I can’t praise the Detroit Free Press enough for the groundbreaking journalism the paper has done on Kwamegate.
True, the paper has been attacked by some, including Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick himself, who have played the card of racism or asserted the paper somehow got the scoop illegally or somehow did a public disservice.
The only disservice the Free Press did was to Kwame, who quite clearly violated the public trust in many ways.
That is why the Free Press coverage has been an example of journalism at its best.
The tests really are whether the story, sordid as some details are, was about public policy, misuse of taxpayer dollars — millions of them, and still counting! — and public disclosure.
The prosccutor’s charges against hizzoner and his erstwhile paramour, Christine Beatty, show how the paper passed the test: This is about obstruction of justice and perjury by an elected official and his assistant, who was paid from the city coffers.
Breaches of public trust, disclosed by the newspaper. Without that reporting, Kwame would be sailing along, suppressing public documents of his crimes, spending millions of public moneys on protecting himself and screwing the taxpayer.
Where the paper passed the test in Kwamegate, it has, I think, failed the same tests on another recent story. I’m thinking of the “scoop” about U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow’s husband and his tryst with a prostitute in a Troy hotel.
Public policy?
Not an issue. Stabenow did nothing wrong.
Actually, as far as the courts are concerned, neither did hubby Tom Athans, since he hasn’t been charged with a crime and is cooperating with police.
Apparently, the Free Press is quite proud of this story, since it jubilantly proclaimed on Page One of the April 3 paper that it was first reported on the paper’s website.
But did this case involve misuse of public money, false testimoy under oath, conspiracy to obstruct justice? No. Not by any party mentioned in the story.
There’s an attempt at justifying the article with a paragraph that tries to equate it with the scandal involving ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and his liaisons with prostitutes: “The story…is the latest in a string of sex scandals touching figures in public life. Last month, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after reports he had bought sex through a high-priced prostitution service. His replacement, David Patterson (sic), the former lieutenant governor, began his governorship by acknowledging extramarital affairs.” And the story continues by tossing Kwame into the mix.
But there’s something awry here. In all of the above cases, the sexual affairs involved the public officials directly. In the Athans case, his wife, the U.S. senator, had nothing to do with his alleged transgression.
In fact, police make stops like the one that snared Athans every day and the cases aren’t reported in newspapers. Athans would have escaped unrepoted too, but for his marriage to a famous, influential person.
Did the Free Press run the story because of some grave public poliicy issue?
No.
Because a public official had committed a breach of public confidence?
No.
Why run the story?
Simple: It gets headlines, beating everybody on a story nobody else had, maybe a story nobody else thought worth pursuing.
What good did the story do?
Did it enlighten the public on an important government issue?
No.
It served to embarrass an elected official; many who read the story or only the headline will confuse Stabenow with her husband’s hiring of a prostitute.
The story appeared in a major newspaper. Does that make it journalism?
Just as the Free Press coverage of Kwamegate could uplift, even save, the newspaper, this kind of lowest-common-denomator article demeans the paper.
I threw mine out with the trash.
Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
