For the most part, I give little credence to newspaper endorsements except when they are out of character. However, the Detroit Free Press endorsement of Rick Snyder deserves to be discussed derisively for the absurdity that it is. If you read the commentary accompanying the endorsement, you would assume that Mark Schauer would have been their choice. These are some […]

Terri Lynn “mom with two kids” Land, the Michigan Embarrassment™, has taken on a new role: blackmailer. And the Detroit Free Press is having none of it: [Terri Lynn Land’s] GOP Senate candidate’s campaign is refusing to attend an endorsement meeting with the Free Press editorial board unless the newspaper changes an Oct 4. op-ed by columnist Brian Dickerson, which […]

As I wrote about this morning, Michigan’s largest for-profit charter school company, National Heritage Academies (NHA) responded to a blockbuster new investigative report being published at the Detroit Free Press this week by buying up all of the ad space on the front page of their website as well as the website of the Detroit News. It turns out that […]

NOTE: This post has been updated HERE. The Detroit Free Press is running a spectacular, week-long series on charter schools in Michigan and the woeful lack of oversight and accountability our state exercises when it comes to charters. While some states have outright bans on for-profit schools, 61% of Michigan charter schools are run by for-profit corporations and over a […]

It was inevitable The Detroit Free Press is reporting this afternoon that Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr may file Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy paperwork as early as tomorrow morning in an effort to stave off multiple lawsuits from various pension groups. The City of Detroit is in final preparations to file for federal bankruptcy as early as Friday morning, several […]

“I’m sure we can work something out…” In a fawning editorial about Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool (linked in yesterday’s Emergency Manager news round-up), Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press wrote this: [T]hings are improving, says Jeff Fettig, CEO of Benton Harbor’s largest taxpayer and corporate citizen, global appliance maker Whirlpool. “Our view is that it’s working and a lot of […]

This is a pretty astounding headline: A finish in the top 3 would translate into an Iowa win for Romney That’s the Detroit Free Press headline of a reposting of a Des Moines Register piece originally titled “More than winning, front-runners must meet expectations, experts say”. There was a time when the Freep was “the liberal newspaper” in Michigan and […]

Detroit Free Press Deputy Editorial Page Editor Brian Dickerson has an op-ed this morning titled What’s really driving state takeovers: It ain’t race. In his piece, he argues that the disparate impact of Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law on minority populations isn’t related to race but rather to the shrinking populations of the cities involved. As the prospect of some sort […]

Detroit’s a special place. On Labor Day, it doesn’t just have one labor union parade. It has two. Yes, in Detroit both the building trades union and the AFL-CIO both held simultaneous parades to celebrate workers in general and union membership specifically. The theme of the day was “Labor and Community: We are One”. Thousands of union members walked along […]

I have a new piece up at A2Politico that looks further at the Detroit Newspaper blackout of the gigantic union rally last weekend. Here’s a brief excerpt: Bill Moyers once said, “There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle.” In Michigan right […]

I wish this headline were bogus. It’s not. Yesterday, over 6,000 people, mostly teachers and their supporters, rallied on the lawn of the Michigan State Capitol building to protest Governor Rick Snyder’s cuts to education, used to fund an 86% tax cut for corporations. This is what it looked like: The major media outlets in Michigan seem to think it […]