By
Is something in the water at the Detroit Free Press? In three stories mentioning me over two weeks, two Free Press “reporters” fabricated and the third gratuitously insulted me in a non-opinion piece.
The worst of these offenders is Detroit Free Press fabricator Kathy Gray (the paper’s “star” local political “reporter”). In the past, we’ve exposed , who made up a whole story about an accused terrorist’s deportation. But Gray has now established herself as his equal.
In a Friday story about election recounts (a recount has been requested in the Detroit Mayoral race), Kathy Gray “wrote” (actually pulled “facts” out of her rear end) about the recount in my 1990 race for the Michigan House of Representatives, in which I lost by one vote.
Problem is, Gray was apparently too lazy to actually do some real reporting and find out the facts. So, she made them up. (It’s particularly obnoxious because she “wrote” about my recount in 1990 for another paper. Well, at least, she’s consistent, since she similarly fabricated and made up stuff when she covered my 1998 race.) If there was any doubt that liberal, mainstream media reporters with an agenda, like Gray, are liars, this is the ironclad evidence.

Pre-recount results in my 1990 Michigan House Race
Here’s what Gray wrote about my race against her liberal, feminist buddy, Barbara Dobb, with the FACTS (alien things to Ms. Gray) in bold:
“1990, Oakland County
Barbara Dobb of Commerce Township was one of three Republicans who ran for state representative in her district in 1990.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL: WRONG. THERE WERE SEVEN REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE.
She won by one vote over Debbie Schlussel and Gerald Komenski was only about 100 votes behind the two leaders.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL: WRONG–TWO FABRICATIONS BY GRAY HERE: THE GUY’S NAME IS KOSMENSKY, AND HE WAS 31 AND 32 VOTES BEHIND, a much closer number, which is significant in a recount.
“I went through pounds and pounds of M&M’s during that recount,” Dobb said. “It was excruciatingly stressful.”
But the final tally didn’t change and Dobb was re-elected three more times after that first nail-biter.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL: WRONG. THE TALLY DID CHANGE. WE EACH WENT UP A VOTE.
AND THERE WERE OTHER VOTES THAT WERE THE SUBJECT OF A COURT CHALLENGE. AFTER THE ETHICALLY-CHALLENGED JUDGE, EDWARD SOSNICK, DECIDED TO IGNORE ALL MICHIGAN LAW AND NOT COUNT THOSE VOTES FOR ME, IT CAME OUT THAT HE REPRESENTED DOBB AS HER ATTORNEY WHEN SHE EMBEZZLED FROM HER JOB AT A CARPET STORE–A FACT HE DELIBERATELY HID. (DOBB LIED AND CLAIMED SHE SHOPLIFTED A BIKINI, AND REPORTERS AT GRAY’S FORMER PAPER BOUGHT IT. HOW MANY CARPET STORES SELL BIKINIS?)
“The issue of this recount kind of bothers me,” said Dobb, referring to Detroit’s recount. “It’s going to waste resources and it’s going to waste a lot of time.”
***
Kathy Gray fabricated her “reporting” simply because she was too lazy to expend a few calories by typing in her computer and researching the race. When Free Press columnist wrote a column, earlier this year, in which he wrote that some athletes attended an event that they did not end up attending, he was subject to a suspension and a thorough investigation.
In this case, such an investigation is a heck of a lot more warranted. Albom’s error was not malicious and was in an opinion column. But this woman is the paper’s high-profile political “reporter”. Who knows what else Kathy Gray lied about/made up in the Detroit Free Press? She is probably in her fifties or beyond, and people’s dishonest habits start early in life, not in their old age. She’s likely engaged in this pattern of behavior all of her life. Since they looked up and verified every fact in every single thing written by Mitch Albom in the Free Press, the same thorough investigation is required for Gray, unless the Free Press practices gender and religious discrimination.
Don’t hold your breath, though. I called her editor, Bob Campbell–who should go down, too. He did not fact-check her on any of the story or question why she reported an amount of votes as “about 100,” when there is no “about” on election tallies. It’s an exact number. He claims these fabrications are just “mistakes.” Wrong. Mistakes are when you make errors, accidentally report the wrong thing. Simply making stuff up because you don’t feel like doing actual reporting is deliberate, not a “mistake.” But instead of agreeing that Gray’s fabrication is disturbing, he had the gall to attack MY credibility. Hello . . . . I’m not the one who made up a story, Bob. And I’m also not the editor who looked the other way and now must do CYA, Bob. Ditto for his boss, Jeff Taylor, who told me that I don’t have the facts. Talk about chutzpah.
The point of Gray’s article–that recounts don’t make a difference and shouldn’t happen (apparently, so Barbara Dobb can stop her M&M addiction)–is false when using the REAL facts in my race. In fact, many things were discovered that would have changed the results in my race, but for an unethical, conflicted (as in conflict of interest) judge–Edward Sosnick.
Why DID liberal, pro-choice, gay-rights, NEA-endorsed Barbara Dobb go “through pounds and pounds of M&M’s [sic] during that recount”? And why is she against recounts where the race is close?
The real reason might have something to do with these facts (left out of Kathy Gray’s “reporting”) about Dobb that came out as a result of the recount (and which showed I should have been declared the winner):
* Several members of Dobb’s family voted in my district when they allegedly did not live there (her parents lived in Florida). Can you say “voter fraud”? In a one-vote race, that made the difference. My parents voted where they actually live, not in the district.
* Several ballots were discovered that had not been counted but, under Michigan law, should have been, which were votes for me.
* As we noted, the imperious, hypocritical judge, Edward Sosnick, got caught with his pants down. After he ignored Michigan law, even denying, among others, a Naval fighter pilot his right to have his vote for me counted, and declared her the winner, it came out that he represented Dobb as her criminal defense attorney when she embezzled from her job at a carpet store. But he hid it from everyone, then had the gall to lecture me when we discovered and complained about it. I was a 21-year-old kid who sacrificed and risked a lot to win a race because I believed in the system, but he and Dobb showed me how the system really “works.” So did fabricating “reporters” like Kathy Gray. And even 15 years later, she continues to “show” me.
* Dobb shacked up with a convicted drug dealer, then wrote a letter of recommendation to get him a lenient sentence.
* Dobb sued an ex-boyfriend in a psuedo-palimony/partnership lawsuit and got his house. He was a carpenter, but she claimed she built it. Right.
* The ex-boyfriend and reliable sources told me about Dobb’s interesting, alleged arrest “record,” which they said primed her for the (political version of) prostitution she engaged in as a state legislator.
Thankfully, she is gone from the Legislature (yes, term limits do work). But, unfortunately, fabricating “reporters” who don’t care about facts–like Kathy Gray–are still with us.
Some things never change. What has changed is that now you know you can’t believe a lick of what she writes.