One of the most frustrating things about being a Detroiter is that many, if not most, of the people in suburban metro Detroit are fiercely anti-Detroit, and relish the opportunity to insult and deride Detroiters at every turn. The overwhelming opinion of suburban Detroiters is that we are little more than lazy corrupt animals who support and encourage crime, corruption, and lawlessness.
The local Detroit media loves to play up this contentious city vs suburb divide to attract readers and viewers, but they do a great disservice to all of us when they pander to this lowest common denominator.
When Detroit was facing the appointment of an emergency manager, the local media was putting every local quack and rabble-rouser on the front page and evening newscast to make it seem like the city would erupt in riots if the state appointed an EM to oversee city finances.
When the state finally took over the city, there were MAYBE 50 protesters marching in front of city hall, while every local media outlet had cameras and reporters reporting live from the scene. There was nearly as many media personnel, if not more, than actual protesters.
One of the most supposedly "contentious" aspects of the city restructuring plan was to turn our signature city park into a state park. The polls showed that two thirds [[66%) of Detroiters supported this plan. Despite the overwhelming support of Detroiters, the local media chose to fan the flames of anti-Detroit sentiment by interviewing a handful of radicals and putting them on the news as if they were representative of the majority city opinion.
When one of the local radicals decided to stage a protest against the state takeover and resulting "disrespectful treatment" by the state police and DNR officers, it was on the front page of the papers and a lead story on the local news broadcasts. People around the region got all worked up about how stupid and ignorant Detroiters are because "we" were protesting. All of the local media was there reporting live...
...And about 20 protesters showed up.
Of course, the media will not be running headlines and live news coverage of the fact that 99.99% of Detroiters did not support or agree with this handful of radicals, so the majority of metro Detroiters will only know that "Detroiters" were staging a big protest, and the assumption will be that the majority of the city agrees with these 20 idiots.
Even after only 20 protesters showed up, look at what the headline says: "DETROITERS 'Ride for Respect' on Belle Isle"... As if those 20 people represent Detroiters.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/25...-on-belle-isle
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