Attack on the Fourth Estate
I have longtime friends, Steve and Cynthia Haynes, who have owned newspapers in Kansas; they had newspapers in the San Luis Valley and sold them years ago, purchasing a chain of weekly newspapers in Western Kansas, working out of the Oberlin headquarters. They recently sold their five Kansas weeklies to the Mullen brothers, two energetic young men following in their father Tom Mullen’s footsteps. Tom Sr. has had a lengthy newspaper career in Wyoming et al., starting in Newcastle, Wyoming. A third brother J. Tom Mullen recently purchased some of the Haynes’ newspapers in the San Luis Valley and daily Alamosa-Courier, bringing his stable to over 30 newspapers.
One of our editors, Becky Osterwald, was the editor of the Alamosa Valley Courier before returning to The Villager and now is the editor of The Weekly Register-Call in Gilpin County. Osterwald spent 18 years on the far reaches of Eastern Colorado, owning the Hugo Eastern Colorado Plainsman, just a few miles from the Kansas border. Becky and I have been involved with The Colorado Press Association for decades. Steve Haynes, Tom Mullen, and I have been longtime members of the National Newspaper Association.
I had the pleasure of meeting J. Tom Mullen in Cody, Wyoming, last summer at the summer board meeting of NNA. He had just purchased the local Cody Citizen newspaper. He hosted his colleagues at the historical newspaper dating Buffalo Bill, who started the town named after him, and where the fabulous Cody Buffalo Bill Museum is located. Buffalo Bill is buried directly west of Denver on Lookout Mountain. The City of Denver has a fantastic museum near his gravesite overlooking the vast Eastern Slope. There is quite a story about Cody, Wyoming wanting Bill’s body back, but to no avail, according to historical accounts and attempts to steal his body from the gravesite.
All this chatter about newspapers, especially Kansas, relates to a growing national controversy over the raid by law enforcement officers of the 150-year-old Marion County Record offices in the rural community of 2,000 residents. The new police chief, with a questionable background, was fired from his last job. He led a task force of lawmen, raiding the newspaper from its owner and editor, Eric Meyer. They seized computers and phones from Myer and his staff, apparently searching for information they thought the newspaper might print about a local restaurant and bar owner driving without a driver’s license after her DUI conviction.
Editor Myer, 69, grew up in Marion and is an experienced journalist, serving as a reporter and editor of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and a journalism professor at the University of Illinois. He returned to his family newspaper roots in 2021 and was a partner with his mother, Joan, in her 90s, who died Aug. 12, the day after the raid on the family newspaper. Joan resided with her son Eric, and he relates in The New York Times that the raid stress contributed to her untimely death.
There is controversy about the local prodigal son’s return to the community, with increased critical editorials about local schools and a fired city employee. The Times relates about the firing by the city council, “The Record objected to the private sessions and became embroiled in disagreements about the state’s open meeting law. Coverage of local incidents has continued under Myer’s watchful eye that led to the raid of the newspaper office, apparently seeking information that might lead to a controversial story.
In my lengthy newspaper career, I’ve never observed a raid over what might be printed in a local newspaper. Usually, controversy rages over the content and facts in a published story. The raid over an anticipated story is chilling for the newspaper industry, large or small. The New York Times story about the Marion fracas was reprinted in Sunday Denver Post and has made national and international news. Full story details can be read in the Sunday Post edition of Aug. 20. No doubt lawsuits will be filed, and editor Myer will be on the newspaper speaking circuit for years.
It does beg the question of what newspapers report on and how far we can go under the First Amendment. Freedom of speech, press and religion are under fire in recent times. I’ve always believed that you can say or write whatever you want, but be ready to defend your statements, verbally or written. If you stick to the truth, you’re on solid ground.
Newspapers have always been the cornerstone of reporting local news at the time and place of events. We write the news while it is happening. Whether you agree or disagree, recent attempts have been made to rewrite history and crowd out the thoughts, values, and traditions of the events that occurred throughout history, like the taking down of Civil War statues, changing the names of military bases, and mountain names that were once honored. We may not be proud of all of America’s history, especially concerning the treatment of native Indians and their lands. But our nation has prevailed as one of the last bastions of freedom for its citizens and journalists.
The incident in a small town is troubling and infringes on the freedom of the press, even in Marion, Kansas. It is vital to citizens to have the Fourth Estate doing the historical duty of watching public servants and elected officials and commenting pro or con on performance.
More positive comments could be helpful for both large and small news outlets about all the good news that occurs.
In Marion, the devices have been returned, lawsuits are being filed, and the newspaper has added 2,000 new subscribers in the past week, primarily from across America. Editor Myer may retire as a nationally known pundit and First Amendment speaker.
Myer states that if his coverage changes, it would be only to dig into things more. “We may have found a few topics that we want to investigate further as a result of this,” he said.