Jai-Lee Dearing PUNKS DETROIT

[East Detroit]

Still, to get punk'd so easily, it makes one wonder what else they aren't up to speed on?

Nonsense. They gave the access info to him and he passed it off to someone else. The only way they could stop that is to force everyone to have the chats in person, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of allowing for online chats.

[sehender1]

No question, I feel a little punked by Dearing...
But I also feel like this was a situation that could have been worked out without all the hijinks.. If he got double-booked with us and the radio, we would have rescheduled. We've been going through the candidates in alphabetical order, so it would have been no big deal to just move his chat if he couldn't do it when he was scheduled.

Instead, he chose to pull a fast one where he could. He couldn't have used an impostor on the radio! On a chat, it almost worked.

Cool thing, I think, is that the readers busted him during the chat and called him out. So he didn't get away with it for long..

We set up these chats with the candidates as a way to get readers the same kind of access we have to them.
Seriously, how many opportunities do voters get to question the candidates directly? We get it as much as we request, so I figured these chats to be a creative way to share some of that access.
[[This is our first experiment with this, but not the last. Look for us to do much more with the gubernatorial and other big races next year.)

Of course, EastDetroit is right, we couldn't ever be absolutely sure that the person chatting is actually the candidate, short of requiring people to come into the Freep offices.

We've talked to all the candidates a number of times [[and met at least once with all the city council finalists, face-to-face) and we talk to them on the day before, as well as the day of, their chats, to make sure we're still on. Obviously, that doesn't stop someone from deceiving if that's really their intent.

Overall, though, I think the chats have been pretty revealing - as much for what they say ABOUT the candidates as for what the candidates themselves say. Dearing's takes the cake so far..

[urbanpioneer]

Just remember the FREEP plays fast and loose with its editorial board. Henderson's uncle is Charlie Beckham, Bing's right-hand man, and that wasn't revealed for quite a time into the political season. And they let Rochelle Riley have her way -- this is the woman who lives in Ann Arbor, makes it look like she lives in Detroit when her house gets broken into and then takes a "staycation" in Detroit --- yet lives 50 minutes away.