Most recently, some of Michigan’s leading political candidates have been attacking reporters directly on social media, dodging interviews and ignoring invitations from the state’s largest newspapers to participate in editorial board endorsement interviews.
This fundamental change in how political candidates interact with the press has led political reporters to, at times, push back directly against accusations on social media and to find new and different ways to cover political campaigns.
But the press. or should we say media (including the electronic variety), will always be with us, as they should be.
Michigan has generated some famous political journalists who have flourished both inside and outside the state. Think Ray Stannard Baker, Ring Lardner, Michael Barone, and the legendary James Scripps, who founded a publishing empire that has lasted more than a century. Think Glenn Engle, William Kulsea, Robert Longstaff, Roger Lane, Hugh McDiarmid, Ron Dzwonkowski, brother and sister Charlie and Carol Cain, George Weeks, Bob Berg, Carol Eberly, Chris Christoff, Dawson Bell, Roberta Stanley, Lou Gordon, Peter Luke, and Tom Green. One who has survived for nearly six decades has been the iconic Tim Skubick, who has produced and moderated the longest-running state-based public affairs TV show in the entire country — “Off the Record,” now in its 52nd year, every week without fail.
More recently, we have been blessed with a strong core group of experienced and driven political reporters who are thoughtfully navigating the changing political environment and remain committed to doing their jobs the right way. Think Kyle Melinn, Craig Mauger, Kathy Barks Hoffman, Chuck Stokes, Paul Egan, John Lindstrom, Emily Lawler, Zach Gorchow, Zoe Clark, Peter Luke, Jonathan Oosting, and some two dozen others of similar talent.
More broadly, Mauger says the reporting environment for political journalists is noticeably more hostile now than it was leading up to the 2020 presidential election. He believes the proliferation of smaller, ideological political platforms has given candidates the option of insulating themselves from mainstream media who are trained to ask all sides tough questions. And then, when they do get tough questions, the candidates and officeholders accuse the media of being biased.
Rick Pluta, senior capitol correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network, has predicted that reporters will be covering the fallout from this year’s presidential election “well into December.” And people who are campaign reporters right now are going to be court reporters after November, he says.
All that said, is there anything that these hard-working journalists have written that demonstrates that it’s been important to have them doing what they do? Emphatically, the answer is YES.
The best example is something that happened just over three decades ago. It led to Eric Freedman and Jim Mitzelfeld of The Detroit News being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in Michigan’s capital. They were our Woodward and Bernstein. We’re talking, of course, about the House Fiscal Agency scandal exposed in 1993. Led by agency director John Morberg, employees used the agency’s imprest cash fund to finance credit card payments, furniture purchases, property tax payments, vacations, social events, dental work and payments to HFA employees and contract workers for non-existent labor.
Let’s hear how Freedman himself, now the CEO of the Capital News Service at Michigan State University, describes it in his own words:
It was (just over 31 years ago) that a front-page newspaper article began to unravel an extensive legislative corruption scandal that led to felony convictions for 10 people, including a lawmaker from the Upper Peninsula. That Jan. 15, 1993 Detroit News article and dozens that followed also helped push one of the state’s most powerful politicians onto the Capitol sidelines, uncovered political influence in the awarding of state contracts and triggered tougher oversight of the House Fiscal Agency (HFA), the nonpartisan office that analyzes tax and budget issues for the House of Representatives. And for the first time in 14 years, the Auditor General’s office examined the HFA’s books, discovering that at least $1.8 million in public money had been stolen, misspent or simply couldn’t be accounted for.
That first article about suspicious financial dealings at the HFA, “State fiscal watchdog under fire,” by reporter Jim Mitzelfeld was like a domino standing on end that, when tipped over, knocks down all dominos lined up behind it. It sparked a joint federal-state criminal investigation that generated charges against HFA director John Morberg, then-Rep. Stephen Shepich, D-Iron River, and eight other legislative employees and consultants.
Democratic state Attorney Gen. Frank J. Kelley and Republican U.S. Atty. John Smietanka created a task force to investigate the conspiracy, bringing together the Michigan State Police, FBI, Internal Revenue Service and other law enforcement agencies. Morberg, the ringleader, went to federal prison for racketeering, conspiracy and tax crimes. Shepich was convicted of receiving fraudulent travel reimbursement while working on the agency staff, and he resigned his Western U.P. House seat as part of a plea bargain.
HFA Deputy Director Warren Gregory was convicted of federal tax crimes and imprisoned. He died Jan. 9, a week short of the 20th anniversary of that first newspaper article.
Morberg’s mentor was state Rep. Dominic Jacobetti, D-Negaunee, a veteran legislator who chaired the House Appropriations Committee. His committee was responsible for monitoring the HFA but failed to do so. Jacobetti, nicknamed the “Godfather,” wasn’t criminally charged but was forced to resign his powerful committee post.
In the two decades since the HFA scandal erupted, a number of state legislators have found themselves in legal hot water, during or after their time in the Capitol.
For example, in 2001 the Senate expelled Macomb County Republican David Jaye, who had a drunken driving record and had been accused of, but not charged with, assaulting his fiancée. And in 2013, the House seated newly elected Rep. Brian Banks despite the Detroit Democrat’s past felony convictions for writing bad checks. The most prominent ex-legislator who got in criminal trouble was former Rep. Kwame Kilpatrick, D-Detroit. He was convicted on federal charges stemming from his corruption-pervaded tenure as mayor of Detroit.
In 2003, former Rep. Keith Stallworth, D-Detroit, pleaded guilty to a federal money laundering charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities in a drug investigation. He was on the Wayne County Commission at the time. Then there was state Sen. Henry Stallings II, whose unlikely tenure was riddled with legal trouble. His high-profile crimes included a paternity suit, a bankruptcy, and unpaid child support. Then, in 1996, Stallings was charged with using a Senate aide to frame pictures for his Detroit art gallery, using campaign contributions to pay his rent, and failure to pay sales and withholding taxes for his business. Then he was charged with assault, sued for an unpaid bill related to his business, and accused by a staffer of sexual harassment. As his Senate colleagues pushed toward an expulsion hearing, Stallings finally resigned.
Most recently, there were state Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat. ‘Nuf said.
The capital press corps dug up a lot of all this and dutifully reported it.
Have I proved my point?
