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FILE
There has been a lot of talk lately about the Constitution and how it applies to many issues we face today, almost 2 ½ centuries after it was written.
The Bill of Rights has been stretched and pushed and kicked, but it still makes up the foundation of our American way of life today.
The raid at the Marion County (Kan.) Record newspaper a couple of weeks ago was a disquieting violation of the First Amendment. The police raided the office and the home of the newspaper’s owner – a family-owned newspaper in a small town of 1,900 – on the grounds that they had privileged information about a local businesswoman who was allegedly driving without a license.
They took computers and phones, ransacking the newspaper owners’ home, causing extreme stress to 98-year-old owner Joan Meyer, who collapsed and died the next day. Too late to help her, the items were returned by the district attorney’s office when it was determined the action was not justified.
The newspaper never published the information it received from an anonymous tip, but it did explore the information. That is what reporting is. That is what a free press is.
Moreover, a trusted community newspaper with true journalists who believe in the truth would not have nefariously obtained this woman’s information, and they would not have published anything without true, hard evidence relevant to public concern.
You don’t own a newspaper until you are 98 by violating these principles, but apparently, jumping the gun and making a show of strength was more important for the local sheriff. One wonders why they would press the button so hard and so quickly to get to the information the newspaper had. Whatever the reason, this is why we need a free press to begin with.
Oscar Wilde once said, “In America, the president reigns for four years, and journalism governs forever and ever.”
This is true only because it has to be in order to secure a fair and democratic society. Your community newspaper strives to provide this crucial cog in our American system every day, as do the fine folks in papers like the Marion County Record across the country.
As always, the newspaper is a mirror of our community. We need to be free from government overreach for you to tell your truths and for us to report them.