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Township bans display of newspaper after critical coverage

Posted at 5:10 PM, Mar 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-16 19:16:24-04

Bruce Township's hall sits in the quiet village of Romeo in Macomb County.

Its main newspaper is The Record. But you won’t find it on display inside town hall anymore.

That’s because the Board of Trustees voted to ban the publication from the public building. 

“It’s trampling on people’s freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” says editor and publisher Larry Sobczak.  

He says the troubles began when Township Clerk Susan Brockmann was charged with being super drunk.

The paper began aggressively covering her troubles. And with Brockmann still working at town hall, it appears town leaders were uncomfortable with coverage of her incident being continually on display.

In an interview with 7 Action News, the town supervisor tried to spin the ban as a business decision, but admits the coverage was the driving force behind a resolution to ban the paper from the grounds.

After our interview, the town supervisor agreed to meet with the newspaper to discuss the matter.