The Marion County Record is a small, family-owned newspaper in Marion, Kansas — about 60 miles north of Wichita. It has seven employees and a circulation of about 4,000.
But this little publication is at the center of a controversy that involves nothing less than democracy, press freedoms and the First Amendment.
On Friday, the town’s entire five-person police department, along with two sheriff’s deputies, raided the newspaper offices and the home of the paper’s co-owner and publisher. That co-owner, Eric Meyer, told the Kansas Reflector that the police took “everything we have.”
On Saturday, a day after the raid, Joan Meyer, Eric Meyer’s mother and the 98-year-old co-owner of the paper, collapsed and died at her home. The Record said Joan Meyer had been “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief.”
The article went on to say she hadn’t been able to eat or sleep after the raid and said, “She tearfully watched during the raid as police not only carted away her computer and router used by an Alexa smart speaker but also dug through her son Eric’s personal bank and investments statements to photograph them.”
The editorial boards of The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star wrote, “We could express our outrage at what is happening here. But we probably couldn’t say it any better than the 98-year-old Joan Meyer, a newspaperwoman since 1953: ‘These are Hitler tactics and something has to be done.’ It turned out to be one of the last things she ever said. Mrs. Meyer complained of feeling upset and stressed by the invasion of her home when she spoke to us on Friday. Late Saturday, we received the sad news that she had collapsed at home and passed away.”
So what happened? What led to all this?
The New York Times’ Steven Lee Myers and Benjamin Mullin wrote, “The searches, conducted on Friday, appeared to be linked to an investigation into how a document containing information about a local restaurateur found its way to the local newspaper — and whether the restaurant owner’s privacy was violated in the process. The editor of the newspaper said the raids may have had more to do with tensions between the paper and officials in Marion, a town of about 2,000 north of Wichita, over prior coverage.”
The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, said law enforcement was allowed to search for and seize items including “documents and records pertaining to Kari Newell.”
CNN’s Sarah Moon reports that earlier this month, Eric Meyer attended a public meet-and-greet with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner at a coffee shop run by Newell. Meyer and Record reporter Phyllis Zorn were asked by the police chief, under a request from Newell, to leave.
Newell confirmed to Moon that she did ask the reporters to leave, saying, “When they came into the establishment, I quietly and politely asked them to exit. I didn’t feel that their constituents needed to be exposed to any risk of being misquoted.”
That’s when the story took a turn. After the meeting, Meyer said Zorn received a tip about Newell allegedly driving without a valid driver’s license after a traffic offense in 2008. And the next week, Newell was at a city council meeting trying to get approval to operate a liquor-serving establishment.
The Associated Press’ John Hanna and Margery A. Beck wrote, “The next week at a city council meeting, Newell publicly accused the newspaper of using illegal means to get information on the status of her driver’s license following a 2008 drunken driving conviction and other driving violations. The newspaper countered that it received that information unsolicited, which it verified through public online records. It eventually decided not to run a story, because it wasn’t sure the source who supplied it had obtained it legally. But the newspaper did run a story on the city council meeting, in which Newell herself confirmed she’d had a DUI conviction and that she had continued to drive even after her license was suspended.”
It appears the newspaper acted responsibly, did nothing illegal or even questionable and yet was still raided by the police. Meyer told The New York Times that the paper has angered some local officials for its reporting on the employment history of Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody.
Meyer told CNN, “I’ve never seen anything like this, not in America. This was an atomic flyswatter. They wanted to swat us, and they tried to do so. Our problem is, we don’t have any of our logs of advertising, the ads that were prepared, and things that were ordered.”
Meyer told The New York Times, “If we don’t fight back and we don’t win in fighting back, it’s going to silence everybody,”
In a statement to CNN, Cody said, “I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated.”
Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, told CNN, “Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists president Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement, “The raid by police on the Marion County Record is deeply disturbing. Local news providers are essential in holding power to account — and they must be able to report freely, without fear of authorities’ overreach. This kind of action by police — which we sadly see with growing frequency worldwide — has a chilling effect on journalism and on democracy more broadly. The actions of the police and the judiciary in this case must be thoroughly and swiftly investigated.”
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 34 news organizations — including The Associated Press, CBS News, Gannett, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, The New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post — sent a letter addressed to Chief Cody. The letter said, “Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public.”
Press advocates — and anyone who cares about press freedoms and democracy — will keep a close eye on this case. But serious and irreparable damage has already been done.
Big news at CBS News
Here’s a bit of a surprise. CBS News chief Neeraj Khemlani is stepping down from his position to take another in the parent company’s family. Khemlani joined Paramount Global, which runs CBS, in 2021 and was in charge of some of CBS News’ most important shows, including “CBS Evening News,” “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation.”
But he will leave that position to work on documentaries and develop books for Simon & Schuster, which is run by Paramount.
In a memo to staff, Khemlani said, “We maintained the #1 position of our iconic weekend programs, successfully developed and launched business plans to grow digital revenue that will sustain CBS News for the next generation, and elevated and promoted so many of the people who work here day after day to deliver on our journalistic mission. I’m so proud of what all of you have accomplished — the scores of journalistic wins, the superb storytelling, the creativity that enhanced every aspect of our programming — that has put this division on a stronger path forward.”
He added that he was “looking forward to slipping my reporter’s notebook back into my pocket and heading out on a new adventure.”
It’s quite a time to be making a move, with the campaign for the 2024 presidential election gearing up and all the news surrounding potential Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “Each new White House cycle is viewed as a potential boon for TV news, as debates, primaries, conventions and election coverage tends to draw broader viewership. Paramount Global has also pressed CBS News and its local stations to create a broader news product that mixes national coverage with regional journalism, part of a bid to compete for digital audiences. If that sounds like a tough assignment for CBS News anchors like Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, imagine what it might be like for the executive to whom they report.”
No fighting
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, and X owner Elon Musk. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, Stephan Savoia, File)
This isn’t the most critical media news there is, but it’s at least a little juicy. I’m talking about this so-called fight — yeah, an actual fight — between social media moguls Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Elon Musk of X.
These guys have been talking about a cage match for a while now, and it looked like it was going to actually happen. But now it feels as if Musk is dragging his feet. He’s now saying his back is hurt and that he needs surgery.
On Sunday, apparently Zuckerberg had enough. He went to his social media network Threads and posted, “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”
Media tidbits
- The big Donald Trump story on Sunday is this one from CNN’s Zachary Cohen and Sara Murray: “Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump’s team is behind voting system breach.”
- Mediaite’s Phillip Nieto with “Pence Evasive With Chuck Todd on Whether Trump WH Officials Told Him About Fake Electors Scheme Before Jan. 6.”
- More from Pence on “Meet the Press.” Asked by moderator Chuck Todd if he’s a “MAGA Republican,” Pence said, “Look, I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican in that order. I’ve always said that. People who know me know those are my values. Those are my ideals. And I really believe that the agenda that I’ve always been about, that I’m looking forward to making, are taken to that debate stage, is the agenda that will bring this country all the way back.” Mediaite’s Andrew Kirell has more.
- Updated from a story first published on May 7: “60 Minutes” and correspondent Anderson Cooper with “Frontline war photographer James Nachtwey: Capturing conflict, heroism, history.”
Hot type
- CNN’s Emma Tucker with “Tasers, taunts, torment: How 6 White officers subjected 2 Black men to hours of grueling violence, and then tried to cover it up.”
- The Washington Post’s Joshua Partlow, John Farrell, Brady Dennis, Brianna Sacks and Joanna Slater with “How the Maui wildfires devastated Lahaina, hour by hour.”
- And here’s The Wall Street Journal’s Jim Carlton, Ginger Adams Otis, Corinne Ramey and Alicia A. Caldwell with “Officials Search for Remains of Maui Victims—and Answers for How the Wildfire Turned So Deadly.”
More resources for journalists
- Tickets for Poynter’s Bowtie Ball, honoring Anderson Cooper, go on sale Sept. 11, but you can get tickets before anyone else. Learn how.
- Executive Leadership Summit (Oct.) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 14.
- Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Media (Mar., May & Sept. 2024) — Apply by Sept. 8, 2023.
- Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color (Nov. 15-18) (Seminar) — Apply by Sept. 15.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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