Journalistic Fraud

I credit WJR-AM in Detroit with a fair share of the blame for what happened – WJR’s studios are within walking distance of the old massive GM headquarters building. All during the decline of the US Auto industry, WJR was telling GM’s execs what they wanted to believe – that Americans love their 4000 pound Cadillacs with pushrod cast iron engine blocks and soft bias ply tires that got 13 MPH – and those weird people who were buying small cars with fuel injected, electronic ignition, aluminum block overhead cam engines and those weird radial tires would come back to their senses – and even if they didn’t there is no way to make a profit selling small cars, so who cares what Toyota does? Why you can’t even tow your travel trailer to Northern Michigan every weekend using an econobox!

It hasn’t stopped – read this Detroit Free Press “news” story about the “booming” hotel business in Detroit.

http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/2586237

While the story only discusses the hotels inside the City of Detroit, it cites the “Metro Detroit” occupancy rate of 61% this year and 70.3% last month – which is “almost the same” as the national average (which was 75.1% last week per Smith Travel Research Inc – it is summer, after all)

Do a search on your favorite hotel reservation app – many of the “metro Detroit” hotels are in Windsor Canada. The Westin Cadillac hotel will be glad to rent you a room for $216 a night + $25 for parking. The Book Cadillac was was built in 1924. The hotel almost closed in 1979. It was abandoned in 1983 and stood empty for the next 20 years. In 2006, Westin acquired the hotel and did a $200 million renovation that was completed in 2008, converting the top 8 floors to luxury condominiums.

The story also mentions the head of Quicken – who is the white vulture on a tear buying up all the empty buildings downtown.