PHOTOS BY ANTHONY LANZILOTE

continued from page 29

30 | JANUARY 9 • 2020 

Fink, a native of Metro Detroit, always 
aspired to be a journalist. During college, 
his first paying journalism job was with the 
Jewish News. 
“Part of its attraction was talking history 
with Jewish News founder and publisher 
Philip Slomovitz. His stories were better 
than history class. He actually knew Israel’
s 
founders as well as America’
s leaders. He 
delighted in telling stories, and I was eager to 
hear them,
” he said. “My passion for journal-
ism and the First Amendment began at the 
Jewish News.
”
He was also a writer and editor for his 
student newspaper, then the Daily Collegian 
at Wayne State University. After graduation 
in 1963, he applied and was accepted to law 
school, but deferred the option for a report-
ing job at the Flint Journal. A few years later, 
he returned to his hometown as a reporter 
for the Detroit News.
A nine-month newspaper strike in 1967 
left Fink with extra time to re-evaluate his 
career. Shortly after the strike, he started 
night school at Detroit College of Law. 
During those years, he worked the grave-
yard shift and eventually was promoted to 

night city editor at the News while studying 
law and starting a family with his late wife, 
Annette. 
Armed with his law degree, he left 
journalism to practice law with Detroit’
s 
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn law 
firm, specializing in representing local and 
national media companies. He represented 
the JN on First Amendment matters while 
an attorney with Honigman Miller.
After 35 years as a partner, he began his 
“encore career” as legal counsel for his long-
time client, the Detroit Free Press, and five 
sister Michigan news properties. He is also 
of counsel at the business law firm Jaffe Raitt 
Heuer & Weiss P
.C.
He lives in Orchard Lake with his wife, 
Adrienne. They are members of the Zionist 
Organization of America and are heavily 
involved with the Holocaust Memorial 
Center in Farmington Hills. Fink was also 
a founding member of the Great Lakes 
Chamber Music Festival and is involved with 
the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. They 
attend services at Adat Shalom Synagogue.
His daughter, Sheri Fink, is a physician 
who left medicine to become a New York 

FIRST AMENDMENT 
CONCERNS

Fink said he’
s concerned with the 
media bias in national newspapers in 
today’
s hyper-partisan political climate. 
“Opinion polls taken by a number of 
polling organizations show the public 
has a remarkably low opinion of the 
press, as low as or similar to its low 
opinion of Congress,” he said.
“I’
ve always believed that credibility 
is the most important thing that we 
as journalists can have,” he added. 
“And that derives from being accurate, 
acknowledging errors, being fair and 
unbiased, separating opinion from 
news and factual news gathering … 
I think what was reflected in the low 
opinion of the public is that the media 
has lost credibility.” 
Fink said he was heartened by a 
recent poll that showed local news 
media was still highly regarded in 
terms of its credibility and accuracy. 
“The kind of watchdog journalism 
that local news organizations do is 
what is important to the public,” he 
said. “I’
m talking about newspapers 
and the kind of watchdog journalism 
the Free Press has been doing and 
continues to do despite diminishing 
resources.” 
What disturbs Fink the most, he 
said, is intolerance for differing opin-
ions. 
“It’
s endemic at universities and 
college campuses around the country. 
There are demonstrations that shut 
down the ability of students to hear 
both sides of an issue or political 
debate. For all intents and purposes, 
there is no longer any free speech on 
many college campuses. That, to me, is 
the most disturbing thing because the 
basis of the First Amendment, as was 
said by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: 
‘
Freedom of speech means a free 
marketplace of ideas.’
 This free mar-
ketplace of ideas, the whole basis of 
the First Amendment, has been lost on 
many college campuses. That disturbs 
me greatly.”

Jews in the D

