I have penned a couple of prior pieces about the struggle of a small weekly newspaper in Kansas against a corrupt local government.
We’re Not In Kansas Anymore, Toto. This Is Wyoming
Police Misbehavior And The Critical Role Of The Free Press
I’m also a subscriber to the newspaper, and I follow with great interest this ongoing story.
To recap: The Marion County Record, a family-owned newspaper with a shoestring budget and a circulation of a mere 4000, published an expose of their chief of police’s shady past. The head cop, using a bogus warrant, raided the office and home of the editor/publisher to squelch the story.
The cops seized files and equipment from the office and home, and the editor’s ninety-year old mother died as a result of the ransacking of the home.
But the Record’s editor and staff cobbled together enough computers and notes to continue publishing their investigations and didn’t miss an issue.
As a result, the chief of police and several powerful municipal officials lost their jobs, lawsuits were filed and trials await many of the powers that be for their roles in trying to silence the free press.
National and international attention was focused on this lightly-populated corner of Kansas as a mom-&-pop newspaper did battle with the forces that would rather not let the workings of corrupt government see the light of day. In this instance, the Fourth Estate and the citizens’ right to know carried the day.
In the latest issue of the Marion County Record, it was announced that the editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, and his small but stalwart staff were awarded the prestigious Bolles Medal for their work by the International Association of Investigative Editors and Reporters.
This award is named for Don Bolles, an investigative journalist from Arizona who was killed in a car bombing in 1976. The killing was ordered and carried out by greasy government and development interests who didn’t want Bolles exposing their perfidy.
It is axiomatic that when power breaks bad, be they government or corporate, they don’t want anyone finding out about it. Secrecy is the only environment in which corruption grows and prospers. Silence is its best ally.
It is my solemn belief that Madison had this truism in mind when he wrote the First Amendment to our Constitution guaranteeing a free press that would not be shoved around by government or anyone else.
He realized that an informed citizenry is the best antibody against government or corporate corruption, and that a press free from government restraint is the best means for citizens to be informed.
This legacy is what spurred the Record to take on the powerful in their small community, and to drag their misdeeds into the light of day. The Record’s persistence in the face of government pushback is what won them the Bolles Medal.
For my money, America – and yes, Wyoming – needs more not fewer investigative reporters turning over powerful rocks to see what lies beneath, regardless of how loudly the powerful will howl.
Too many folks are willing to turn a blind eye toward corrupt power. The press cannot do that or it will violate the memory of courageous reporters like Don Bolles. Especially today, with things getting weirder by the minute in the halls of power.
All it takes is the courage to stand up to power and tell the truth, and to resist vilification from any quarter for doing so.
When Eric Meyer accepted the Bolles Medal on his paper’s behalf, he was given a standing ovation by a roomful of his peers when he said, “Journalism is not a crime.”
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
