It is highly likely that you have not been following the story about a small weekly newspaper in Marion, Kansas — as least not as closely as yours truly. It is with the acknowledged risk of sounding self-serving that this topic is tackled this week.
What has transpired there is a threat to local journalism. It also demonstrates the difference between how even a small local newspaper decides what is and isn’t news and this new-fangled thing called the internet and social media.
The newspaper’s office and the publisher’s home were raided August 11 utilizing a search warrant, the probable cause for which is yet to be fully revealed. The newspaper, called the Marion County Record, is based in Marion, a small community of 1,900 people about an hour’s drive north of Wichita. The Meyer family purchased it in 1998. Bill Meyer had worked there starting in 1948 and his wife Joan began working there in the 1960s.
Their only child, Eric Meyer, took over as editor of the paper during the pandemic, after retiring from a career that included teaching journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and editing the Milwaukee Journal.
As you may have heard or read, the trauma of the search most certainly has a direct relationship to the 98-year-old Joan Meyer’s sudden death the very next day.
Initial reports indicated that the raid was due to a tip the paper received about a local restaurateur. The paper’s reporter checked into the tip but the publisher had concerns about the documents that had been sent, the tipster’s motivation and any relevancy of the issues involved.
Subsequent reports likely exposed the true motivation for the raids. Marion’s police chief has been the subject of some concern for the paper’s editors. The newspaper had been delving into his history as a police officer in Kansas City where he had worked before coming to Marion. There were reports of misconduct. However, the newspaper could not get anyone in Kansas City to speak on the record. They felt they had insufficient information to print a story.
That apparently did not assuage the police chief, whose relationship with the paper continued to sour. For instance, he stopped providing the paper with the daily blotter of law-enforcement activities.
Numerous legal minds have already weighed in that the raids were violations of the U.S. Constitution and a federal law that protects reporters’ work and data from search warrants.
“The federal Privacy Protection Act is designed to protect journalists against exactly what happened here,” Eric Meyer’s attorney told the Wall Street Journal, referencing a 1980 federal law that requires law enforcement to subpoena journalists’ work product rather than execute a search warrant that cannot be challenged in court beforehand.
If indeed the police chief finagled a search warrant from a judge in order to protect his reputation, there should be hell to pay. That community’s fourth-estate protection is being threatened. If they get away with it there, you can count on other unscrupulous elected officials and law enforcement leaders will take note.
Fortunately, things are progressing in the right direction in Kansas. The Marion County attorney has withdrawn the search warrant and the seized items are being returned. The police chief has not responded to numerous requests for comment by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and every major network and cable news organizations. No surprise there.
But it is important that he answer questions at some point and, if culpable, be held accountable.
The other detail to note is what The Marion County Record did not do: It did not print two stories — not because they doubted the facts or feared retribution, but for reasons that define the difference between true journalism and the rumor-mongering that dominates social media.
The series of events that lead up to the raid are complicated. The paper’s publisher was aware there were problems with the documents that were provided by the tipster and had shared his concerns with the local police chief and sheriff, even suspecting that someone was trying to set them up. In regards to their investigation of the police chief’s past, they could not get corroboration, nor could they get the people they talked with to speak on the record.
The Record, meanwhile, published its weekly edition this past Wednesday, utilizing a pair of old computers that had not been seized. The four-person staff worked through the night with the help of their state press association’s executive director and their attorney. Their business manager has been overwhelmed by orders for more the 2,000 new subscriptions.
Their lead headline: “SEIZED…but not silenced.” There remains some hope for this crazy world we live in.
Yes, I am biased. And I realize I’m preaching to the choir. Local journalism is part of the bedrock of this republic we all wish to preserve. Your support — and those businesses that continue to advertise in these pages — is appreciated.
miller@news-banner.com
