Mitch Albom is an advocate of the Michigan Film Tax Credit, and is being paid to write the screenplay for a movie based on his book, “Have a Little Faith,” which will shoot in Detroit after qualifying for a tax credit. “He can not escape the conflict of interest claim,” Frank Beckmann wrote last Thursday. “The whole episode smells of a self-serving, self-aggrandizing, self-enriching campaign and there is no defense for his involvement.”
The two went at it this week on Beckmann’s WJR-AM radio show. (Albom also has a show on that station.) Susan Whitall writes:
Albom’s tenor went airborne a few times, and when he commented that Beckmann “wasn’t knowledgeable” about the issue, Beckmann’s baritone boomed out, “Oh, so I’m stupid?”
But in the end, neither budged from his position, and even the thin veneer of collegiality seemed to be in doubt.
When Albom said, “Why didn’t you call me and tell me you were going to talk about me? I call you all the time.”
Beckmann shot back: “Next time you call me it will be the first.”
Here’s a transcript of the exchange.
After the 40-minute debate, Albom told his listeners that “it went on way too long, it got a little ugly and in a way that I didn’t think was appropriate.”
