This guy Char­lie is pretty funny. I’m from the Michi­gan coun­try­side but we were close enough to be aware of the city. The sec­ond house I ever lived on was located on infa­mous 8 Mile Road, but far enough out to be a dirt road sur­rounded by farms. If I grew up in the Shire, Detroit was Mor­dor, always the dark cloud on the east­ern hori­zon. The news from the east was full of Cole­man Young’s pol­icy fail­ures, white flight and pop­u­la­tion decline, auto plant clos­ings, the yearly immo­la­tion of Devil’s Night, police bru­tal­ity and mur­der after mur­der. I applaud Vice for focus­ing edi­to­r­ial atten­tion on this prob­lem, uncon­ven­tional though it may be.

Yes, I agree that Detroit is a great city for jour­nal­ism. The dif­fer­ence is there is no hur­ri­cane or war or finan­cial cri­sis to cap­ture head­lines blame — but there are some Pulitzers hid­ing in the rubble.