Oversimplifying the causes of Detroit’s decline makes us find the wrong solutions to Detroit’s problems, says David Fike, president of Marygrove College, moderator of the “Putting the Myths to Rest” panel.
If the “problem” is one leader – Coleman Young, for example – or the riots, then we get the wrong answer.
If our problems were caused by one bad leader, then all we need is one good leader, Fike says – except that’s not really going to fix Detroit’s problems.
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Agreed, but we all know that most journalists don’t have the time/tools to give the complicated answers. Is it not so much easier to type “riots” or “Coleman Young” to sum up a city’s troubles? The challenge is giving writers and editors the right context they can digest and easily regurgitate to readers.
Indeed – and sometimes it’s a matter of narrative expediency to focus on a single thread to tell the story.
But I think that there’s also the question of decreasing editorial space. You and I are lucky – Model D, an online publication, isn’t constrained by print space, and at a niche publication like Crain’s Detroit Business (where I’m a reporter), we have the luxury of writing the story for what it’s worth, not for what will fit… but for most print publications, a decline in ad revenue has led to a smaller news hole… and that leads to oversimplified narrative.