Bob Simon of "60 Minutes," left, and Dan Gilbert on Woodward Avenue.
Local writer Anna Clark delves into how the Detroit media covers Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gilbert, given Gilbert's outsized -- and growing -- role downtown as a landlord, investor, protector and, as he is sometimes portrayed, savior.
Clark acknowledges Gilbert coverage is multifaceted, ranging from useful daily stories to some "cringe-worthy" pieces. And some local observers -- not necessarily members of the local media -- have voiced suspicions of what Gilbert is up to.
One thing that is missing, she notes, are hard-edged investigations, especially into the role played by Gilbert's firm -- if any -- in Detroit's housing crisis.
"It’s hard to believe there hasn’t been more critical coverage from local media,” Ryan Felton, an investigative reporter for the Metro Times, tells Clark.
She writes:
I’m no stranger to the challenge that confronts other reporters here: how to cover a dominating “local savior” in a struggling city without losing your skepticism and critical judgment. And while I don’t find it surprising that the coverage is often sunny, I share Felton’s sense that it can sometimes come unmoored. A look at the ongoing local coverage of Gilbert reveals some solidly informative reporting, some glaring gaps, and the occasional cringe-worthy moment.
Detroit journalist and author Anna Clark (Facebook photo)
Her conclusions:
• Day-to-day news coverage of Gilbert’s influence is often fair-minded and steady.
• Boosterism creeps into stories that have very little to do with Detroit, focusing on the Gilbert glow.
• The “he’s at it again!” narrative — and that phrase appears in coverage — sometimes gets ahead of the actual news.
• There are the stories that remain undone. One obvious one: Detroit’s experience of the housing crisis was among the worst in the nation and is, painfully, still playing out. Quicken Loans is a major player in the mortgage industry. What role, if any, did the company have in the lead-up to the meltdown, especially locally?
It’s surprising that there has not been an independent journalistic accounting of Quicken’s lending history in Detroit—particularly given Gilbert’s growing influence on neighborhood development, via the Blight Task Force. That “might be a story worth pursuing, since if there is nothing discovered similar to the practices of the other lenders, that would be a major story in itself,” said Jon Mogk, a law professor at Wayne State University and a frequent source for national and local Detroit coverage.
