During last night’s 11:00 p.m. news on Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV, investigative reporter Kevin Dietz aired an open letter to Kwame Kilpatrick, the former Detroit mayor who was sentenced today to 28 years in prison for corruption.
On the surface, the letter plays out as the long saga of a corrupt politician who finally fell after his years of denials were countered by dogged investigation. But if you look deeper, you’ll see two things that seem to be disappearing in this era of shrinking newsrooms, the importance of reporting on politics and the luxury of time to tell the story.
“I am very lucky to work for a station that did not lose interest in what started out as a political story,” Dietz told TVSpy. “I was able to stay on the Kilpatrick story for 12 years. The station was willing to invest the time and money to give me the opportunity to become invested in the story. It turned out to be our story of the decade.”
Dietz, who has worked at WDIV since 1993 added, “I was born and raised in Detroit and this is the only town I ever wanted to work in. I think you may go harder and dig deeper when you work in your hometown.”
Dietz won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for his ongoing coverage of Kilpatrick.