Michigan's press wants you to know the leaves are changing — if you can still afford to look.
MLive is pushing fall color tourism guides, the County Road Association of Michigan is curating scenic back-road routes for leaf-peepers, and Sports Illustrated is serving up college football previews as escapist fare. Meanwhile, working Americans are scraping together grocery money and calculating whether the commute to a second job is worth the fuel. This is the two-tier society in plain view: one class gets content tailored to its leisure; the other gets left out of the story entirely.
MLive reports that "autumn color is beginning to pop" and "nature's magic show inspires many a leisurely drive throughout the state each fall." Denise Donohue, CEO of the County Road Association of Michigan, offered this: "There's something special about taking the long way down a county road when the leaves are changing." More than 30 county road commissions submitted their "don't miss" fall color drives. MLive's meteorologist pegs peak color from Oct. 7-28, with the Upper Peninsula leading the show.
All lovely — if you have the time and the tank of gas. "Leisurely drive" is a phrase that only applies to people with leisure. That word does not describe Americans working overtime just to stay even with inflation.
Sports Illustrated, for its part, devotes thousands of words to an Oregon-USC football preview, quoting Ducks coach Dan Lanning calling it "a significant game against a really good team" and quarterback Dante Moore saying his footwork and pre-snap alignment need fixing after a loss to Oklahoma State. Entertaining? Sure. But it's the same bread-and-circus allocation: sideline spectacles for a population that can't afford to participate in the leisure economy the other half of the press is selling.
The press doesn't cover inflation's daily grind with anywhere near the enthusiasm it devotes to foliage forecasts. That's not an accident — it's a class signal. Content for people with disposable income and free weekends gets top billing. Content for people counting dollars before they reach the checkout line gets buried or ignored entirely.
The County Road Association wants you to "go out and enjoy the state's natural beauty." Sports Illustrated wants you to track every yard Dante Moore throws for. Nobody in the institutional press is writing guides for Americans who can't afford the drive.
The leaves will change whether you see them or not. The question is whether the press will ever notice the people too busy surviving to look.
