executives to continue ordering gas-guzzlers by the thousands when consumers wanted fuel-efficient cars ..â
Toyota Tumbles: Slow Reaction Hammers Auto Giant
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30641979
“The fact Toyota posted it’s first annual loss in 75 years is not surprising- almost every auto maker lost money this year.
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NE
05/27/09 7:24pmFirst Lets wait at least a year to judge a president who inheireted two wars and a broken financial system.
Onto this article, consumers wanted gas guzzling cars. The execs just supplied the demand.
While consumers wanted them , it may not have been right. This is why Obama’s mandated fuel standards might work to both reduce oil dependancy , create more jobs, new tech patents for american companies, and reducing carbon emissions
How I see it , the big 3 had the chance to do it on their own. Let’s at least try Obama’s for now.
Obama's a liar
05/28/09 7:55am“ .. wait at least a year to judge a president who inheireted (SIC) two wars and a broken financial system ..”
Just for the record about BHO:
- fix the public debt by increasing public borrowing 300%? Hardly.
- fix the oil-supply issue by raising taxes on U.S. oil producers? And IMMEDIATELY raise gasoline prices 17%? What sense does that make?
- if “green” is so smart — let’s see BHO and Gov.
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NE2
05/29/09 1:05amYoujust said there isn’t 100% proof, but as a nation, we do things based on the best of our knowledge at the time. We didn’t know 100% that WMDs were in Iraq, but that obviously didn’t stop us then.
The saying goes “The higher the risk, the higher the reward”. In s ome cases, they don’t turn out so hot. Perhaps this one will.
In a way, The President and Governor are paying for these changes.
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