The News of Detroit

From the Blurb: A city like Detroit is a newspaperman's dream, writes William W. Lutz, and this broad, rich history of America's fifth largest city and the nation's largest evening newspaper amply attests to that fact. Over the past hundred years, Detroit has seen the revolutionary methods of Henry Ford, the birth pangs of organized labor, the emergence of Walter Reuther and Jimmy Hoffa, the underworld activities of the infamous Purple Gang, the success stories of Ty Cobb, Joe Louis and Walter Hagen, the race riots of 1943 and 1967, and the Algiers Motel incident-and it has seen them all through the eyes of the Detroit News. Resolutely independent, the News was founded in 1873 by James E. Scripps with the philosophy that it would be a newspaper for everyone, a policy it continues to follow today. With a crusading idealism and a price everyone could afford, it set out not only to report the news, but to make news.^ It involved itself in public affairs and made the city its constant point of interest, campaigning for lower utility rates, a publicly owned transit system, better roads and lighting, and home rule. It steadfastly exposed corruption and crooked politicians, such as "Honest Tom" Glinnan, a man whose probity was well known and whose bribe fee was the highest in town. It instituted programs for the public and even sponsored the world's first commercial radio station, which started in 1920 on the second floor of the News building. It grew with Detroit and in turn helped the city grow, and the chronicle of that mutual development-"sometimes in harmony, sometimes in discord"--Forms the fascinating story of this book. Vividly written by one of the newspaper's star writer-reporters, The News of Detroit is filled with anecdotes of the tragedy and humor, the successes and failures of a hundred years.^ It describes the people who made the news-such as political boss Billy Boushaw and fighting mayor Hazen S. Pingree, who called Detroit "Boodle City"-and the people who made the News: the enterprising Scripps family, crime reporter Jack Carlisle, crusading managing editor Edwin G. Pipp, and the woman who made hearts melt while advising on everyone's problems, "Nancy Brown." It is at once a unique behind-the-scenes study of one of America's foremost newspapers and an intimate account of the rise of a major metropolis.