I’m in bed with a cold. My eyes are burning, I’m coughing up copious mounts of phlegm, and I’m grumpy as hell. And I know from experience that, when I’m in a condition such as this, I should probably refrain from blogging. But I’ve had a few swigs of extra-strength cough syrup, and I’ve convinced myself that now would be a good time to share a recent observation with you.

The Ann Arbor News does not speak for Ypsilanti.

I’ve known this in a general sense for a long time, but it’s become painfully apparent, in a more concrete sense, these past few months, watching things unfold around the forced merger between the Ypsilanti Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (YACVB) and its more powerful sister organization to our west, the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (AAACVB). The Ann Arbor News coverage of this particular issue, in my opinion, hasn’t just been weak, it’s been misleading, perhaps deliberately so.

A week or so ago, when Washtenaw County Commissioner Conan Smith said to me on the radio that he and his fellow commissioners hadn’t done their “homework,” and weren’t well enough informed to vote on the merger, but intended to do so anyway, I would have thought that would warrant at least a mention in the Ann Arbor News. I’ve lived in quite a few places, and, without exception, I think that’s the kind of thing that people consider newsworthy. People, generally speaking, like for their legislators to understand what it is that they’ve voting on, and why, right? But, in this instance, there wasn’t so much as a mention in our local paper of record.

And when Commissioner Alicia Ping made a public statement a week or so earlier about “veiled threats” having been made against the board of the YACVB in an attempt to coerce them into accepting a deal which would see their bureau closed and their budget shifted to Ann Arbor, why wasn’t that a headline in the Ann Arbor News? Why did Ping’s statements get buried at the bottom of a piece about the proposed merger? And why didn’t they quote Ping’s reference to “threats” having been made? Again, this seems like the kind of thing that, had it been said in reference to another issue, would have warranted a headline.

Instead, what gets press in the Ann Arbor News is the fact that our CVB had alienated a local Ypsilanti business owner by hanging a banner outside of his bar featuring a photo of another restaurant’s hamburger. Talk of “veiled threats” and admissions from Washtenaw County commissioners that they didn’t do their homework on an issue, it would seem, don’t warrant their own stories, but when one irrational business owner shimmies up a pole in a huff and rips down a banner, it’s deemed newsworthy. [This story, coincidentally, also reinforces a narrative that our CVB is well-meaning, but inept, which couldn’t be further from the truth.]

If an Ypsi-based newspaper had covered the rollout of the Ypsi Real promotional campaign, which the banner in question was a part of, they likely would have pointed to the fact that it was heavily focus-grouped, and that a lot of thought had gone into how the initial folks to be featured were selected (i.e. Sidetrack, Puffer Reds, EMU, Wiard’s Orchard, the Corner Brewery). But, instead, what we got was a story about a bar owner who, instead of just walking across the street and talking with someone at our local CVB, decided to rip a banner down and then rant on Facebook about how grievous harm had been done to his establishment. So, instead of a positive story about our scrappy, little CVB making the most of what limited budget they have in order to tell the story of our diverse, awesome and authentic community, we got a story about how our CVB mishandled a campaign, causing one local bar owner to lose his mind.

[For what it’s worth, I was eating a hamburger outside the bar in question that same evening that the banners went up, and guess what? Seeing the Sidetrack burger didn’t cause me to change my mind and go running across town. I still ordered, ate and enjoyed the burger I’d come to eat. What’s more, I didn’t get pant-shittingly angry when I discovered that there wasn’t a “Real Blogging” banner in the mix, featuring a photo of yours truly blogging in bed, surrounded by cough syrup bottles. No, as an adult, I understood that not every person doing something worthwhile in Ypsilanti would be able to have his or her own banner. And, what’s more, I understood that, even if I wasn’t pictured on a banner, this campaign might still be something that could help drive foot traffic in the City, which would help all concerned.]

More importantly, the Ann Arbor News missed the really big story here… If a truly local paper would have written a story about the Ypsi Real campaign, it would have been about what a positive step forward it was that we had banners downtown for things like Wiard’s Orchard, and banners in Depot Town for our businesses along Michigan Avenue. This wouldn’t have happened a few years ago, and it’s awesome to see some of the small-minded territorial thinking that had dominated discussions in the past give way to more collaborative efforts, even if a business owner or two felt compelled to rip down banners.

But the Ann Arbor News knows what their reader base wants, and they give it to them. Lots of Ypsi crime. And stories like this that make us look like buffoons. It not only sells papers, but it helps reinforce an image that makes it easier for Ann Arbor’s elected officials to do things like take control of our CVB’s marketing dollars “for our own good.”

It’s probably worth noting at this point in the story that the Ann Arbor News isn’t sitting on the sidelines, just reporting on the contentious CVB merger. No, they’ve chosen a side. The Ann Arbor News has gone on record saying that they support the merger. [They were also one of the few papers in the country to support Bush for a second term, by the way.] Here’s a clip from their statement.

…“Our hope in the merger is to see the drastically increasing inventory of hotel rooms in the Ann Arbor area filled with visitors who will not just dine, shop and sleep in Ann Arbor proper, but seek out the highlights and hidden gems our entire county has to offer… Ypsilanti may lack the hotels which would financially support the establishment of an independent CVB, but the entertainment and destination opportunity pack a punch for a quirky college town wedged between Motor City and Ann Arbor…

They also say that a single Ann Arbor-based CVB is just “logical.” That’s right in their headline. “CVB merger logical,” it says. [This, of course, makes everyone on the eastern side of the County, who have come out so forcefully against the merger, what? Illogical?]

And I don’t have time right now to get into the economics of how it might work to the favor of the Ann Arbor News to have a bigger Ann Arbor-based CVB with another $1.17 million a year to spend on things like luring huge sporting events and the like to the U-M stadium, which, as I understand it, is one of the things they’d like to do once the Ypsi CVB is no more. But you can be sure the folks at the Ann Arbor News know that this merger will help their bottom line.

I know this is a tiny subplot in a much bigger narrative, but at times like this I’m reminded of just how important it is to have an engaged local press working on your behalf to bring these kinds of things to light. While I like the fact that people thank me every day for following the CVB story, it really shouldn’t be up to me to do this. There should be real reporters working on this story, and asking why it’s so vitally important in the opinion of certain County commissioners, in spite of the overwhelming opposition of virtually everyone outside of Ann Arbor, that the Ypsilanti CVB be closed right now. It shouldn’t be up to one exhausted guy who writes in the evening after putting his kids to bed. I don’t know what the solution is, but we need to figure something out before it’s too late. Ypsilanti keeps getting the short end of the stick when dealing with Ann Arbor, and there’s absolutely no one in the press telling that story. (Did the Ann Arbor News cover the fact that the merged Ypsi-Arbor Chamber of Commerce, after declaring that they would keep a presence in Ypsilanti, closed the office? Did the Ann Arbor News ever challenge our local economic development group, Ann Arbor SPARK, to explain what they were doing to bring development to Water Street?)

Lastly, I should say that the people doing the reporting at the Ann Arbor News are, by and large, good, hardworking people. I consider some of them friends. And my hope is that they don’t see this as an attack on them personally. The truth, however, is that they’re writing for an audience that’s very clear about what they want, and what they want isn’t an open, honest discussion of topics that make Annarborites feel bad about themselves. I should also add that the Ann Arbor News, to their credit, has covered some of the meetings where people spoke up against the merger. Furthermore, the Ann Arbor News editorial board made it a point to say, in their letter of support for the merger, that they appreciated the work of the Ypsi CVB and hoped that the new, merged CVB could continue doing things to benefit the eastern side of the County, and not just Ann Arbor. So it’s not that they’re completely ignoring the fact that we’re fighting this fight. It’s just that they’re telling the story in a way, in my opinion, that doesn’t truly get to the heart of what’s going on here. And I think we need to accept the fact that this is always going to be the case. As we don’t represent a profit center for the Ann Arbor News, all they really care about is our entertainment and shock value.

[If you should happen to have images of the above mentioned bar owner tearing down the Ypsi Real banner he found to be offensive, please send it to me. As he wanted his own Ypsi Real banner, I’d like to make him one, and I think that would be a great image to use.]

update: It was just suggested to me that I may have crossed the line when I insinuated that there may be a financial aspect to this. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t suggesting that folks at the Ann Arbor News were being paid off, or made any promises by the staff of the AAAVCB in exchange for not pursuing certain stories. All I meant was that hoteliers are advertisers on the Ann Arbor News site, and that the Ann Arbor News, as a result, is immersed in this in a way that makes objectivity difficult. This is the water that they swim in, the air that they breathe.

I wasn’t suggesting that a secret meeting had taken place during which everyone was shown how this $1.17 million would help their bottom line, if only it could be brought over from Ypsilanti. I’m sure it was nothing that overtly sinister. I do think, however, it only helps the Ann Arbor News when there are big events in Ann Arbor, like those being promised by the AACVB, that they can write about, thereby driving ad buys from hotel owners.

They’re all swimming in the same ecosystem, and no one is getting rich from campaigns focused on the independent spirit of Ypsilanti. That’s just a fact. Our $1.17 million can be leveraged to make a lot more people wealthy in Ann Arbor. And that’s why this merger is happening. And, yes, I would have liked for the Ann Arbor News to ask some hard questions about conflicts of interest, and various comments made, but I don’t think there was any will to do so.

And that’s when it kind of struck me that we shouldn’t look to them to serve the role of the independent press for us. They aren’t watchdogs… at least for us.