About a dozen of Rev. Greg Drumwright’s 170 or so supporters present at the Sunday afternoon march in downtown Graham attempted to prevent The Alamance News from filming Rev. Drumwright’s speech in front of the J.B. Allen,Jr. Court House on West Elm Street, holding up signs to block the reporter’s/camera view of Drumwright, who spoke in front of the War Memorial at the court building.
Only The Alamance News was targeted for this kind of censorship by the crowd; other media outlets, mostly nearby television news stations, remained free to film.
The demonstrators followed the reporter throughout Drumwright’s speech, getting in front at every angle in order to block coverage.
Publisher Tom Boney, Jr., who served as the reporter trying to cover Drumwright’s march and comments, was harassed throughout by those trying to prevent the newspaper’s coverage. They have complained that the newspaper has not given favorable enough treatment to him and previous events staged by the Greensboro pastor.
“I do not understand their attempt to restrict a Free Press from covering the story. The Alamance News attempts, as always, to get both sides of every story,” Boney emphasized. “Here, however, our attempt to get Rev. Drumwright’s side was made more difficult by the decision by a dozen or so of his own supporters to attempt to block video coverage of his speech.”
During his remarks, Drumwright also criticized some of the newspaper’s previous coverage, including the posting of audio excerpts from his Nov. 19 organizational meeting at Morgantown Baptist Church where he said the choice is a march or a riot.
The accompanying video footage is mostly of the blocked signs, but some of what Drumwright said can be heard on the audio portion. Protesters then began to shout profanities in order to prevent additional coverage.
Part of Drumwright’s message Sunday afternoon was that The Alamance News must support the Black Lives Matter movement or face a boycott from his supporters, a threat he first made at the Nov. 19 meeting.
Earlier video footage, as the march began along East Harden Street, can be seen on the second video.
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