Jackasses Release Bray
WINKLER, CLAUDIA
Jackasses Release Bray The Detroit News editorial page loses its leader. BY CLAUDIA WINKLER MARK SILVERMAN, publisher and editor of the Detroit News, is clearly annoyed at being pestered by the...
...Under his direction, the Detroit News has been cited by Gannett for "Best Overall News Performance" two years in a row...
...If The News is not going to write a coherent argument on gun rights, just let the Free Press editorialize...
...What was unusual, Engler says, was the depth of insight into public issues that the News's editorials reflected...
...When Silverman has calmed down a little, he reiterates what he has affirmed in print: His paper's editorial philosophy will not change...
...I've read in the newspaper that rights pre-exist the Constitution, not that they are created by it...
...When he was passed over in March for a promotion to managing editor— that plum went instead to a younger man who had previously worked under him, a "young African American," as the News's story made a point of mentioning—Finley started looking for a job elsewhere...
...In a signed column in the Detroit News on July 28, 1999, he called the prevalence of white males in newsrooms "morally wrong" and attacked as "extreme right-wing rant-ings" a column his own paper had published by the syndicated writer John Leo warning that identity politics in newsrooms leads to "group-think...
...Then again, maybe these readers and Tom Bray's admirers are alarmist...
...But Silverman deserves to be pestered by his journalistic colleagues, because it looks like he's dismantling one of the finest editorial pages in America: The News's widely respected editorial page editor, Thomas Bray, has just been ousted...
...It may be, of course, that the News's editorial page will flourish under Finley, but for now his presence there looks like an accident...
...We'll wait for the pudding...
...Silverman has gone out of his way to associate himself personally with such policies...
...Some of these can be inferred from scattered clues—a disparaging reference, for example, in a column to "so-called free-market issues in the health care industry...
...In selecting a new editorial page editor, Silverman turned not to an experienced commentator plausibly capable of sustaining the intellectual reputation Bray had built for his page over nearly 17 years, but to a deputy managing editor, Nolan Finley, whose entire career has been on the news side of the Detroit News, who hasn't written in years, and who had responsibility for a part of newspapering from which editorial pages are normally kept as insulated as possible: promotion and marketing...
...It was the product of a team he had assembled, dedicated to a style of political commentary that was both principled and down to earth...
...The dustup last summer over the John Leo column produced a similar reaction from numerous readers...
...Perhaps, despite the views he has expressed, Silverman will allow his editorial page to continue to dissect and deplore identity politics, as it did under Bray...
...Do I have to stop reading The News also...
...RepeatClaudia Winkler is a managing editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...This kind of newspaper management causes individual papers to lose their unique identities and voices—which has certainly been the case with The News since it was gobbled up by Gannett...
...He asserted this in the News's business section on April 28, in a letter in the Wall Street Journal the same day, and two days later in his own Sunday column...
...Under these circumstances, for the News to take a marked turn to the left or even to the center would be circulation suicide...
...Bray's page was respected across Michigan, and in conservative circles nationally, for its intelligence, clarity, and fairness...
...Papers were expected, among other things, to quote more non-whites and women in their newscolumns...
...Yet side by side with Silverman's column on April 30 ran one by Bray, a gracious thank-you-and-farewell whose final paragraph contained the statement: "I did not seek such a change...
...As publisher and editor, of course, Silverman enjoys the prerogative of steering his paper's editorial policy to his liking...
...When I ask to speak with him, his secretary informs me that the photograph of him our art department has requested will be supplied only if her boss can clear our story first...
...Thus, a recent editorial on the 6th Circuit's striking down of Ohio's state motto, "With God, all things are possible," ended: OUR VIEW The law does not require the U.S...
...Finally, some of that "subtle evolution" in particular positions has occurred in the Silverman years—not too subtle, though, for readers to notice...
...In recent days, this gimmick has not appeared...
...The "Company History" on Gan-nett's website redundantly begins: "Gannett Co., Inc...
...Court of Appeals to strike down Ohio's state motto, which refers to God...
...One of these was whether each paper "requires diversity...
...But Bray's page earned respect from Democrats, too...
...Some evidence, however, is already in...
...OPPOSING VIEW The First Amendment forbids any governmental references to God...
...It's a good idea—the proof, indeed, is in the pudding...
...Joseph Pujol, to quote just one more letter, expanded on the point: Silverman seems to want the Detroit News to maintain its conservative editorial tradition, yet inoculate readers with an op-ed page of syndicated liberal opinion, as if to declare that all opinions are equally valid...
...The senior member of the House of Representatives, John Dingell of the 16th District of Michigan, is speaking also for his wife, who is president of the General Motors Foundation, when he says, "Although Deborah and I more often than not disagreed with the content of Tom's editorial page, we always felt that he brought good and useful discussion to the table of political affairs...
...This piece is illogical by The News's own standards...
...We shall see...
...But he doesn't have an entirely free hand...
...If readers wanted a good dose of liberal opinion, they would subscribe to the Free Press...
...And for proof, he says, "I would invite you to take a look at our editorial page in six months...
...It's hard to see how he could fail to bring change, given his marked differences with Bray...
...Maybe the great days of the Detroit News's editorial page are not behind it, and an honorable man who used his talent to the benefit of his community has not been done an injustice...
...The editorial page position, says a colleague, was his "booby prize...
...Since Silverman arrived at the News in 1997, the opinion pages have devoted more space to liberal opinion...
...Even a left-wing columnist in Detroit's alternative Metro Times has leapt to Bray's defense, quoting "one insider" as likening the changing of the guard at the News to "replacing Alan Greenspan with George Wallace...
...Asked about the contradiction between the two versions of events, Silverman declines to discuss an "internal personnel issue...
...Republican governor John Engler calls Bray's influence "profound," adding, "We could not have advanced welfare reform and tax reform and government reductions without Tom's leadership and the voice of the Detroit News...
...Mark Silverman is a successful executive in the Gannett newspaper chain, a company that loudly champions the systematic recruitment and promotion of minorities and women...
...It has never pretended to be motivated by logic or reason...
...Nevertheless, with a neophyte now leading the editorial page, Silverman can be expected to assert his influence, to effect what his April 30 column called "a subtle evolution of some positions...
...But other disagreements loom large...
...In the days following the sudden announcement that Bray would be stepping down and henceforth writing two columns a week from home, the publisher maintained the move was Bray's idea...
...And early last year, Silver-man instituted an unusual practice of ending editorials with a one-sentence summary—followed by a one-sentence statement of the contrary position, as if to vitiate the impact of the paper's own opinion...
...BY CLAUDIA WINKLER MARK SILVERMAN, publisher and editor of the Detroit News, is clearly annoyed at being pestered by the press...
...Wrote one Brett Cashman: How does the May 23 editorial...
...The way Tom organized and assigned his team often led to greater understanding of issues and alternatives on the editorial page than could be gleaned from the news pages...
...We respect and like Tom and wish him the best of luck...
...is the most diverse news, information and communications company in the USA...
...After the News retreated from its longstanding libertarian position on guns ("The burden of proof should always remain on those who want to restrict firearms, not on those who happen to think, as we do, that the Founding Fathers knew what they were talking about," July 4, 1998...
...And in the Gannett environment, he has prospered...
...Until the pudding is steamed, however, here are a few good reasons to be skeptical: Silverman's fishy handling of Bray's "reassignment...
...edly, he called those who insisted Bray had been fired (including Bray's former colleagues on the Wall Street Journal editorial page) practitioners of irresponsible journalism relying on anonymous sources and "preconceived notions...
...fit in with the previous views of The News...
...Silverman pledged the News to the "aggressive pursuit of diversity in staffing and coverage...
...Bray's "reassignment" has no bearing on the paper's commitment to its conservative tradition...
...A company rich in its diversity . . .") For five years starting in 1991, Silverman spearheaded News 2000, a company-wide effort to improve the Gannett newspapers that involved regularly scoring their performance on ten criteria...
...I assure her we don't need the picture that much and ask again to speak with Silverman— who, as soon as she puts him on, starts berating me...
...Silverman's philosophical and stylistic differences with Bray...
...Silverman seems to want the Detroit News to maintain its conservative editorial tradition, yet inoculate readers with an op-ed page of syndicated liberal opinion, as if to declare that all opinions are equally valid...
...The choice of a newsman to succeed Bray...
...He just received his third "President's Ring" for outstanding performance and is one of three finalists for Gannett "Editor of the Year...
...Given the destructive role of guns in our society, individuals should bear at least some of the burden of proving a need for concealed weapon permits," May 23, 1999), several readers were indignant...
...If this is a right, let us exercise it...
...They got it...
...The News is the conservative paper in a two-newspaper town, where the competition, the Detroit Free Press, is liberal...
...The changes Silverman has made to date...
...Take the subject of "diversity...
...Wrote William J. Olasz: If I wanted reverse racism and discrimination against white males, I would read the Free Press...
Vol. 5 • May 2000 • No. 33
