Marchers Rally For Free Press, First Amendment In Metro Detroit

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI — Two days after reporters from The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and other news outlets were excluded from a White House news briefing, about 220 people marched Sunday in support of a free, unshackled press outside the plant where Detroit’s largest newspapers are printed. They carried signs, chanted “this is what democracy looks like” and said in interviews that President Donald Trump and his administration have demonized the media and waged war against the First Amendment.

The protest outside the printing plant on Metro Parkway at Mound Road was framed as an “emergency rally” to “protect the truth” by organizers with the Metro Detroit Political Action Network. The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News and several other area newspapers are printed at the plant.

The protesters assailed what Trump’s characterization of the media as “an enemy of the people,” “fake news” and “dishonest media.” Some of their signs quoted Thomas Jefferson, who said, “The only security of all is a free press” and included slogans like “democracy dies without a free press” and “roll the presses, Trump.”

In a Facebook post announcing the rally, the organizers said “all Americans should be distressed” by the exclusion of some of journalism’s biggest names. “This type of behavior cannot be tolerated in a free society,” the organizers said.

Among those attending was Sue Willers, of Royal Oak, who told The Detroit News that without a free press, “we’re a dictatorship.”

Others said they have been alarmed by Trump’s testy relationship with the media in his first month in office.

“There was a sense of alarm and has been for weeks about the treatment of the legitimate press,” Nancy Wildren, of Grosse Pointe Park, told the Detroit Free Press. “When some of the major media outlets were shut out of the press briefing, that really sent up a flare.”

Her husband, Steve Wildren, said he believes the Trump administration is “trying to isolate the legitimate investigative reporting.”

“I think they scream fake news because they’re afraid of real news,” Wildren told the Free Press

Marchers came from across Michigan, including Kent and Cindy Wethy, of Holland.

“I didn’t think we would have to protest for (First Amendment rights),” Kent Wethy, who carried a sign that read “Truth Is Not Fake News,” told The Detroit News. “Suppression of news is the first sign of a fascist government.”

Paula Douglas, of Auburn Hills, told the Free Press that she and her husband, Jim, are voracious news consumers.

“This fake news stuff is scary,” Paula Douglas told the newspaper. “We’ve always been big believers in the newspaper.”

The Associated Press and Time were among the organizations that boycotted the meeting, known as a “gaggle,” due to the unusual circumstances, and the White House Correspondents Association said it is “protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled” and pledged to discuss it further with the White House staff.

Four of the five major networks — NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News — were allowed to attend the gaggle, as were news organizations that have been friendly to Trump, including Breitbart and the Washington Times.

Here are some scenes from the rally.

Photo by Ninian Reid via Flickr Commons