Michael L. Elrick is an American journalist based in Detroit, Michigan, where he has worked for the Detroit Free Press and for WJBK-TV.
Elrick graduated from Michigan State University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. He wrote for the Concord Monitor, and Daily Southtown in Chicago. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal, Salon.com, Rollingstone.com, the National Law Journal, Chicago Magazine and Hour Detroit magazine. He teaches journalism at Wayne State University, Michigan State, and University of Michigan-Dearborn.
With the Detroit Free Press Elrick was one member of a team that covered Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and uncovered the scandals that led to his 2008 resignation from office and criminal conviction. To break the case open, the reporters filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that was heard by the Michigan Supreme Court. Elrick and Jim Schaefer shared the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, which cited "their uncovering of a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials."
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