00:07Imagine, if you will, a time when millions of people wake up every morning, put on their
00:12robes or whatever they enjoyed waking up in, then they'd go to the kitchen and make a cup
00:17of coffee or tea, and then they would go outside and grab the newspaper.
00:21And this thing called the newspaper, Marden Inc., that you could physically feel with
00:26your hands, would be your portal to the world outside of your house.
00:31This was a shared experience for folks from Flat Rock to Pontiac and beyond.
00:36Back then, it was only you, your coffee or tea, and your newspaper getting informed about
00:42the world around you.
00:43Maybe you'd start with the front page and work your way back, or maybe you'd start with
00:47the sports section and work your way around, or maybe you'd only read the sports section
00:52or the entertainment section.
00:53It didn't matter.
00:54This was your time, and your time alone, before you left the house.
00:59This was the ritual for millions of people around Detroit and across the country.
01:06My name is Tim Kiska, and I'm a retired professor from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
01:11I was also a journalist for more than 30 years between the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit
01:16News.
01:17So, I wondered, when did people stop trusting the news, and or, when did people stop caring?
01:23And furthermore, could I investigate the reason that this started happening through the story
01:28of one newspaper?
01:29The story of the Detroit Free Press, just like many stories in Detroit, is a microcosm of
01:34what has happened all across the United States of America.
01:37So, to tell this story, let's go back 60-plus years to the 1960s, a pivotal time for Detroit
01:43and the country, and a revolutionary time for the news business, a time when the tidal wave
01:49of local TV news swept over the country and shifted the media landscape forever, a shift
01:55that maybe should have given us a foreshadowing to the current state of the news business.
02:03Sweep up
02:07I've been sweeping up the tips I made
02:13I've been living on Gatorade
02:18Planning my getaway
02:25Enjoy Detroit
02:29Got a hell of a hockey team
