The Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC) and WDET were clearly shaken by the disruption of their media celebration of the Detroit Bankruptcy. On December 15 they posted their perspective on the meeting under the heading “Detroit: We won’t move forward unless we learn to listen.”

The article that follows this headline demonstrates that DJC and WDET were not shaken enough to question their own assumptions. They have no idea how much they have lost any claim to moral legitimacy in the city.

After a brief introduction they explain they “set out to host an ambitious public broadcast that would reflect on the state of the city.” Then they defensively stress how their coverage provided both data and “diverse perspectives” and conclude they “could have done better at incorporating this work into the program. “ Their reason for not doing so, they say, was because the format they chose was “designed for broadcast on both radio and television” and “did not lend itself well to in-person engagement.”

This is simply not true. Their format was an effort to manage controversy. It anticipated most people who would share their perspective. Over the course of the last few years members of the DJC have become increasingly out of touch with the city and more and more insular. At times it seems the only perspective being broadcast on public radio, public television, and printed in the Detroit Free Press is that of Stephen Henderson, with an occasional comment from Nolan Finley. This is not exactly a wide range of views.

The call to “civility” is empty when you have been silent in the face of assault and attack as most of the DJC has been.

Is it civil strip away democratic rights? Is it civil to allow a whole city to be poisoned? Is it civil to strip away the hard earned pensions of our elders? Is it civil to allow children to go to schools without basic plumbing? Is it civil to knock down people’s doors and forcefully evict them from their homes? Is it civil to allow banks to effectively red line the neighborhoods? Is it civil to allow a handful of people to amass property while evicting long term residents? Is it civil to allow the Mayor to appoint inexperienced cronies to head the water department? Is it civil to shut off water and claim there is no human right that is enforceable? Is it civil to evade an open discussion of what is happening to our children, our elders, our most vulnerable citizens?

Civilization, civic life, civil behavior demand we speak up against injustice. It demands that we not be silent in the face of barbaric acts. To speak the whole truth, not the convenient, polite, sanitized version of the powerful, is the most important lesson we can give our children.

Open Letter to WDET and DJC, December 17, 2015

Dear Michelle Srbinovich, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative, and WDET:

One of us is an elected member of the Detroit Public Schools Board, one a pastor and non-violent community activist in SW Detroit, and the other founding editor of the now defunct Michigan Citizen, which was a part of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative.

We were among those who raised our voices in disruption of WDET’s celebration, The Detroit Bankruptcy: One Year Later. We have read your letter lamenting that the event was closed down early and calling for the civility of listening. We have several comments.

The young poets from Cody on whom you lean to begin and close your letter were neither interrupted by the audience nor disparaged, but applauded. However, their words seemed well crafted and quotable, their verbs consistently in the passive tense (schools are torn down, but the teardowners are nowhere in sight or sound). They were shamefully used by the station to frame the event. Most of us know that Cody is an EAA School run directly by the Governor and heavily profited upon by non-profits.

Nor were the four women on the “grand bargain” panel interrupted by the citizens in the audience. Only patronizing remarks by organizers and the two men who used their positions to maximize their powers under emergency management were targets of community scorn. People whose constitutional rights have been trampled and whose voices silenced under emergency management at last had the opportunity to express their rage.

In addition to extracting pension funds, bank debt service, and physical assets, the Detroit Bankruptcy has been partly about the silencing of citizen voices. Among the primary legacies of Judge Rhodes was to legitimate Emergency Management in this and every black city in the state. The Judge stayed the constitutional and voting rights challenges to the EM law (already repealed once by Michigan voters), effectively saying first we’ll do the bankruptcy, then we’ll determine whether it was brought by legitimate authority. Given the chance, he’ll make it sound so reasonable too.

When people’s votes are stolen in a variety of ways, when all elected officials are replaced by one appointee of direct gubernatorial rule, when there is no legitimate political recourse, and when the mainstream media function as shills for such power, people of conscience must learn creative ways to speak.

To be frank, WDET has not functioned in these recent years as a critical journalistic voice on this score, but as an enthusiastic legitimator itself. Witness the event. Coming in, we walked past two banners which read: “WDET: brought to you by Jones-Day” and “WDET: taking the people out of public radio.” Just so.

Accessibility. The event -- the first opportunity since before the bankruptcy for Detroiters to be in the same room as the governor-- was indeed accessible to anyone with a computer or smartphone, where tickets were easily obtained. The cards for writing questions, however, were but a ruse and pretense of dialogue. They signaled that there would be no question and answer period, and we never saw them even collected, let alone vetted and quietly thrown out. There was no provision for those in attendance to speak directly to these officials. We were left to make our own provisions.

Listening. When Stephen Henderson between sessions was addressing the audience for calm and silence, someone shouted back, “Then listen to the people of Detroit.” He replied as we recall, “I am the people of Detroit.” Thereby hangs a problem of WDET’s naïve self-perception. The station may have an address on Cass, but it isn’t located in the Corridor – it was among the first to find itself in Midtown and declare so without a critical second thought.

Civility. If this is code for the decorum which is synonymous with silencing, then we are not for it. We are willing to break the spell of decorum on which the authorities stand and behind which they hide. Consider: civility was virtually a culture in the antebellum and Jim Crow south, even to this day. A silky cover for brutality and death. We do believe in treating people with the respect they deserve and earn. At the bankruptcy celebration no name calling took place that we heard. But outright lies about who brought the bankruptcy (not the city of Detroit!), or who pays the costs (poor people, never the rich!), or whether this event was some sort of “conversation” with the audience…these we respectfully and loudly challenge.

If we’re both to be honest, we doubt that Mr. Duggan was waiting eagerly in the wings to engage the audience. No such opportunity was lost. We wager that he actually called the shots and refused to appear. He too likes his questions well vetted and composed, his questioners well-heeled.

We affirm listening, real and deep. We believe it is time for that. But to be a listener is not about becoming a member of a radio market. It is not about holding one's tongue when lies hold the airwaves. It is not about mouthing what can be heard over and over and over. Listen: it is not about verbal passivity, but about listening to one another into speech and into action. We believe that happened at the event. And we are grateful to those who spoke out.

The Honorable Elena Herrada, Detroit Public School Board

Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church

Teresa Kelley, former editor/publisher of the Michigan Citizen,member of DJC