By Joel Thurtell
I’ve been very slow to acknowledge these kind words from Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry on June 20, 2012:
The bridge to somewhere: You just had to be happy last week when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Rick Snyder signed the deal to build the New International Trade Crossing. Personally, I would have liked to have been an invisible fly on the wall in Matty Moroun’s lair. For years, the old bloated billionaire spider has spent millions and woven webs of deceit to try to prevent this day from happening. But in the end, the good guys won.
For the sake of realism, however, we should note that they won in large part because every other corporate interest made it clear they want and need a new bridge. Essentially, everybody not on Moroun’s payroll is against him on this. Not that this is necessarily over yet.
Moroun is likely to fight, in court and out, by fair means or foul, every step of the way, at least till Jesus, Allah or some correctional institution, calls him home.
Whether he can stall the new bridge isn’t clear. What is clear is that if I were determining next year’s Pulitzer Prize for public service, it would be awarded to blogger Joel Thurtell (joelontheroad.com), who exposed Moroun long before anyone else did.
After a while, a few of us picked up on this and magnified his impact, and eventually, even the Detroit papers, which at first ignored or misrepresented the bridge issue, were forced to come around.
I am convinced that at the very least, Thurtell’s gutsy reporting (he had to face at least one shotgun-toting Moroun goon) made this bridge happen years before it otherwise would have. He may be the best and most valuable journalist in Michigan today.
Well, there are some really fine journalists at work in Michigan, including one Jack Lessenberry.
Again, thank you, Jack!
