How many reporters?
11/13/08
[donation]
By Joel Thurtell
By now, the drumbeat is almost deafening.
On page A1 today, November 13, 2008, the New York Times newsroom dropped its oar into the maelstrom that is the financial status of what remains of American car-making by publishing an article about how Chapter 11 bankruptcy might not be so bad for General Motors.
The Times newsies had already been scooped by their own columnist, Tom Friedman, who yesterday, November 12, 2008, opined that receivership might be the best thing for taxpayers and for the longevity of the U.S.-based automakers.
Friedman gave credit where it was almost due, to Paul Ingrassia of the Wall Street Journal, who hammered on the same theme in Monday’s, November 10, 2008, WSJ.
But just as the Times’ Micheline Maynard was five days late today with her A1 story about GM and the B-word, so Paul Ingrassia himself was two days in arrears, having been beaten by an obscure blog that is banged out in an undisclosed cave location somewhere west of Detroit.
By which I mean, of course, this very blog, joelontheroad.com, aka JOTR.
It’s embarrassing, really, to have to trumpet my own prescience for the second day in a row.
But it’s necessary.
If I don’t do it, who else will notice that this little website scooped the Giants of Journalism?
What’s the big deal, you say?
Well, think about it: The Giants of Journalism have, even in these lean times, legions of reporters and ancillary staff people to help grind out their news.
At JOTR we have a legion all right — one reporter, one writer, one photographer, one editor, one copy editor, one mail sorter, one file-keeper, one librarian, one guy to answer emails, one guy to dodge longwinded phone calls and one — count him, one — bill-payer.
Me, the JT in JOTR.
Yet somehow JOTR has managed to break stories ahead of the Giants.
And while the GM/car maker stuff is national, let’s look at the local scene.
Matty Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, and his illegal takeover of a city park and boat launch.
Who broke that story?
JOTR.
Thanks to the Metro Times for reporting it, and to Channel 4.
And thanks to the city and Mayor Ken Cockrel for trying to take back a public park.
But where were the Detroit dailies? They’re the Giants of Journalism in Detroit.
I hear all sorts of groaning from West Lafayette, home of the merged Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, about how the recent buyouts have the remaining reporters working to the bone.
What, have the forces of recession turned those papers into Pygmies of Journalism?
I hear about how Matty Moroun is “an octopus” and it would take a staff of investigative reporters months to unravel meaning from his various business doings.
Come off it, you Pygmies.
You were brave enough to go after Kwame Kilpatrick.
Now that he’s cooling his heels in jail, it’s time to do your duty — tackle the really HARD story. The story that supposedly needs Giants to put it together.
I don’t think so.
I’d like to ask a simple question of those tech-savvy, oh so web-oriented Detroit dailies: How many reporters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Find the story, folks.
One piece at a time.
Print the story, folks.
One piece at a time.
Free advice from a guy who’s making zilch from blogging and who ain’t no Giant of Journalism.
Now come back from lunch, you bold, Kwame-bashing reporters, and write something about a Giant of Business named Matty Moroun.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
