OT: The Detroit Free Press is Apparently Imploding
The newspaper we love to hate - for good reason - appears to be imploding. Several things have happened at the Detroit Free Press in the last few weeks and months that point to a complete internal meltdown. The latest shoe dropped Friday morning, when it was announced that Executive Editor Robert Huschka - the top editorial staffer at the paper - was abruptly resigning. No reason given, no new job lined up, so something is obviously up.
This follows the announceent on the Fourth of July that Michigan beat reporter Mark Snyder - co-author of the Stretchgate debacle in 2009 - was abruptly "leaving the profession." Again, no new job lined up. This doesn't just happen.
The newspaper industry as a whole is obviously melting down, and Gannett - owner of the Free Press - is the worst villain of them all in the newspaper world. It's the worst company to work for and does some of the worst and most irresponsible journalism out there. They're awful. They cut jobs like it's a hobby, and they don't care one bit how crappy their papers become.
We hear that more job cuts and abrupt resignations-for-no-reason will be coming. So much has changed at the paper since their Stretchgate hatchet job on RichRod's program, so there's not many people left there to hate. Mike Rosenberg and Mark Snyder are gone, Drew Sharp passed away, the editor who oversaw the hatchet job is gone, and now, so is the predecessor who covered up Sharp's plagiarism on another story.
Even Mick McCabe, who was given the task of attacking John U. Bacon's credibility on "Three and Out, when it came to Bacon's excellent expose of the Free Press, is also gone.
So the bottom line is that the Free Press is slowing slinking into oblivion. We can continue to hate them until they finally go away, but it appears that day is coming fast.
to a shittier rag. This has become like a posbang thread, I like it!
I can only hope that Michigan fans' boycott of the Freep and use of the DetroitNews sped up the implossion of the Freep.
1987, per Wikipedia. I thought it was later, like the early 90's.
The people that ran this paper knew that Drew Sharp plagarized his work, and Mitch Albom wrote a Final Four story about attending a game he never attended, before the game even took place. They turned a blind eye to both. They get what they deserve.
They didn't really merge, per se. They just entered a joint operating agreement to consolidate certain operations and reduce costs.
Let's just hope they don't stretch this out any further than it has to last.
The downvotes you get will be countable.
Probably another 3-9 months.
The job or the marriage?
later nerds
...and she's a beeeotch.
Do not be deceived. You will reap what you sow. Bitches.
Yes, as much as I dislike the paper there are probably quite a few livelihoods at stake here.
I thought Huell was already in the process of redesigning the site.
Tabloid in an industry that now rewards tabloid behavior.
...until people demand responsible, quality journalism. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the direction most people are following.
But no more horses to feed and water and have crapping around your house.
Horses crapping around your house?
I'd say if you let the horse in the house, you've got no one to blame but yourself.
Horse and carriage aren't an essential part of Democracy. 4th Estate is (was?) an essential check on power. Pretty sad that so many on here have no perspective greater than "they wrote a bad article 10 years ago about football". This place is a cesspool.
I share your sentiment pretty much entirely. I have no love for the Freep, but you won't find me dancing on their (early) grave to rack up mgopoints. It isn't just this place though, it's a symptom of a larger problem in our society as a whole. I blame social media (mostly Twitter these days, complete cesspool), 24 hour cable "news" coverage, our education system, and the ever shortening attention span of the average American.
It's fucking sad, but what the hell do you do? You can't get past the "herp derp BRAWNDO" echo chamber effect with much of anything anymore. It seems to be getting worse all the time.
Of course you don't
We're gonna miss you...NOT!
And to think at one point, nearly 50 years now, that this used to be a great newspaper. Amazing just how far it has fallen. It might as well far off the side of the earth now; I'm not sure anyone other than the OP is paying attention, or that anybody cares.
RIP Freep. It was a different age when you were relevant at all. It has now been 30 years of absolute garbage.
Final political act.
Without the JOA, the Freep would have been gone long ago. It was the Gannet switch from the News to the Freep that ended the Dreep's superiority.
Local newspapers are just no longer viable in most markets.
The Freep. The Freep. The Freep is on fire. We don't need no water let the muthafucka burn.
If you are old enough you probably know the rest...
You don't even need to be "old enough" to remember the original song you referenced. All you need to do is have seen George Clinton in the last few years on a night when he included it in his medley toward the end of the show.
It won't be long before the entire media industry as we know it is totally disrupted. Nearly everyone has a phone and camera, and can answer who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much. The people will produce the news, not agenda driven "journalists."
We're definitely already seeing that, I think, with the rise of blogs and what some call "citizen jounalists" in many walks of media coverage but particularly in the sports world.
Indeed, some of these folks have scooped papers like the Free Press on items, and some of the reporting in papers has been at least partially inspired by what those folks are uncovering, especially when their "source with knowledge" is probably also someone who works with or near a team, at least in some cases. As for agendas, well, let's not get too crazy - a fair amount of sports blogs definitely have an editorial stance on the programs they cover.
I still enjoy reading a paper of some kind, but I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do so at least the Detroit media market.
What there needs to be a "monitor/editor" for people's thoughts? What type of Orwellian bullcrap is this? Plus how did the editor work for the Freep? They published a bunch of crap about Michigan football.