Burgess Is Back But Is The Detroit News' Credibility Shot?

So, if you haven't been hiding under a rock for the past couple of weeks you probably would have seen something about the big ol' brouhaha happening at The Detroit News.

To briefly recap, Scott Burgess ran a negative piece on the 200, The Detroit News edited a bit of its online version due to a request from an advertiser, Burgess quits, TDN apologizes, Burgess reassumes position. Somewhere in the middle of all this Jack Baruth of The Truth About Cars called out Burgess for writing a positive piece on the Sebring convertible several years ago. Props.

The latest bit is a new announcement coming from The Detroit News commenting on Burgess' return. Well, it's all nice and gravy until we noted something that we found...interesting.

In their Burgess is back story it mentions that the paper "...would set policies for changes to online reports 'to make sure this would never happen again.'"

Being the resident skeptics is never easy but that has to make every cynic wonder: does that mean The Detroit News is going to block reviews that may be too sensitive to advertisers?


Detroit News auto critic Scott Burgess will return to the newspaper, which acknowledged that it was wrong to ask him to soften several phrases in a recent review after an advertiser complained.

Burgess withdrew his resignation after meeting with News Editor and Publisher Jon Wolman, who wrote a letter to readers Saturday underscoring the need to ensure the independence of its reviewers...


Now here's the intriguing part:

..."They apologized and I accepted it," Burgess said Wednesday. He said he was assured that the paper would set policies for changes to online reports "to make sure this would never happen again...