M. L. Elrick
Alumnus
BA, journalism, 1990
Investigative reporter, Detroit Free Press
Detroit, Michigan

Well, my partner, Jim Schaefer, and I won the 2009 Pulitzer for local reporting for exposing lies and corruption in the Kilpatrick administration. Politicians and public officials are real good about telling you all the wonderful things that they do, and my job is to find out all the things that they don’t want you to know and then to make sure you know about them. So what I do is called watchdog reporting. It’s about accountability, holding public officials accountable.

[Phone ringing] Free Press.

We’re trying to do something amazing here, which is take a city that’s almost dead and not only revive it, but turn it into a world-class city. And you need the best of the best to pull off something like that. And so far, we’ve gotten the best of the worst. And that’s not really, you know, that’s not really the equation that gets us out of here. We had a leader who lied and who took $8.4 million from the city that can’t spare $8.40.

[Aside to children] Okay, here we go, guys. Take a look.

We live in the city where we realize there are some issues with services and safety and schools, and I’ve made a decision that we’re going to find ways to succeed despite those things and demand better in every one of those areas.

[Aside to children] You sure you don’t want an umbrella? It’s raining.

We live four houses down from St. Claire School, which is a Catholic school in our neighborhood, and so we walk to school every morning. With my job, I don’t get to eat dinner with them and I don’t see ’em until they’re in bed sometimes. So we make a point every morning where I’ll make breakfast and then we’ll walk to school together, and we’ll talk a little bit about, you know, what’s going on with them, what their day is going to be like. Not that four houses down is a lot of time, but we’ll sneak in some studying or whatever along the way. They’re big enough to walk down there themselves, so it’s really not for them that we do it anymore. It’s really for me.

But there have been times when folks are like, you know, “It’s time to jump up and get out of here.” And it is a scary thing to feel like you’re putting people potentially in harm’s way because of something that you believe in. I mean, I think that’s important, but at the same time, I think they’re a little more vulnerable than I am. And it’s not an uncommon thought to think that we’re doing something on principle here, but if one of them gets hurt, you know, that’s something that doesn’t get undone. And that’s a pretty big responsibility.

And that’s one of the reasons why I think the people who run this city had better be on their toes because there’s something pretty precious to me that they’re in charge of and if something happens to ’em, I’m gonna feel responsible and I’m gonna hold them responsible, too. And I hope to not have that conversation with them ’cause it’s not going to be pleasant.

Sometimes it does feel like you’re on an ice floe that’s heading south and it is shrinking, but our neighborhood is weathering it pretty well. If you’re going to clean up a bad neighborhood, they tend to be infested with vermin, so it’s good to have a rat catcher. And I think that’s what we do. I mean, we look in the dark places. Whether you succeed or fail is up to you because, you know, who’s got more at stake than you do?

And if there’s something at any place you don’t like, you should get up and try to change it. I mean, I was virtually unanimously elected editor in chief of the State News by my peers, only to find out that the board of directors had decided to unanimously elect the current editor’s boyfriend. And, you know, a lot of people could have said, “What a drag,” but I went out and started my own paper with some friends of mine. And we had people who volunteered their time and effort to work for us, to sell ads, to write stories, to make art, to take photographs.

And if you’re going to find a lot of people like that, and you need a lot of people to do something like that, you got to have a pretty big place, you know? And I think that Michigan State—there were a lot of people who were willing to try things and if they didn’t like ’em, there are a lot of other things to try. And if they did like them, they stuck with ’em. I thought that was great. I’m still grateful to those people.

You know, getting into Michigan State has never been easy and it’s harder than ever before, so the fact that you can call yourself a Spartan is already an accomplishment. I mean, there’s already something right there for you to say, “You know what? I’ve already done one really great thing.” And I think that you find that once you’ve done one thing that you’re really proud of, you enjoy that feeling, you want to feel it again, and you feel that you’ve done something important. So maybe you can do something else important. Or maybe you can do something more important. And I think becoming a Spartan is important and really matters. That’s a hell of a foundation, you know? That should give you the strength and will to say, “I can do more things.”