GOOD JOURNALISM 11

CONGRATULATIONS… M.L. Elerick

Your article in today’s Free Press, “MI GOP governor candidates need votes” (6/7/2026 Free Press) is ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING !!! The role of journalism at its best… “informing” the Citizens of Democracy (educated and uneducated) with clarity, flow, subtle humor, a ton of well-researched facts and with the views of the experts sprinkled in… not to mention the artistry shown in weaving it all together for the reader’s understanding and entertainment. One of the best newspaper articles I have read in quite some time. A classic for which (as a voice of one) I give you another Pulitzer.

Each reader (although well informed by your article) will come away with their own, personal “impact.” Mine ??? The lengths some men will go to… to tell us they are strong, independent “leaders” all the while clearly showing themselves to be weak, groveling, “transactional followers” … followers of an ever-mercurial Trump trying to get Trump to prop them up for their “15 minutes of Fame” (pop artist, Andy Warhol) so they can “strut and fret their hour upon the stage” (Shakespeare’s Macbeth).

But, history will judge us all as either “stand-up,” Abraham Lincoln characters or “take down,” John Wilkes Booth assassins. And, as “unremembered” as I will surely be, I know “anonymity” will be far better than being an ambitious, “yon Cassius” transactionalist who would sell his soul to the Devil… those you so colorfully describe as seeking to “plant the most puckers on the presidential posterior” (although I prefer the phrase… “smooches on the presidential posterior” to puckers). But, then again, that imagery (yours or mine), although sound in its description, is a little over the top in its visual perception. Is it not ???

And the only stand up “Man” in the whole political crowd you cover is Laura Cox, the wife of GOP candidate, “Michael (the forever-chemical, marine) Cox.” For more on his smooth but obvious Modus Operandi, see my book, The Fightin’ Irish of Detroit (Chapter II, St. Patrick’s Day Massacre, Holy Redeemer Classmates, Sorting Out The Murderers From The Defenders, subchapter “Hide and Seek… with The Evidence,“ page 34).

Best quote in your article from the Republican candidates for Michigan Governor ??? The one from Republican candidate, Billionaire Perry Johnson, the self proclaimed “quality control” guru. When you asked him whether he had heard from Trump about an endorsement, he said, “When we have communications, if we have communications, I can’t talk about communications.” There you go Ladies and Gentlemen, right from the horses mouth. “Blah, Blah, Blah” or as you would say M.L. “Yada, Yada, Yada” and as clear as the London Bridge on a foggy day in London Town or about as clear as his $ 4,747 never-ending Political ads.

But, what guru Johnson loses in clarity, accountability and transparency, he gains in “consistency”… a “consistent vagueness in both his T.V. ads and in his Free Press soundbites. A consistency that shows a great ability to conjure up and juxtapose a string of words, full of sound and fury that communicate nothing. Kind of like a “clever” tale told by an idiot that uses a ton of expression and energy, but that signifies nothing (half Shakespeare, half Alfred E. Newman and half Smothers Brothers… with some poetic license on the arithmetic).

Again M.L. GREAT JOURNALISM. My words of praise are not based upon any affirmation of preexisting beliefs, but based upon your sound, clear, knowledgable, flowing and well written and entertaining writing… period, paragraph.

Thank you.