Details

This must have been one heck of a news conference.

Reports in this afternoon's Detroit Free Press and Detroit News both outline minority enrollment figures at the University of Michigan following Michigan's approval of a statewide ballot issue two year ago banning the use of race as a factor in college admissions.

The Free Press reports:

U-M African-American enrollment increases in wake of Prop. 2

Nearly two years after Michigan voters banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, University of Michigan’s freshman class shows a marked increase of African-Americans -- even at a time U-M also has shrunk the size of its incoming student body.

The News reports:

U-M reports slight decline in minority enrollment

The number of minorities enrolled in the University of Michigan's freshman class declined slightly in the first full class admitted since Michigan voters passed the Proposal 2 ballot initiative in 2006, which prohibits the consideration of race, gender and ethnicity in university admissions and government hiring.

Dig a little deeper and you'll find the Free Press is only talking about black students and the News is talking about all underrepresented minority students.

Still, a case like this sure makes clear how subjective the objective business of reporting the news can be, doesn't it?