THE FLINT JOURNAL / STEVE JESSMORE

Michael A. Gorman, Journal editor from 1928 until his death in 1958, was a key fund-raiser and visionary for the Flint Cultural Center. His name has a prominent place on the granite monoliths near Longway Planetarium that honor those who contributed to the project.

Journal has been a newsmaker, too

‘(Michael A.) Gorman was editor at a time when newspaper editors were giants that strode the earth.’

But as an institution — one of the city’s oldest businesses and its only daily newspaper — it has joined in the push for projects as cherished as the Flint Cultural Center and as disastrous as AutoWorld.

Particularly as the newspaper grew with the area in the 1950s and ’60s, Journal officials have often been at the table when the “powers that be” sat down to plot strategy.

And its coverage of and attention to causes ranging from a return to the strong mayor form of government to an end to housing discrimination to the Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37 won it lasting friends and enemies.

Even today, the newspaper not only provides information to readers, but it also is involved in community boosting, sponsoring events and projects.

“The Journal feels strongly about giving back to the community,” said Publisher Roger Samuel. “We are a public trust, but we are also a for-profit business, and as such — both locally and on behalf of our ownership — we feel strongly you have to give back. ... We want to do what we can to improve the community we do business in.”

Samuel is a member of the boards of directors of Genesys Regional Medical Center, the Boy Scouts of America Tall Pine Council and other community groups.

The late Michael A. Gorman, editor from 1928 to 1958, may have been the best-known symbol of the newspaper’s ability to get things done.

Gorman is credited with guiding the creation of Flint’s Cultural Center, where he is still honored through memorials. A granite monolith says Gorman “devoted his journalistic and creative talents to the enlightenment of the community he loved” and credits him with having “inspired this development and led it to reality.”

Companies and individuals who made large donations to the Cultural Center were assured coverage of their generosity in The Journal.

“It was given prominence, which would be The Journal’s contribution to the whole thing,” said Richard B. Childs, a former editorial page editor who retired from the newspaper in 1979.

“Gorman was editor at a time when newspaper editors were giants that strode the earth,” said Alfred L. Peloquin, former Journal editor. “A major editor in a city without competition was a major power to be reckoned with.”

Allan R. Wilhelm, a former reporter and news editor at The Journal, said Gorman “knew how to pull the right levers.” At a time when factory jobs were plentiful and the standard of living in the area high, “he knew where the money was and made sure a lot of it went to (those causes).”

As a young reporter who joined the newspaper in 1954, Wilhelm said he was initially “a little bit appalled” by Gorman’s being a key booster in decision-making circles The Journal was covering.

“(But) it was a totally different era,” said Wilhelm, who retired in 1994. “(That kind of approach) comes off a lot differently now than it did at the time.”

Although Gorman had successes as a promoter, The Journal’s attention and support didn’t guarantee the outcome.

The newspaper gave extensive coverage to the concept of “New Flint,” which in 1957 advocated a single government for Flint, adjacent townships and the cities of Mt. Morris and Grand Blanc.

The old Genesee County Board of Supervisors refused to call an election on the question, and the Michigan Supreme Court eventually ruled such an incorporation invalid. The Journal carried dozens of stories, spelling out how such a government would work and why it might be needed.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, The Journal boosted the efforts of the Hyatt Regency Hotel (now the Riverfront Character Inn), writing extensively about the hotel and its offerings.

There were profiles of the hotel manager and head chef, photos of the first and last steel beams being set in place — even a Journal contest to guess the number of exterior window panes and pillows in the hotel.

Then, in 1982, Peloquin continued The Journal’s tradition of playing a part in major projects with an open letter to the Mott Foundation Board of Trustees.

Signed by Peloquin and Publisher Robert D. Swartz, the letter ran on the front page of the newspaper, strongly advocating the construction of AutoWorld as “vital to the Flint Area.”

The indoor theme park was built, of course, at a cost of $80 million. It closed for the first time just six months after opening in 1984 and has since been demolished.

“We had a Page One editorial saying, “Let’s go folks. It needs all of us to work,” said Peloquin, who retired in 1988 after seven years at The Journal and 42 years in newspapers.

“In retrospect, that was a mistake,” Peloquin said. “It (had) created a momentum that couldn’t be stopped.

“The entire leadership of Genesee County and the city of Flint had agreed that the combination of the new hotel, AutoWorld and the (Water Street) Pavilion would work together to make downtown Flint a superior tourist attraction.”

He still maintains that newspapers have not only a duty to report objectively but also to support projects as an institution.

“I was active in many nonprofit organizations,” Peloquin said, “but I never let that interfere with the (reporting).”

Childs said he believes The Journal’s editorial leadership helped to boost the chances of Flint’s open housing ordinance in the 1960s and its adoption of a new city charter in 1974 —two of many political issues the paper devoted time to cover extensively.

“I wouldn’t claim The Flint Journal was responsible ... but you can make an argument (these things) wouldn’t have happened had The Journal not pitched in on it,” he said.

Staff writer Ron Fonger started at The Journal in 1995. He can be reached at (810) 766-6317 or rfonger@flintjournal.com.