Column on misinformed voters says Detroit has ‘no real daily newspapers’

A Republican political consultant who authored a guest column for The Hill today, lamenting the nation’s lack of informed voters, commented that Detroit is among a group of major American cities that “have no real daily newspapers.”

I wonder what the editors and reporters downtown at the Free Press and News think about that remark.

John Feehery’s column focused on “misinformed voters” across the nation and he blamed the lack of good journalism – in some cases, any journalism – for this phenomenon.

In a broad sense, this is hardly a new point of view. Massive cutbacks due to shrinking bottom lines at major metropolitan newspapers, including the Free Press and News, are widely cited for declining quality and breadth in their news product.

Taking things to a new level

But Feehery takes things to a new level by asserting that “major cities like Denver, Detroit, Seattle, San Diego and New Orleans have no real daily newspapers.”

Feehery

Feehery, in the past a mouthpiece for House majority leader Tom DeLay and House speaker Dennis Hastert, seems totally uninformed about the healthy newspaper competition between the Free Press and the News in the Motor City. What’s more, The Denver Post has to be considered one of the nation's top newspapers not located on the East or West Coast, winning four Pulitzer Prizes from 2010-13. Seattle and San Diego each have daily papers that have struggled but survive.

And the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s numerous reductions in service, a point of great consternation throughout the newspaper industry, has reversed course to some degree. The Big Easy now has two daily newspapers from which to choose.

In addition, Feehery, a fan of Fox News and a frequent TV talking head, claims that two years ago The Washington Post “had to be bailed out the by (sic) Jeff Bezos,” the Amazon CEO. The Post has had its financial difficulties, but to portray the surprise Bezos purchase as a bailout is a bit absurd.

No newspapers, no reporters

So, how did Feehery reach all of these conclusions? He explains in his column that he recently met with a group of congressional PR people and was told that his newspaper-centric strategy to build support for certain legislation was dead on arrival. Republican voters get their Washington news from Fox, he was told.   

He writes that the message he received was this: “There are no papers back home and there are no reporters who cover our (congressional) delegation.”

The idea that numerous states have no newspapers – or no newspapers that report about their congressional delegation’s activities – is a misinformed viewpoint that Feehery apparently accepted as accurate.

Then again, I suspect Feehery’s source of information was a room full of devoted Fox watchers.