A prestigious national magazine tips its hat to the Detroit Free Press for a multi-page Sept. 15 "excavation of how the city went from cash-strapped to bankrupt," as the Columbia Journalism Review puts it.
The media journal's latest issue, posted Friday, awards the paper a "laurel" in a monthly column that also hands out "darts" for coverage missteps.
Along with a team of researchers, librarians, and designers, Freep reporters Nathan Bomey and John Gallagher sorted through about 10,000 pages of archived municipal records — which the paper is digitizing — and interviewed dozens of political officials to piece together a tale of 60 years of political mismanagement.
Contrary to popular belief, Detroit’s financial woes aren’t attributable to a perfect storm, but to a slow trickle of hasty-minded leadership that padded out a flailing local economy with high taxes and a slew of policies that helped drive residents and businesses into the suburbs. Mistakes were made. “Over five decades, there were many ‘if only’ moments,” wrote the Freep.
The first word in the New York-based magazine's name refers to Columbia University, where annual journalism priz . . . no, wait. -- we suddenly feel as superstitious about finishing that thought as we would about prematurely whispering "no-hitter."
Looking back, instead of ahead, here's a link to the work earning fresh admiration.
-- Alan Stamm
