Free Republic

This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and the Detroit Free Press, and co-published with Bridge Magazine. Update, July 17, 2020: A Michigan Family Division judge Friday granted a request to review the case of Grace, a 15-year-old sent to juvenile detention for violating probation by not doing her schoolwork, and reconsider her decision to detain the girl. Oakland County judge Mary Ellen Brennan scheduled a hearing for Monday morning to review the “progress and engagement” of Grace and her mother during the past two months, while the girl has been in detention and then a residential treatment program....

Civility Two years ago, Stephen Henderson won a Pulitzer Prize. I’ll let you decide what you think that says about the state of journalism, especially as you consider what he wrote late last week. Henderson, the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press (and a Facebook friend of mine, at least as I type this), has become increasingly hysterical in the past year - seeing racism behind almost every perceived societal ill and ascribing to conservative policymakers not just mistaken thinking but, invariably, an intent to hurt people. But his column of this past Saturday took the cake. A...

The debate over the future of Detroit’s public schools took a nasty turn over the weekend when the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press called for Republican state legislators to be murdered for disagreeing with him. “We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit, sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac,” wrote Stephen Henderson. The crime the lawmakers were guilty of? Supporting expanded choice for Detroit’s failing school system. “A sack. An animal. A lake. No...

I suppose this makes something like the one hundredth leftist female writer that has decided that Sarah Palin is a traitor to womanhood. But, here we have it again, another wild-eyed, hate filled, far left screed filled with name calling and little else, this one from Rochelle Riley and the Detroit Free Press. One would think that the papers all across the country would be ashamed of giving space to these obviously unhinged women and their so-called political analysis. If you want to see set backs, these sorts of catty, snippy, over-the-top articles against Sarah Palin have set female commentators...

The radical anti-war group CodePink infiltrated a Detroit Free Press focus group of independent voters for the political conventions during the last two weeks. Two CodePink members in the focus group claimed they were politically independent, then they ripped Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah’s Palin’s acceptance speech and praised Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s. Their comments appeared online and were excerpted in the Free Press’ print edition. A Free Press editor expressed regret over the incident. “I wish that it weren’t the case that there were two people from an activist group and we didn’t know about it,” assistant managing...

So three racists walk into a bar. Unfortunately, there¡¯s no punchline. What Michael Richards said about blacks at a Los Angeles comedy club was racist. His career should be over. But so should the careers of two other racists, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Unfortunately, they¡¯re thriving. While Richards made a gazillion phony apologies for uttering what he really thinks at age 57 (and blamed it on the War in Iraq ¨C huh?), Jackson and Sharpton have never apologized even once for constantly telling us what they really think, over decades. It¡¯s a little strange ¨C no, make that, absurd...

Will the Real News Fabricator Please Stand Up? May 19, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel The Detroit News and its star reporter, David Shepardson, got caught with their pants down. They ran a fake story. But no-one noticed. No-one, except me—which lead to Detroit News Editor and Publisher Mark Silverman and his minions racing to hush the story and bury it, looking for some silent way to cover-up their very large, very exposed rears. They printed Shepardson’s phony story about a terrorist, and I exposed it, last week. Shepardson ran with it, without even a modicum of fact-checking (easily done with...

...Terry McAuliffe called the program "an illegal in-kind contribution" to the Bush campaign and said the Democratic National Committee is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Over at the FCC, Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps interrupted his Columbus Day holiday to dub the broadcast "an abuse of the public trust." More ominously, Kerry adviser Chad Clanton told Fox News yesterday that "I think they (Sinclair) are going to regret doing this, and they better hope we don't win." ...It wasn't the intention of the Founders to give elected officials veto power over press reports.... The excuse for such broadcast...

***Please click on website for all links within this article**** The letter of Cardinal Ratzinger, and the Detroit Free Press On the front page of the Detroit Free Press, on Tuesday, September 7, 2004, a headline read, "Catholics allowed to vote for pro-choice candidate." See article here . With all due respect to Patricia Montemurri, this was a case of irresponsible journalism, on two counts: first, the misrepresentation of what the Church has to say, and second, the fact that she refers to a memo written about two and a half months ago as if this is somehow today's news....

<p>As the area's premier community of immigrants, Hamtramck surely should be tolerant of different cultures. But in this city where church bells regularly ring, some residents are up in arms over a request that the city's five Muslim mosques be able to broadcast daily calls to prayer.</p>

The United States launched missile strikes on "selected targets of military importance" in Iraq early today, making good on its threat to use force to oust Saddam Hussein, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.US and British invasion forces ploughed through sand berms in southern Iraq and skirmished with Iraqi troops while more than two dozen tomahawk missiles slammed into Baghdad in a second wave of attacks to try to topple Saddam Hussein, says The Boston Globe.Coalition forces could enter Baghdad within the next three or four days, a spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf said Friday, according to the the...

The American papers went to press a few hours after the attacks on Iraq began, so they were all dominated by the outbreak of war.The New York Post opted for a plain and powerful front page declaring war. The very minute that war broke out is shown, highlighting the emphasis on precision in this hi-tech conflict. The Washington Post says explosions ripped through the quiet of morning in Baghdad and George Bush was confident of victory - but Saddam Hussein still remained defiant.The New York Times says US forces struck Baghdad after officials received fresh intelligence suggesting a gathering of...

Terror, Mideast and hypocrisyBy Mitch Albom   April 23, 2002Originally published in the Detroit Free Press.When suicide bombers attacked America last September, nothing could stop our retaliation.Yet when suicide bombers attack Israel, week after week, Israel is told -- even by Americans -- to back off.When we bombed Afghanistan, where Al Qaida was organized, it was a mission to "smoke them out."Yet when Israel attacks its hornet's nest of terror, it is accused of "occupying" and told to retreat.When we fired on Kabul, from the safety of the air, we said innocent people would be caught in the crossfire and, sadly, this...