Fallacies in Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: American Autopsy

Charlie LeDuff  in Detroit: American Autopsy combines a "gritty reportage and personal memories" (Goodreads) which accurately describes the situation in Detroit, although, as readers, there are some of the occurrences that he writes in the book we would never know were proven. If the journal was a reportage that is supposed to report only truth, yet, some of the metaphors that he uses to express his view seem a little bit to "extreme" to readers. According to Fallacies, this move fits Dirty Trick #14 about devise analogies. In Detroit, after the corrupt mayor had been taken out, LeDuff promised himself to find out who was responsible for the outrage of murderers walking free while the city burned night after night. "I was going to become real reporter. Someone had to answer this shit. ... That's when a bird shit on my face." (158) We never know if this was truly what happened to him as he voices the irony in the tragedy. Another example was when GM planned to officially declare bankruptcy, and the whole city lost its dependable workplace. "This was like living in Pompeii, except the people weren't covered in ash. We were alive. ... And if you needed a metaphor for how retrograde things were becoming, a beaver was sighted nesting in the Detroit River for the first time in seventy-five years." (175) When Detroit became the home of automobile industries, the rapid development of city was said to have caused beavers to "extinct," and LeDuff claims that the downfall of Detroit many years later have caused the beavers to come to sight, yet again. This might be a little to far, however, we never know if this was part of the truth that he told in his journal.

In addition to the point, Detroit in general describes how bad it was in Detroit and how damaged the city and the people were. In this case, LeDuff seems to demonize others' side and sanitizes his presence when he went back to his hometown. The government was falling, the firehouses were broke, the people were all bad, and murders followed him everywhere he goes. And there he was, reporting and publishing his stories to get the people in charge to do the right thing. Even tough this is not the focus of the book, he fails to recognize the good parts about Detroit, which is categorized to Dirty Trick #19 according to Fallacies. He describes himself as the only one source of virtue among all evil things in Detroit, and explains his moves to be righteous.