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6 | MAY 14 • 2020 

editor’
s note 

How We Covered the
Lansing Protests

Our response to the Michigan Conservative Coalition and other 
criticisms of our stories about “Operation Gridlock.”
I

n our coverage of the 
April 15 Lansing protests 
to “re-open” Michigan, 
we at the Jewish News chose to 
highlight the fact that several 
of these protesters carried 
signs and 
props equating 
Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer and 
her policies 
to those of 
Adolf Hitler 
and the Nazi 
regime. This 
has prompted a fair amount 
of reader response, much of it 
negative.
The most prominent crit-
icism of our coverage has 
come from Marian Sheridan, 
co-founder of the Michigan 
Conservative Coalition 
(MCC), which organized 
that day’
s protests. We had 
interviewed Sheridan for our 
story. On April 30, the same 
day a new crowd of demon-
strators (unconnected to the 
MCC) went to the state capitol 
building to protest Whitmer’
s 
latest extension of statewide 
COVID-19 restrictions, we 
received a letter from Sheridan 
objecting to how we framed 
the April 15 events.
The JN’
s coverage, Sheridan 
said, “highlight[ed] a small 
fraction of outliers who had 
nothing to do with the orga-
nizers and what the entire pro-
test was about … It’
s unfortu-
nate that the Jewish News chose 
to dwell on a couple of people 
carrying controversial flags and 
ignored the thousands there to 

voice their concerns over their 
agonizing losses.
“It was obvious your article’
s 
true intent was to disparage 
the legitimate protesters and 
the Michigan Conservative 
Coalition,
” she continued. 
“The attention given to these 
sign carriers actually rewards 
and encourages this type of 
behavior.
” 
Sheridan concludes, “Shame 
on the Jewish News.
”
She wasn’
t the only one who 
felt this way. Commenters on 
our website and several letters 
to the editor from our regular 
readers accused us of ignoring 
the protesters who obeyed 
social distancing protocol and 
did not carry inflammatory 
signage; of ignoring the fact 
that the protesters themselves 
were not supporting Nazism; 
and of not applying the same 
standards when figures on “the 
left” make similar analogies 
to President Trump and other 
right-wing figures in power. 
(You can see some of these 
letters in this week’
s issue; we 
published the MCC’
s letter in 
full on our website.)
As it happens, the discussion 
prompted by our Lansing cov-
erage fits into one of our larger 
JN editorial goals for the year: 
The Anti-Semitism Project, in 
which we seek to understand 
and contextualize what con-
stitutes anti-Semitism in the 
modern age. And that, in fact, 
is our “true intent.
” 
In this case, the questions 
at hand are: Were the Lansing 
protests anti-Semitic? And 

were we right to report on 
them? Reader concerns are 
important to us, so this is a 
good opportunity to explain 
our own thinking on these 
matters, and to respond to the 
MCC and to others who have 
objected to our work. You don’
t 
have to agree with our perspec-
tive, but I’
d ask that you take 
the time to read it. 

THE JN’S ROLE IN REPORTING 
ANTI-SEMITISM
As the largest Jewish news 
organization in the state of 
Michigan, we have a respon-
sibility to report on notable 
instances of anti-Semitism and 
its associated evils within our 
community. These include, 
yes, trivializing or mocking the 
horrors of the Holocaust, or 
equating any person or policy 
one does not like to Nazism. 
Such a comparison is not only 
crass and ugly; it’
s also ahistori-
cal, ignoring the unique, geno-
cidal inhumanity of the Third 
Reich and weakening our 
ability to educate future gener-
ations about the Holocaust. 
Some Holocaust survivors 
have spoken publicly about 
how our current lockdown 
makes them recall the darkest 
chapters of their own lives. We 
can and should honor their 
struggles and their valid psy-

Andrew Lapin

had been dreading for 37 years. 
She wanted help. I didn’
t realize 
that a certain amount of resent-
ment (rightly so) had built up 
over these many years. 
Yes, she was right. My work 
excuse was a bunch of bunk. 
I had been lazy and selfish. I 
was determined to try to make 
amends. 
I woke up early Tuesday 
and ran downstairs. I opened 
the dishwasher to a full load 
of dishes. I proudly proceeded 
to put the dishes away in their 
proper place. This took some 
doing because I’
d never helped 
before, so I didn’
t know their 
proper place. I did the best 
I could and put the last dish 
away. I hadn’
t really been pay-
ing attention to this task, but 
glanced at the last dish in hor-
ror. There was food and crumbs 
caked on the plate. I quickly 
looked at the other dishes. They 
were also filthy. In my effort to 
help, I had once again solidified 
my title of house moron. The 
dishes were not washed. In a 
noble effort to help my wife I 
had put away dirty dishes. 
Fortunately, some good has 
come out of this. My wife has 
now reevaluated her position 
and will no longer require me to 
help. She is now of the opinion 
that no quarantine or deadly 
virus is reason enough to give a 
moron access to such a sacred 
space as a woman’
s kitchen.
Some cynics may say I 
screwed up on purpose to dis-
qualify myself from any future 
chores. To them, I say, that is an 
insult to my honor and shows 
you don’
t really know me. My 
true friends would tell you that 
I would never do anything so 
deceitful and, in fact, am a true 
moron.

— Steve Cash

Novi

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