• The Detroit News, Tuesday, May 19, 2009 11 AM

A YouTube video that playfully mocks Cleveland and ends with the line "At least we're not Detroit!" doesn't have tourism officials of either area upset, Jennifer Youssef reports. "Videos like this are produced for the humor value," says George Zimmermann, vp of Travel Michigan, the state's tourism marketing agency. "... It's not going to have much impact."

But Louis Aguilar reports in another story that the city's image is also taking a big hit internationally from the parade of reporters covering the troubles of the Big Three automakers. "They trot alongside homeless people or laid-off autoworkers for a day or two. Toss in a few foreclosed homes ... and the world's picture of Detroit as the symbol of America's humbled economy is complete -- just a couple of years after its image was looking up," he writes.

But officials point sanguinely to the opportunities that the devastated economy presents to perceptive investors. "What the world needs to see is we are embracing this crisis," says Randal Charlton, executive director of TechTown, Wayne State University's research and development center. "So let's give it to them."

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