New Far Right news source tries to trash GRIID, but their article is full of misinformation and errors

There is a new online news source called The Grand Rapids Herald, which began posting articles in early March of 2026.

Not to be confused with the former Grand Rapids Herald that used to exist, which closed it’s doors in 1959, this Grand Rapids Herald is run by Jackson Walker. Walker seems to be the only contributor to the site, which is in its infancy.

I did some digging to find out that Jackson Walker has a history of working for news agencies such as being a digital news writer for Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair is regarded has a right wing media conglomerate that owns media outlets across the country. Walker also appears to have a history with Turning Point USA, which was founded by Charlie Kirk. You can check out his writings previous to starting The Grand Rapids Herald by going to this link.

Targeting GRIID

I fully expect to have far right or conservative news sources attack or make fun of the work I have been doing with GRIID since 1998, like an interview I did with a GVSU professor that talked about a student who wanted to censor an art installation on campus last year. That interview was then cited on a far right Christian blog where GRIID was referred to as a Socialist site.

In Walker’s article on GRIID, entitled GRAND RAPIDS ‘MEDIA WATCHDOG’ RALLIES ACTIVISTS AGAINST ICE, he acknowledges that he reached out to me for comment, but failed to include his questions, which were extremely leading:

Can you please address the below questions for our reporting?

1) Why did GRIID leave the Grand Rapids Community Media Center?

2) How is anti-ICE content a part of GRIID’s mission as a media watchdog?

3) How has GRIID’s work led to change in the local media ecosystem?

In Walker’s article, which primarily relies on what I have written on the GRIID site since 2009 when I shifted from being primarily a Media Watchdog and Media Literacy entity to a IndyMedia source or what I prefer to identify as Movement Media. As readers of GRIID will know I focus on two main areas – 1) documenting what the Grand Rapids Power Structure and other systems of power are doing in West Michigan, and 2) documenting the work of social movements in the greater Grand Rapids area.

What follows is a list of examples where Jackson Walker has either wrong information or uses misinformation.

• In the article about GRIID it says – Recently, however, GRIID appears to have pivoted toward promoting political activism rather than media monitoring. The reality is that GRIID has always “promoted political activism”, thus there is no pivoting. Anyone can go back to 2009 when the GRIID blog started and see that political activism – what I call movement work or community organizing – has always been part of the work of GRIID.
• The only author’s byline to appear on the site is Jeff Smith. This is also not true as there have been several people who have written for GRIID over the years. It is true that I have written the bulk of the articles, but I have never been the sole contributor.
• Smith also wrote about how he and a group of protesters swarmed the home of Kent County Commissioner Ben Greene to demand that he agree to not cooperate with ICE, despite publicly saying he would make no such concessions. Commissioner Greene said the protesters startled his young children who were in the house at the time. Here the founder of the Grand Rapids Herald makes several mistakes. First, those protesting outside of Commissioner Greene’s house never “swarmed” anything. People calmly and non-violently gathered outside the commissioner’s home and delivered a letter to him. The article primarily just parrots the interpretation of what Commissioner Greene had to say about what happened, even though the account on GRIID is first hand and a more honest assessment.
• Smith was once a part of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center (GRCMC), a local charity which connects several local media entities. He now operates independently, however, and focuses on power structure analysis that are critical of the philanthropic ecosystem GRCMC depends on. The Grand Rapids Media Center is not a charity, but a non-profit media entity that provides an array of non-commercial avenues for people to produce their own media. GRIID has also not critiqued the “philanthropic ecosystem” that involves the GRCMC. Instead, GRIID has regularly written articles how private foundations run by the DeVos, Van Andel and other powerful families.
• Among Smith’s other projects is Koinonia House, a housing collective which declared itself a sanctuary for Central American refugees. Smith also runs Catalyst Radio, a “public affairs program” run by GRCMC, and teaches workshops at Grand Valley State University. It is true that I was part of the Koinonia House for 27 years, but Walker’s description of the K-House is oversimplified and does not reflect the complete history of that community house. GRIID was involved in the founding of Catalyst Radio in 2004, but when GRIID left the GRCMC at the end of 2006, I was no longer a part of that radio project that aired on WYCE.
• Smith received a large speaking fee for hosting a book talk and signing event for “A People’s History of Grand Rapids” at the Grand Rapids African American Museum in 2024. This is laughable. If you go to the link that The Grand Rapids Herald includes. It lists that I was part of doing a presentation at the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (GRAAMA), along with other projects and says that $40,000 in grant money was used. The fact is that GRAAMA paid me $100 to do a People’s History talk on White Supremacy and the Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, which is chapter two of my book. If the Grand Rapids Herald writer thinks that getting $100 to do a 90 minute presentation is sizable, then he has no idea how those of us who do community organizing are compensated in the real world.

I am personally used to these types of attacks, which comes with the work of doing community organizing, especially when you confront/expose systems of power. The article that attempts to trash GRIID primarily relies on copying and pasting quotes from GRIID articles without any real analysis or critique. It’s as if the writer is wanting to say to his audience of far right MAGA friends – look at how GRIID is promoting anti-ICE messaging and even promoting anti-ICE activism. No shit, that is what those articles are intended to do, since ICE is just one component of the larger carceral state and a system of power and oppression.

If you are going to come after me please make it interesting.