Group Puts El Salvador In The News

Group Puts El Salvador in the News

ANN ARBOR- On Fri., March 17, a group of people opposed to U.S. policy in El Salvador distributed the "Detroit Free Free Press" around the city. The papers, which resembled the Detroit Free Press front page, carried the headline "U.S. AT WAR IN EL SALVADOR." The anonymous media critics wrapped between 3,000 and 4,000 copies of the Detroit Free Press with the Detroit Free Free Press, mostly in coin-operated boxes.

A press release issued by the publishers claimed that "instead of rehashing official government versions of events in El Salvador it (the wrap-around) portrayed an unbiased picture of the civil war there and U.S. involvement in it." It went on to assert that "more accurate reporting would undermine support for U.S. policy in Central America."

According to Detroit Free Press attorney Hershell Fink, the Detroit Free Press has not yet filed charges in relation to the incident. However, he stated, "If somebody is able to identify who did it, we would seriously consider taking legal action... No one has any right to utilize the trademark, name and copyrighted design of the Detroit Free Press."

The wrap-around's lead story was on the U.S. war in El Salvador. It stated, "The (Reagan/Bush) Administration has (for the last eight years) committed hundreds of U.S. soldiers and nearly $4 billion in its efforts to prop up a repressive dictatorship facing a popular rebellion... Only this massive U.S. military intervention has forestalled the democratic opposition movement, the FMLN/FDR, from taking power, and then implementing social reforms and redistributing El Salvador's highly concentrated wealth."

Another headline read, "Massive Media Cover-up Revealed." The article claimed, "The State Department and White House, acting with the cooperation of the major U.S. media organs, fed false or distorted information to the public, and prevented important news stories about El Salvador from being disclosed within the United States." Similar newspaper wrappings concerning Central America issues have occurred in Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Tuscon, and New York.