FREE PRESS
‘Where Are All The Good People To Put A Stop To This?’
Small-town raid is big news
Our founders considered freedom of the press so important that they put it in the First Amendment. They considered protection against unreasonable search and seizure pretty important, too — that’s in the Fourth Amendment.
Both amendments were ignored by the cops and judge involved in illegally searching and seizing materials from journalists at the tiny Marion County Record, a 2,700-circulation paper.
Police raided the paper Friday, Aug. 11, seizing computers, cellphones and reporting materials. The world’s largest media companies have the small paper’s back: Media companies and press organizations around the world have released statements of support for the paper and have condemned the raid.
I got my start in small-town weekly newspapers, so I feel a considerable kinship with the folks who put out the Record.
It all started with a news tip. I used to get these on a near-daily basis. Sometimes they were nothing. Sometimes they were big. Sometimes we questioned the motives of the source, which is what happened in this case.
A source told the paper that a local restaurant and catering company owner named Kari Newell, who was applying for a liquor license, didn’t have a valid driver’s license as a result of a DUI but had driven anyway. The Record confirmed the information but didn’t publish anything because the staff questioned the motives of the source.
Instead, the paper went to Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez and City Police Chief Gideon Cody. The paper said the source had alleged that the police had knowledge of the issue but ignored it, according to NPR.
Newell accused the Record of passing information about her DUI to a council member, but the paper said the same source who tipped them off also informed the council member.
Police obtained a search warrant from Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar which appears to violate federal law, according to the Kansas Reflector.
With the warrant, the city’s entire five-person police force raided the newspaper office, seizing computers and personal cell phones. The police also raided the home of Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the Record, and the home of the council member who was also given the tip about Newell’s DUI.
If you think this sounds like something that would happen in Russia, you’re right, although places like Russia usually wouldn’t go through the charade of getting a warrant first. If you are also thinking the U.S. has seen a lot of fascist power grabs during these Trump-tainted times, you’re not alone.
The judge who signed the search warrant, ironically, has a history of DUI arrests herself, according to The Wichita Eagle.
“Viar’s DUI history could face scrutiny because the warrant she approved for the controversial raid came in response to the Marion County Record digging into the DUI history of restaurant owner Kari Newell. The Viar-authorized raid came after Newell complained about the newspaper’s investigation into her criminal background,” said a story by Chance Swaim in the Thursday, Aug. 17 edition of the Eagle.
The background of Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody, who led the raid, is also being freshly examined. Before taking his current job, he left the Kansas Police Department “facing possible discipline and demotion,” according to a story written by Glenn E. Rice and Luke Nozicka of The Kansas City Star.
In the wake of international condemnation, the paper’s materials have been returned, and the paper’s staff managed to put out a paper with the headline SEIZED … BUT NOT SILENCED.
Support for newspaper goes global is a piece in this week’s Record. It notes The Society of Professional Journalists pledged $20,000 toward legal fees. Papers including the New York Times have condemned the raid.
Joan Meyer, 98, Eric Meyer’s mother, collapsed and died the day after the raids. She had been in good health for her age, he said, but was stressed by the searches and seizures of her home and the newspaper office.
Melinda Henneberger, an opinion columnist for the Kansas City Star, wrote that Joan Meyer lived through World War II, and her husband fought the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge. Henneberger said Meyer had spoken to the Wichita Eagle’s Dion Lefler after her possessions were confiscated, saying “These are Hitler tactics and something has to be done.”
It proved to be one of the last things she ever said.
In a New York Times obituary, her son is quoted as saying: “She said over and over again, ‘Where are all the good people to put a stop to this?’”
Henneberger offers an answer to that — the same suggestion I aimed to make when I started writing this piece: Subscribe to the Marion County Record. Henneberger reports she already did so.
You can buy a digital subscription to the Marion County Record for $34.99 You can reach the paper at 660–382–2165.
About me:
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me! You can also find me on Substack, Mastodon, Twitter or LinkedIn.
For further reading:
https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article278237263.html#storylink=cpy
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article278208682.html
https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article278237263.html
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article278318133.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/business/media/joann-meyer-dead.html
https://marionrecord.com/credit/subscription:MARION+COUNTY+RECORD