(L-R) Osama Siblani, Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson.

DETROIT — As Detroit emerges from bankruptcy, state and regional leaders are focusing on other problems that prevent the city from moving forward. 

The Arab American News’ publisher, Osama Siblani; Detroit Free Press editorial page editor, Stephen Henderson and Detroit News editorial page editor, Nolan Finley, discussed some of the dilemmas facing the city during a panel discussion Thursday, Feb. 12 at the U.S Citizen and Immigration Services. 

The three took questions from an audience that was part of Leadership Detroit, a community leadership program for executives in Southeast Michigan led by the Detroit Regional Chamber. 

During the discussion, Siblani, Finley and Henderson talked about the new Detroit Education Coalition. Its more than 30 members include education, religious, civic, philanthropic and business leaders who are trying to fix problems around education in the city. 

Siblani said members of the coalition should not be concerned with either politics or race.

“They have to take politics and race out of the Detroit Public School system in order for it to thrive,” he said. “It should not be politicized.” 

Siblani also said fixing the Detroit Public Schools System would make the city a more attractive place to live. 

“Families want to move into communities that have good schools they can send their children to,” he said.  “If we want to fix the neighborhoods and get people to move back into them, we have to fix the school system.” 

Finley expressed concern about the number of Detroiters who are not trained to fill the new jobs coming to the city. 

While more than 80-percent of the city of Detroit’s population is comprised of African Americans, only a very small percent of them are being hired for the new jobs. 

Finley talked about a accounting firm where only one percent of the accountants are African American. 

“I think the mayor hit the nail right on the head when he said you have to start training Detroiters for the new jobs that are created in Detroit,” he said. “There are a lot of jobs in the city people can’t get because they are not trained for them.” 

Siblani said he thinks the city should also work on making housing in downtown more affordable so more people can move there. 

“Once you do that, you’ll begin to see a mix of people there,” he said. 

Henderson talked about the value of having two independent editorial voices in Detroit. “Most cities don’t have two daily newspapers anymore,” he said. 

Siblani brought up the fact that despite metro Detroit being home to the largest concentration of Arabs and Muslims in the United States, neither Henderson nor Finley wrote editorials regarding the Chapel Hill, N.C. shootings that claimed the lives of three innocent Muslim students. 

The three also discussed media bias against Arabs and Muslims in the wake of the Chapel Hill shootings. Siblani said if the shooter was an Arab or Muslim, the mainstream media would have labeled the shootings a terrorist attack. 

Both Henderson and Finley disagreed. 

The trio also discussed the January 7 shootings in Paris that claimed the lives of 12 staff members of the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attacks were presumably in response to a number of controversial cartoons the magazine published depicting the prophet Mohammad. 

Siblani said he would not have published the cartoons, while Finley would. 

Siblani condemned the terrorist attacks at the magazine. “Freedom of speech still comes with accountability,” he said.  

The recent controversy surrounding Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News also came up. 

“Obviously this is somebody who felt like he had to embellish stories to either have more people believe them or believe in him,” Henderson said. “We all know people like that in our own lives. People who can’t stick to the truth and to the facts. The problem is when you are in journalism and trusted in that role of informing people, you can’t do it, but it happens.”

Regarding the network’s decision to suspend Williams for six months because he misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the war in Iraq, Henderson said he thinks NBC is “doing the right thing.” 

Henderson pointed out that television anchors also serve as the managing editors of their networks and are responsible for making important decisions in the newsroom.  

“He was caught, but how many of them have done the same who haven’t been caught?” Siblani asked.

 “That is really the question that is on my mind. I know for sure that some have done worse in print and on television…but they were not challenged or at least it wasn’t covered in the way the Brian Williams controversy was.”