It didn't take long for Detroiters to react to NBC's Dateline special on Detroit, America Now: Detroit. And surprise surprise, their reaction was the same company reaction that they have given to any inquiry into the state of the city, be it media or government. Denial, mixed heavily with anger and outrage. As a Metro Detroiter (someone who lives outside Detroit but has a vested interest in Detroit thanks to, among other things, taxes) who knows the deal, just once I'd like to see acceptance or ownership from Detroit community leaders. Robert Bobb (DPS emergency financial manager) who is trying to salvage what is left of DPS (Detroit Public Schools) after the wolves have nearly picked its carcass clean and Dave Bing (current mayor of Detroit) have taken more than the lion's share of ownership for past gluttony that they had no part in. But where are the community leaders who were keeping watch over the city for decades now? Where is their ownership in the failure that is Detroit?
I have never thought NBC reflects fair and unbiased journalism. But everything that was captured in Dateline's special by hometown kid who made good, Chris Hansen, was the truth. It was ugly but it was the truth. Yes, it's hard to hear seasoned Detroiters (read: the elderly of the community) say that the best is all gone in Detroit. Statements like that make you want to cry. But it's what we see every night on our local news folks. There were no exaggerations. War zone violence and chaos. Government corruption. So many money grabs that we've lost count. Every abomination known to mankind. It was the Cliff Notes version of Detroit's humiliations and that is an awful bitter pill to swallow. For weeks before its premiere, Detroit was abuzz about Chris Hansen's presence in the city. Detroiters have always been under the perverse notion that any publicity is good publicity. It's rather embarrassing to those of us who know better. Maybe it was annoyance at the fact that a white kid from a suburban Catholic prep school who is now a big city journalist had caught the city with its pants down and its hand in the cookie jar, and was now sharing the footage with the world. Or maybe it was that the city of Detroit believes that truth is a subjective thing. In the same vein as the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". But everyone from religious leaders to Mitch Albom were decrying the special and claiming NBC was out to slander Detroit. Some went as far to say that there were many well-to-do Detroiters, that the poverty in Detroit was exaggerated and that NBC purposely ignored all of the positive things happening in Detroit. Like what? Like trash not being collected, like kids being mowed down by gunfire as they stood at a bus stop on their way home from summer school or like water main breaks that resemble geysers, creating impassible lakes in the streets that aren't shut off unless a news channel with a video camera gets involved?
If you live in Southeast Michigan, you're way past the point of 'Huh?' The fact that at least two people (on record) in leadership positions are so in denial of the devastation that people are experiencing within the city is nothing short of disgusting. And the latest scapegoat is Chris Hansen and NBC. Own your mistakes Detroit. Move past your obsession with public and national perception. You can't spin Detroit's PR any longer. You can sweep the city's transgressions under the rug for only so long. The rug's not big enough to conceal all of the mistakes, wrong doings and evils that were committed against the city anymore. I am reminded of the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the band of merry social outcasts come to see the great and powerful Oz to seek assistance with their situations. When he is unmasked by Toto as being nothing more than a simple man with a megaphone and access to pyrotechnics, he frantically shouts into the mic "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" and tries to direct their attention back to the imposing image on the wall. No one buys it for a second and his pitiful attempts go on for a short while until finally he gives up. Parlor games and Jedi mind tricks aside, Detroit has to realize that Dateline was only holding up a mirror and making their special out to be an exaggerated dig at Detroit is hurting no one but themselves.
