"How Detroit Went Broke"

[Novine]

The Freep dives deep into Detroit's financial problems. Too bad that they once again decided to distort the depth of the debt problem by lumping together the water and sewer debt with the GO and pension certificates. The headline that screams "8 Billion in debt!" never makes clear to the reader that 70% of the debt is accountable to the water and sewer department. Those are debts owed by the users of the system, including suburbanites.

Instead of seizing the opportunity to show how suburban growth contributes to Detroit's overall debt number and how suburbanites are on the hook for a good percentage of that, the Freep leaves the impression that this is a Detroit-only problem. What a huge mistake. I don't know if this is on Stephen Henderson and the editorial side, the news side or both but in that regard, they once again perpetuated a myth about the nature of the debt and they can't use the excuse of not knowing the difference.