'A bunch of chest-thumping' by the Freep on Moroun, says Joel Thurtell

At Joel on the Road, the blogger who in September 2008 broke the news that Matty Moroun illegally occupies Riverside Park now ridicules his ex-employer for its April 11 spread in which Moroun cast himself as a preservationist and "a benefit to the city."

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Isn’t it curious how Michigan’s great morning tradition could spend tons of time poring over land records, yet somehow miss Riverside Park? . . .

It took more than a year and a half for the friendly Free Press to produce — what? A bunch of chest-thumping about a supposedly rare sit-down interview with the great Matty, who supplied a bunch of half-baked rationalizations for his civic misbehavior and gussied-up bromides about some imagined legacy.

Then, it turns out, the Big Interview was not so unique — according to Bill Shea of Crain’s Detroit Business, Shea and two other reportershave had one-on-one talks with Matty, though without trumpeting the “coup� in a headline and multiple boasts.

. . . The Metro Times didn’t need a one-hour “rare� interview with the troll under the bridge to report a face of Matty that swung into view during a recent court session involving Matty’s penchant for seizing city land.

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