By Debbie Schlussel

Toward the end of last week, The Detroit Newsistan’s auto critic, Scott Burgess, resigned after his critical review of the Chrysler 200 was “revised” to a more favorable review after a local Chrysler car dealer–a major advertiser in the Newsistan–complained and demanded the changes.  The story was broken by my friend, Ray Wert’s site, Jalopnik.com.  Since then, the Detroit Newsistan’s far-left, pan-Muslim Editor in Chief and Publisher Jonathan Wolman has been falling all over himself and his pen writing BS “apologies” to readers claiming the “revisions” to the 200 review had nothing to do with compromising reviews for advertisers.  Really?  Like eating dinner has nothing to do with eating dinner?  But the whole incident–not the first such one at the Newsistan–begs the question: who else is the Detroit Newsistan changing stories and news coverage for . . . and how many are named Mohammed?

Auto Critic Scott Burgess Sold Out By Detroit Newsistan for Advertising $s; What About the Paper’s Islamo-Pandering?

I didn’t just throw in the Muslim jab, as, a few years ago, I exposed the Detroit News in another sellout ( and lie), which it published at the request of attorneys for the Al-Qaeda terrorists from the Detroit Terror Cell. David Shepardson, then the paper’s beat reporter for the federal courts and homeland security/terrorism issues, published a phony story that an Islamic terrorist (who targeted American and Israeli planes at a Turkish air base) in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was badly beaten by prison guards, sustained specific injuries such as lost teeth, and had already been deported from the U.S. But documents I obtained from the prison where he was being held proved that not a single detail of the story was true, that the terrorist was still here, and that he did not sustain any one of the injuries claimed.  Did Shepardson accept payoffs from the terrorists’ lawyers?  If not, why would he go to such great lengths to “report” a fraudulent story that could easily be proven as fabricated and risk his career for some lawyers and Islamic terrorists?

As it turned out, it apparently wasn’t much of a risk for him (though I’d bet it was, indeed, “lucrative”).  After I exposed the absolutely made up story in the Newsistan, Shepardson wasn’t disciplined. On the contrary, he was promoted to the cushy Detroit Newsistan Washington Bureau, where Shepardson got a raise and writes a story or two every week or so.  No Jayson Blair treatment for him.

(And by the way, after initially asking me if they could run the article I posted here about it, David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag acted in typical cowardice, afraid of lawsuits, despite the News issuing a correction that the whole story was false and despite Horowitz’s people being shown the overwhelming evidence.  That’s they way they roll over there.  Hey, why expose journalists who do Islamic terrorists’ bidding and make up stories when we could get sued?  So much for Horowitz’s empty swagger about Jews needing “to stand up for themselves.”  The actions never match the words, but the words–as they are deliberately meant to–always raise the millions in cash to keep everyone there in the money, while they pretend to fight Islam and, in reality, don’t.  And we saw how Horowitz stood up for the Jews when he ran the gushing Bob HAMAS Novak eulogy and also ran a headline piece by his editor, attacking “Jewish Terrorists.” That’s not to mention his paid employment of several editors and bloggers who openly applaud their lunatic friend for praising Holocaust-denying Muslim death, rape, and torture threats on my life and that of my parents and Holocaust survivor grandparents.)

Over the years, many Detroit Newsistan reporters (all of them now gone because they actually knew how to report and left for respectable places) told me that former longtime Newsistan columnist Pete Waldmeier repeatedly took pay-offs from various people who wanted favorable columns. I’m told that included trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger’s conduits and even my sleazy one-time opponent for a Michigan House Seat, Marc Shulman, who got Waldmeier to do not just one–but two–last-minute anti-Semitic smear columns against me.

I’ve often wondered over the years how much moola Muslims paid Newsistan editorial page editor Nolan Finley (a friend of Michelle Fraudkin) to transform one of the most pro-Israel editorial pages in the world (when his predecessor, Tom Bray, whom he forced out headed it up) into a page flooded with the (fifth) columns of Muslims, including the CAIR Action Network, “former” Islamic terrorist Imad Hamad, and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Navy’s spiritual leader Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi. When I got a reporter to ask Finley why he opened his pages to a regular anti-Semitic column by an open agent of Hezbollah and Iran (the first American newspaper to do so), Finley said, “well, he has a following.” Um, Nolan, so does David Duke. But maybe he’s not greasing your palms enough.

And I’ve always believed–as I was told by other Newsistan reporters–that Detroit Newsistan reporters like Gregg Krupa, who used to gushingly cover the religion beat, were being paid off for simply regurgitating whatever BS the Muslims asked them to. His defensiveness when I asked him point blank how much he was getting for his BS was a tip-off.

His replacement, Oralandar Brand-Williams is questionable, too. Her tush-licking of Muslims is so deep, the foul smell emanates from the articles. When she interviewed me (or, rather, pretended to interview me) for her story on Hezbollah supporting Muslim Miss USA Rima Fakih, she didn’t include a single word of it in her story, because it would get in the way of the brown at the end of her nose. She is an advocate, NOT a reporter. How many Benjamins did she and/or her editors get for their sycophantic articles?

We’ll never know, but we have some idea, as there’s a pattern at the Newsistan. Chrysler definitely isn’t the only advertiser or paying “customer” that gets the Detroit Newsistan to alter its reporting. And you can bet there are plenty of Mohammeds in the same club.

Reader TINSC:

Kinda tells you how easily influenced newspaper reporters and editors are. Not like I’m surprised.

Like I said, it’s not like I’m surprised, either.

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One last thing:  Scott Burgess deserves our respect for not allowing his review to be compromised by advertising dollars.  Most people in his shoes–especially in this economy and with a job most would love to hold (testing out and reviewing new cars)–would suck  it up and we’d never know the true story.  He quit his job over it without a Plan B.  That takes guts.  And, more important, it takes integrity, something you’ll find very little of in journalism.  Very little.  When you read anything by him in the future, you’ll know it hasn’t been “bought off.”  And like I said, you can bet this goes on all the time at the Newsistan . . . and that this is just the only time we’ve learned of it because they only have one decent guy still working there . . . or did, until he resigned.