Gilbert responds to Detroit News' story with line-by-line rebuttal

Just after midnight, Dan Gilbert, Quicken Loans' founder, issued a line-by-line rebuttal of The Detroit News' investigation on the company's record in Detroit, which ran this week. 

The chief complaint of Gilbert (or whomever wrote these responses) appears to be the framing of the piece, saying the volume of loans Quicken Loans issued in Detroit would "drive where you rank in foreclosures." The News found the company had the fifth-highest amount of failed loans in the city among lenders. 

"Without providing that information to that reader, it appears that the News is attempting to distort the reality of Quicken Loans’ actual impact on foreclosures and blight in the City of Detroit," Quicken asserted. 

Roughly 27 percent of the company's mortgages in Detroit were foreclosed on since 2005, which the company said represents under 3 percent of total foreclosures in the city in the same period. 

Gary Miles, the News' managing editor, told MT on Wednesday that Gilbert's remarks during a radio interview this week about the report, which featured Quicken's viewpoints throughout, were disappointing.

"Mr. Gilbert didn’t so much challenge the facts of our reporting on foreclosures and blight in Detroit as he did attempt to assail the character and reputation of two of the most trusted and decorated journalists in Detroit and the credibility of The News," Miles said in a statement. "That’s disappointing. We’re happy to discuss our findings or analysis, as we did with him and his team prior to publication. Their positions were well represented. To respond to the name-calling would only serve to devalue the important work that was done here."