OT: The Detroit Free Press is Apparently Imploding
The newspaper we love to hate - for good reason - appears to be imploding. Several things have happened at the Detroit Free Press in the last few weeks and months that point to a complete internal meltdown. The latest shoe dropped Friday morning, when it was announced that Executive Editor Robert Huschka - the top editorial staffer at the paper - was abruptly resigning. No reason given, no new job lined up, so something is obviously up.
This follows the announceent on the Fourth of July that Michigan beat reporter Mark Snyder - co-author of the Stretchgate debacle in 2009 - was abruptly "leaving the profession." Again, no new job lined up. This doesn't just happen.
The newspaper industry as a whole is obviously melting down, and Gannett - owner of the Free Press - is the worst villain of them all in the newspaper world. It's the worst company to work for and does some of the worst and most irresponsible journalism out there. They're awful. They cut jobs like it's a hobby, and they don't care one bit how crappy their papers become.
We hear that more job cuts and abrupt resignations-for-no-reason will be coming. So much has changed at the paper since their Stretchgate hatchet job on RichRod's program, so there's not many people left there to hate. Mike Rosenberg and Mark Snyder are gone, Drew Sharp passed away, the editor who oversaw the hatchet job is gone, and now, so is the predecessor who covered up Sharp's plagiarism on another story.
Even Mick McCabe, who was given the task of attacking John U. Bacon's credibility on "Three and Out, when it came to Bacon's excellent expose of the Free Press, is also gone.
So the bottom line is that the Free Press is slowing slinking into oblivion. We can continue to hate them until they finally go away, but it appears that day is coming fast.
Of a lot of media, that is to be expected.
But people celebrate something closing without thinking about the massive impact on hundreds of employed people it will have, the majority of whom had nothing to do with the (pretend) impact on M football.
It is not just real lies about UofM football. The Freep would take money to run positive stories about the payer. You are downplaying the (lack of) truth factor with the Freep.
I see your point about innocent people losing jobs, but a lot of people see traditional newspapers as dinosaurs that waste a lot of trees and the demise of most as inevitable. Some are doing better at crossing over to online, but many see saving traditional newspapers as futile as cheering for the sun not to set tonight.
Agree 100%
Yes. The Freep chose to look the otherway when Drew Sharp plagiarized multiple times, when Mitch Albom wrote about attending an event that he didn't, when Rosenberg used obvious deception, and they took money to run positive stories about companies, etc...
Those business choices led people to make the choice not to use their rag anymore and that leads to their downfall.
Yes, it stinks for the innocent custodial worker at the Freep, but that is life. No one is cheering that he is losing a job. They are cheering that a dishonest company is getting punished by the "market" of choices.
Haha, zing. "Sports are not real life". Said on a Sports Blog. Last time I checked the students, coaches, and scholarship athletes think it's real life.
Sports is a metaphor for life.
Like I tell the kids on my team. For the 99.999% of us who tap out before the pros, sports teaches us communication, fair play, effort, hustle, teamwork, and generally how to get along with one another.
Well, it was supposed to be before the participation trophy crowd redefined the meanings of those things.
Maybe the Freep is also a terrible outdated paper? No one is rooting for people to lose their jobs. Gimme a break. The entire print industry has taken big hits in recent years. This might come as a shock to you, but outrage on MGoBlog about the Freep hitjob on Michigan football didn't doom the paper, economics did. It's my right to chuckle when/if that happens. Karma and all...
Yes, it's "disgusting" to be against a crappy newspaper. It's also "anti-democratic". Get a grip. Also, #nopolitics
It is "anti-democratic" to want the Freep to not lie, to not look the otherway when their writers plagiaize, and etc?
It is "anti-democratic" to choose other media that isn't as blatantly dishonest as the Freep?
I think you are confused on what democracy is.
Good luck with a world that only brings you Fox News.Ummmm right. Because CLEARLY the CNN world is knocking it out of the park right now!!!
I'm confused.
What does personal accountability, integrity, performance, have to do with hate in our hearts?
Few are wishing hardship on someone personally. Most are upset with people professionally -- and rightfully so.
So you're okay with the freep putting out a tabloid product because we're not supposed to have hate in our hearts? When did the freep turn into Job Corps?
Not so sure about the Freep closing up shop anytiem soon. They stil have a stranglehold on the market in Detroit...and the News, though being strongly pro-UM, has less resources and just hasn't kept the readership pace that the Freep is desperately hangin onto.
Detroit's only a 1-paper town these days, and though I'd love to see the News outlast the Freep, depsite all these recent pitfalls, it's probably still not gonna happen in the long run,
Ideally, it would be neat if Crain's Detroit could absorb The News and expand from just being a business journal.
Free Press needs to reform. The perpetual racebaiting columns and the Little Caesars / Dan Gilbert puff piece advertising masquarading as real news is hard to swallow.
Good Riddance!
Geesus, What are we going to put down for the puppy to pee on and to wrap the garbage in/
Did you mean "Three and Out" or "Fourth and Long"? Both are John U. Bacon books, but "Third and Long" is not.
I wonder what the triumphant title will be when Harbaugh wins a natty.
First and Goal?
PAT?
Kickoff?
Hey, Mitch - would you shut the lights and lock the doors on your way out?
This thread is shameful.
People have to support every business that exists, no matter what? Take a chill pill.
The Free Press' model is dated, not the delivery model as their website is pretty solid but the content model. We are past the era of gothca and click bait journalism. The public at large has grown tired of emotionally driven links that directs to empty content (and a ton of it exists). What readers are looking for is quality articles that answer questions people are asking about a certain subject and the Free Press fails at this. The Free Press for the most part tells us how to think while creating a great void on "just the facts."
In the case of Michigan Football, the Detroit Free Press attempted to create a story where one didn't exist. A rush to judgement based on one testimony caused a tremendous headache for a beloved state school. This headache also upset many readers of the Detroit Free Press itself. If a news organization attempts to expose a time honored institution for corruption then it better have plenty of data, documentation, and all bases covered; the Detroit Free Press did not. This was not an isolated incident but part of an series of poor and lazy reporting that displayed integrity issues (IE Album writing about the MSU game he didn't attend).
I, at this point, just don't want to be told to accept a thesis but want to know why. The Free Press has failed miserably in this area and thus will eventually drowned in a sea of digital content.
Freep had Hillary winning Michigan on the front page
I don't rejoice in the Free Press failing. While I'm not an apologist for the Freep, I have some sense of forboding with the collapse of more and more papers. I love mgoblog, but I don't want to come here for all my news. In the Chicago market, we have three different papers (Tribune, Sun Times, and Daily Herald.) They have different strengths and weaknesses. However, if there was only one paper in this area, it would be detrimental. More and more, you see businesses collapsing, being divided and sold off, bit by bit. And the less competition there is, and the closer a market resembles a monopoly, the worse off we all are. jmhe.
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The whining on here about stretch-gate is insane. I'll admit, I didn't like Snyder and Rosenberg going full expose mode on something so futile, but jeez, people are losing their livelihoods here. Sure there were some shitty sportswriters but I'm not going to rejoice at people losing their jobs.
So if you're dishonest at your job, there aren't ramifications? Including the possible loss of employment?
Don't go away mad. Just go away.
I wonder what momma has to say about the Detroit free press
Thanks momma.
This thread reminds me of Season 5 of the Wire. (2nd worst season)
I enjoyed season 5 actually.......... I suppose there is something wrong with me.
I don't know what the future holds for either the Freep or DetNews, but I don't take any joy in the decline of daily journalism in this country. Yes, there are blogs like this that can fill some of the niches, but I doubt there will be enough of an audience (and advertiser base) for blogs covering state and local government and other stories that likely would only appear in newspapers that include sports, arts, government and economic coverage.
I'm not a fan of the Freep, but the decline of real, honest to God journalism is a real problem for our republic. I remember listening to a Dan Carlin episode where he went into some older style journalism, and in particular an Irish journalist who was like a bulldog in not letting politicians slip questions. We need something like this.
Now, for many many reasons, alot of them the fault of us, the news consumers, things have fallen on hard times, with the scoop and the sensation over powering honesty and digging. Even if you print/report something that isn't 100% true it seems to me news agencies can cover it up generally with some other sensation in a 24 hour cycle.
Real investigative journalists can be a pain in the arse. But they can also keep politicians, left and right, honest. Without them.... buckle up.
Just my $0.02
Too bad Drew Sharp isn't around to get the "abrupt resignation" as well.
when that fucker dies i'll upvote.