Last week, I attended a networking event hosted by Fusion Detroit. Hoping to walk away with some new connections, and another professional development organization…what I found was much more interesting than I could have expected.
Why is TIME magazine in Detroit?
Steven Gray of Time Magazine was the guest speaker for Fusion’s meeting this month. He is the only full-time staff writer living in Detroit over the course of the next year reporting on Detroit for Time. First, I want to take you through his question and answer series highlighting very interesting points made by Gray and Fusion members. Then, I will ask a series of questions regarding my reaction to Time’s presence here asking for your opinion.
Just before July 4, 2009, Gray’s editor apporached him with the Detroit project, and he said that his first question was, “Why?” This is when the assignment began: Why is Time in Motown?”
The project idea came from two editors visiting Detroit on ad calls on separate occasions. They saw something that shocked them, things they had never seen before, things they thought America should know about. It wasn’t long before Gray was here living in the Time house noticing shocking things for himself.
One of his first stories was on personal protection patrols instead of Detroiters trusting their police force. This was something he had never seen before. In the neighborhood of the Time house, programs like the neighborhood watch had employed security to patrol the streets and watch their homes. Appalled, he began to write. This story came from living in the middle of a particular happening.
Another instance, Gray mentioned was disturbing to him was when he called 911. There was a small incident by the Time house and he called the police. He said it took two phone calls and 45 minutes before the police arrived. Expressing his disgrace with some of his neighbors he noticed that they were shocked that he was shocked.
While he said that some of his stories have come from just being a resident of Detroit, he mentioned that he finds his other stories by staying informed. That is when the question arose that made this discussion take a turn. “What is a normal day like for you?”
His answer:
- 5 a.m. Wake Up
- 5 – 7:30 a.m. read local newspapers, blogs and workout
- 7:30 a.m. figures out the story for the day and begins to hit the phones, carry out some field reporting and writes the story
- 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. he finishes up his story if it takes one day (did mention that some stories may take a week or even a month to get all of the pieces together) and then goes to sleep
This timeline was my first red flag for a number of reasons. One reason is that he is living here, getting the facts and reporting what is going on in Detroit, however, he goes to sleep before some people even get off of work. Oh and as you can see, this doesn’t leave much time for socializing, going to bars, enjoying Detroit’s entertainment sector. So if you are not getting the stories from real people who live and work in Detroit, who are you getting your story from?
Later, another questioned asked by another Fusion member: “How do you stay unbiased waking up reading the local media everyday?”
He answered, “I am still a journalist, I do my own reporting. And I don’t believe in objectivity.”
Having a journalism degree, this bothered me. Objectivity was always instilled in journalism students. Otherwise, you form an opinion then find ways to back that opinion up with certain facts. How dare an outsider come to a city like Detroit, and form an opinion, find facts to support that opinion, then share his feelings with the whole world?
Now while I did have problems with some of the things that he said, there were also some very interesting quotes that I took away from Gray.
- “America is not concerned with what is happening in society.” He was explaining that the Detroit project isn’t a profit-driven project and in no way did the Detroit cover of Time sell like if they put Britney Spears or Barack Obama on the cover.
- “What is happening in Detroit is a possibility in other cities” and other cities should be paying more attention. The context surrounding this quote steered from Fusion members asking if all he was covering was negative stories. His spin on this answer included him saying repeatedly that he wasn’t here to “cover positive or negative stories,” he was here to report the truth. And he saw the truth as sort of a framework for other cities to see the possibilities of something like self-destruction.
In no way am I bashing Time magazine for being in Detroit. One Time writer actually covered a very positive story in Detroit. Karen Dybis spent a day on The Salvation Army of Southeast Michigan’s Bed and Bread Truck reporting on how this truck feeds people in some of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Detroit. More positive articles may be found at Times Detroit Blog. I just don’t know how Gray, in particular, is going to be able to get real stories when he isn’t talking to real people.
However, this Fusion meeting did give him the forum to meet some very positive, passionate, successful people in Detroit. Here are some of the reasons Fusion members gave to him as to why people stay in Detroit despite all of these negatives that he was talking about:
- People leave Detroit because they don’t have a purpose here.
- People stay here because they want to build. They are connected here with family, the future (see benefit in building here and see that the resources needed to build begins here), etc.
- Detroit is an open landscape where people are looking for innovation–community will support new, creative ideas.
- “A great place to fail.” Other places you start a business and it fails and you are written off by that community. Here, in Detroit, you fail and people say get up and try again.
- There is a creative, pure, collaborative energy here that is contagious.
- The final reason was something that they close every Fusion meeting with. Detroit was always the first place to do something–from escape from slavery to hear good music. This country may not be where it is if it weren’t for Detroit.
As you can see from my previous posts, I am a lover of Detroit, so when I hear negative things about Detroit especially from people from outside of the city, it really gets under my skin. So I have a series of questions for you that I hope to get your feedback on:
- Am I being too hard on Steven Gray? Is he just doing his job? Or do you agree with me when I say that he is a biased, misinformed writer that has too large of an audience to not be presenting the most accurate information?
- Why do you think people stay in Detroit? Why are you still here? Or why did you leave?
- Have you seen any of the Time articles? Which one stuck out to you?
Other than that, I would love to hear your feedback on anything you have read. The Fusion Detroit meeting was one of my first, and it is not my last. Until next time…
Tags: Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Detroit, Detroit Blog, Detroit Chamber of Commerce, Fusion Detroit, Jenni Lewis, LinkedIn, police, SalMich, Southeast Michigan, Steven Gray, The Salvation Army, Time magazine
I can’t wait to see statistical evidence on what kind of coverage Woods got. I mean the number of blog posts from public relations professionals about what they thought Woods should do alone did massive numbers, I’m sure. This leads me to think, what would we do without news outlets supplying us with celebrity gossip, sports, hard news, political updates, etc. Would we begin to repeat mistakes over and over again? Would we get all of our news from our peers? Would that in return force us to adopt the same mindset of those peers we are following? Could we even form an opinion as strong as some people’s opinion toward the media? It just keeps becoming abundantly clear that journalists are damned if they do, damned if they don’t…and no one will ever truly get the role of public relations. Until next time…
