Great piece in Vice on media covering Detroit

[buildingsofdetroit]

http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n8/ht...994.php?page=1

"The photographers are the worst. Basically the only thing they’re interested in shooting is ruin porn.�

[Patrick]

The dos and don'ts are the best feature Vice has....oh, and the piece where one of their guys went to North Korea.

[Homer]

I could not finish the article. Got cought up in the side pix, way to funny.

[boogiechillen]

I've got a couple of bones to pick with Thomas Morton after reading his article in Vice and hearing him on WDET's "Detroit Today."


1. The fact that the Packard Plant and MCS have been abandoned for some time now does not make them insignificant symbols of Detroit, or “faulty visual metaphors� in Morton’s words. True, their ruins are not the products of the recent economic maladies facing Detroit; however, they are representative of the half-century-long downsizing of the city and all of the social and economic problems that have occured over that time, ie "the bigger picture." Plus, they are BIG FUCKING BUILDINGS that one can't help but notice and be awestruck by--even locals. While the train station is privately owned, it still represents the city's failure to make any stand against private interests [[Morton should do a little research on Matty Maroun, who exploits the city's financial situation to do whatever the fuck he wants to make billions of dollars). While I am not defending the national media for exploiting the images of these structures, I can't blame them either. These two buildings in specific are huge tourist attractions [[as perverse as that seems). I ran into a touring band from Oregon in MCS who were driving by and drawn in by the building's impressive visage. I met some Italian girls in town for a wedding who wanted to see the Packard Plant and take some pictures because they had read about it in various media.

Sure, the Packard Plant has been closed since 1956, which Morton says is not acknowledged by most journalists visiting Detroit, but the fact that it stands today, left to rot for over a half century, is representative of the failures of city government as well as the planned obsolescence implemented by the auto industry that has led to its current struggles for financial solvency. I welcome the recent attention given to places like MCS and the Packard Plant, though I take every journalistic attempt to explain Detroit with a grain of salt and skepticism. The fact is these places have been too long ignored, as have the problems facing Detroit, by the national media. Even if the recent attention given to these places results in an oversimplification of Detroit's problems and the reasons behind them, attention is still being paid.


2. Mr. Morton’s criticism of the French filmmakers is completely unfounded. Firstly, they never claimed to be journalists. If Morton had done a bit more research, he would have realized that they are not making a traditional documentary, but a more experimental fiction film with a documentary style. Secondly, Detroit really is full of wildlife absent from most other major cities. I have indeed seen foxes in Detroit, as well as pheasants [[not to mention feral dogs and children). How dare Morton criticize the filmmaker’s artistic vision, even if it required a fox trainer to get his desired shot.



3. If Morton is so critical of national media falsely portraying Detroit, then why is Charlie LeDuff's dick so deep in his throat? [[Apologies for the crudity, but I figured that since I am writing about Vice, I might as well write in their style). Doesn't Morton realize that LeDuff is not exactly the standard of journalistic integrity? He's had a Pulitzer revoked for plagiarism. His "eye on the 'eccentric vagrant' beat" is really just an eye on better storytellers than himself like Detroitblogger John, from whom LeDuff steals story ideas.


The only thing I learned from Mr. Morton’s article is that because he spent a couple of days in Detroit, he knows a helluva lot more about the city than the rest of the national media. What it is he specifically knows is not, however, mentioned in his article. The others got it wrong and he called them out, but he does nothing to say how they could get it right. Morton’s gripes are representative of everything I find wrong with his hipster rag Vice Magazine. He is incredibly dismissive of all the coverage Detroit has gotten simply because it is overdone. In doing so, he himself has painted a false picture of Detroit.

[thebrownbomber]

vice's attitude: "it's nonsense when nyt or time or french guys or whatever talk about detroit. it's only authentic when we wank our own hypemachine-addled opinion via some bloviations about journalistic ethics [[like they know anything about that either) and our own pictures of the crackheads and ruins." they should should stick to what they know: talking about cocaine and trustafarian floozies in brooklyn.