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A Mystery in Marion (Part One) · Question Everything

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  Speaker 1: Today on Question Everything, we have part one of a
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  Speaker 1: special two-part story this week and next. It's a small
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  Speaker 1: town whodunit filled with divorce, corruption, backstabbing. The mystery? Who
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  Speaker 1: is behind a brazen attack on a local newspaper? It
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  Speaker 1: was the summer of 2023, and the Marion County record
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  Speaker 1: had been making a lot of enemies. There was the
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  Speaker 1: new police chief who'd come to town under suspicious circumstances
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  Speaker 1: from Kansas City, who the paper had been investigating. There
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  Speaker 1: was the local restaurant owner, who'd recently kicked Marion County
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  Speaker 1: Record reporters out of a political event at her cafe.
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  Speaker 1: And then there was the mayor of Marion, who had
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  Speaker 1: just shared this post on Facebook. The real villains in
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  Speaker 1: America aren't Black people. They aren't white people. They aren't Asians.
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  Speaker 1: They aren't Latinos. They aren't women. They aren't gays. They
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  Speaker 1: are the radical... journalists, teachers and professors who do nothing
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  Speaker 1: but sow division between the American people.
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  Speaker 2: I have that posted on the wall in my office.
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  Speaker 1: Really?
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  Speaker 2: I printed that out and posted it on the wall
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  Speaker 2: in my office.
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  Speaker 1: This is Eric Meyer, editor and publisher and owner of
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  Speaker 1: the Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper. Before this, he
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  Speaker 1: worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and also taught journalism
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  Speaker 1: at the University of Illinois. Marion's a town of less
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  Speaker 1: than 2,000, In rural Kansas. There aren't too many people
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  Speaker 1: there with that resume.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a journalist. I'm a professor. I was teacher of
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  Speaker 2: this stuff. I don't know whether he feels that way
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  Speaker 2: about all journalists or not. I think this was targeting
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  Speaker 2: me personally. This hatred goes back decades.
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  Speaker 1: The animosity from the mayor. His name is David Mayfield.
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  Speaker 1: Eric says that dates back to at least 2003.
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  Speaker 2: When he was city administrator, not mayor. And we had
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  Speaker 2: an outbreak of cyanobacteria, blue gene algae, that affected the reservoir,
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  Speaker 2: which is the water supply for Marion.
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  Speaker 1: The paper got a tip that the town was taking
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  Speaker 1: water from the reservoir, even though the Kansas Department of
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  Speaker 1: Health had not said it was safe.
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  Speaker 2: And we asked about it, and the mayor denied that.
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  Speaker 2: We then got proof that they actually had been doing it.
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  Speaker 2: And then the mayor said, oh, well. I didn't say
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  Speaker 2: that because I knew it was safe because I took
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  Speaker 2: my rowboat out to the reservoir and rowed to where
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  Speaker 2: the water comes in and there was no algae around it.
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  Speaker 2: And we responded, but the toxin in the algae is invisible. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's just, you know, he didn't like that. I was
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  Speaker 2: also there when the mayor and the city's economic development director,
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  Speaker 2: both of them got divorced and they are now married
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  Speaker 2: to each other. The economic development director took city money
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  Speaker 2: and set up a business by giving them a loan
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  Speaker 2: to purchase inventory with. The company was called Up In Smoke,
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  Speaker 2: and it was a cigarette shop. And after they opened,
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  Speaker 2: their inventory mysteriously vanished in a burglary. By the way,
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  Speaker 2: they were set up in a building that she owned
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  Speaker 2: and rented to them. We reported this. When my father...
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  Speaker 2: had a sudden cardiac arrest and would have died had
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  Speaker 2: there not been an EMT who lived a block away. Reportedly,
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  Speaker 2: the woman who is now the mayor's wife went around
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  Speaker 2: to several people saying, too bad he got there that quick.
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  Speaker 2: She's denied this.
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  Speaker 1: The blood is clearly bad between Eric, the mayor, and
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  Speaker 1: his wife. When I reached out to Mayor Mayfield... He
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  Speaker 1: wrote me that none of the, quote, false information you
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  Speaker 1: have been spoon-fed by Mr. Eric Meyer is true. His wife,
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  Speaker 1: the former economic development director, told me it's crazy that
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  Speaker 1: she would wish death on Eric's dad, that she and
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  Speaker 1: Eric's dad were neighbors for years and got along okay.
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  Speaker 1: Though she did say her relationship with the newspaper was
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  Speaker 1: a constant battle. Plus, she said, I can assure you
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  Speaker 1: my husband has not been in a rowboat any time
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  Speaker 1: since I've known him. The most recent thing Eric says
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  Speaker 1: Mayor Mayfield was mad at him in the paper about
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  Speaker 1: was that they've been covering opposition on the city council
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  Speaker 1: to an ordinance the mayor wanted passed, a local government
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  Speaker 1: thing having to do with bond approvals, that he'd been
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  Speaker 1: trying to squeak through without people noticing. That was the
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  Speaker 1: story du jour when the mayor had shared that Facebook post.
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  Speaker 1: Watchdog journalism, pissing off people in charge, people like the
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  Speaker 1: police chief, the restaurant owner, the mayor, is a tradition
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  Speaker 1: in Eric's family. His dad's mom, his grandma, worked for
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  Speaker 1: the Wichita Eagle and was disappointed she had to take
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  Speaker 1: mandatory retirement at age 65 because she missed out.
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  Speaker 2: On covering the Vietnam War.
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  Speaker 1: Then Eric's dad and his mom, they both worked at
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  Speaker 1: the Marion County Record. The record's 155 years old. Eric's
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  Speaker 1: parents worked at it for decades before buying the paper
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  Speaker 1: in 1998 to stop it from being sold to a conglomerate.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's Eric, their only child.
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  Speaker 2: I had started out there when I was a kid.
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  Speaker 2: you know, stapling and assembling jobs. And then I became
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  Speaker 2: the darkroom technician and took all the pictures and developed
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  Speaker 2: the films and became the engraving technician. I was vacation relief.
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  Speaker 2: Even as a high school kid, my parents would want
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  Speaker 2: to go on vacation and they'd leave me to run
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  Speaker 2: the paper.
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  Speaker 1: So you literally, you have journalism in your blood. Like
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  Speaker 1: this is a family profession. In 2020, Eric decided to
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  Speaker 1: move back home full-time to Marion. By this point, his
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  Speaker 1: father had died and he wanted to give his mom
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  Speaker 1: a hand running the paper. She was 95.
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  Speaker 2: I lived with her. I helped her with stuff. She
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  Speaker 2: was still working for the paper. She had a weekly
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  Speaker 2: column of, you know, the recollections 15 years ago, 30
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  Speaker 2: years ago, 45 years ago, stuff from the paper. How
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  Speaker 2: many people have a microfilm viewer in their living room?
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  Speaker 2: She does. It's sitting right next to me.
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  Speaker 1: For old issues of the record specifically?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. She'd look at the microfilm of the record and
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  Speaker 2: find these things and type up the stories. She'd do
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  Speaker 2: that every Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings us back to the summer of 2023, specifically
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  Speaker 1: the morning of Friday, August 11th, 2023, two weeks after
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  Speaker 1: Marion's mayor posted that Facebook jab at journalists. Eric was
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  Speaker 1: about to experience the biggest backlash against the paper that
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  Speaker 1: he'd ever seen. Despite the years of feuding with power
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  Speaker 1: brokers in town, the retaliation would be so dramatic. It
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  Speaker 1: was just beyond anything Eric could have imagined. And it
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  Speaker 1: was driven by someone who really had it out for
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  Speaker 1: Eric and everything that his family and the Marion County
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  Speaker 1: records stood for. It would become a national incident and
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  Speaker 1: it would change Eric's life forever. From Placement Theory and KCRW,
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  Speaker 1: this is Question Everything. I'm Brian Reed. Stick around. So
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  Speaker 1: it's Friday morning, a little before 11.
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  Speaker 2: I was sitting right where I'm sitting right now at
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  Speaker 2: a computer at my mother's house. My mother would get
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  Speaker 2: meals on wheels each day, and I would usually hang
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  Speaker 2: around up here working remotely. She really actually hadn't even
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  Speaker 2: gotten up yet. And there was a ring at the doorbell,
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  Speaker 2: and I looked up, and I looked out a window here,
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  Speaker 2: and I could see there were a couple of uniformed
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  Speaker 2: officers out there.
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  Speaker 1: There's body cam footage of this from the police.
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  Speaker 2: So I went to the door. Hello? Eric Meyer? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, we're local law enforcement.
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  Speaker 2: And they said we're here to serve a search warrant
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  Speaker 2: on you. Here with a search warrant to take a
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  Speaker 2: look at your digital devices. And we want your cell
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  Speaker 2: phone and your laptop and your desktop and anything you've used.
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  Speaker 1: And if you don't provide them, we're here to take them.
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  Speaker 1: In the video, Eric's standing in the doorway in an
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  Speaker 1: oversized t-shirt and shorts, a bit disheveled, a bit discombobulated.
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  Speaker 1: The cop hands him the warrant. You're more than welcome
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  Speaker 1: to read through that.
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  Speaker 2: It's all in there.
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  Speaker 1: Eric scans the document. It says there's probable cause to
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  Speaker 1: search his and his mom's house because of allegations of
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  Speaker 1: identity theft and unlawful use of computers. It doesn't give
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  Speaker 1: any more details about those supposed crimes. And it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mention the newspaper. But Eric suspects it must have something
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  Speaker 1: to do with their reporting. So thinking quick on his feet,
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  Speaker 1: he goes into journalism professor mode.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to object to this on the grounds
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  Speaker 2: of the Kansas shield law.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you can do that, sir. Eric bolts inside towards
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  Speaker 1: his phone. The cops follow him.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm going to ask that you suspend until I've
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  Speaker 2: been sold an attorney. We're going to need your cell
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  Speaker 2: phone and your laptop and or computers.
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  Speaker 1: Eric taught journalism school. He knows about shield laws, which
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  Speaker 1: are supposed to protect journalists from having to give up
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  Speaker 1: info to law enforcement.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, once.
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  Speaker 1: We're not waiting, so we're not here to be rude.
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  Speaker 2: You should not search a newsroom. You should issue them
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  Speaker 2: a subpoena so that they have an opportunity to defend
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  Speaker 2: before you just go rummaging through their desks. Because, hey,
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  Speaker 2: you could find all sorts of other things that you
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be able to see.
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  Speaker 1: Eric knew that when police want info from a reporter,
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  Speaker 1: what they're supposed to do is subpoena it. Here, whatever
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  Speaker 1: the Marion police were after, they had not done that.
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  Speaker 1: Eric had not gotten a subpoena. And yet, waving around
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  Speaker 1: their search warrant, the officers walk through Eric's house and
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  Speaker 1: start rifling through his things. Shield law be damned. He
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  Speaker 1: tries to keep it cool.
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  Speaker 2: I understand. Which judge ordered it? I was simply, I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to inform you that I think that you're doing
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  Speaker 2: something wrong and make a formal objection to it. But
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  Speaker 2: the judge— You're going to get a suit back against
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  Speaker 2: false search. That's okay. You understand that. And try to
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  Speaker 2: do it in as even-tempered a manner as I can
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  Speaker 2: so that you can't say that I resisted arrest or
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  Speaker 2: resisted whatever.
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  Speaker 1: Though he did get some choice words in there.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I understand you're not the people who are involved
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  Speaker 2: in this. However, you are in big, deep shit right now. Okay, okay.
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  Speaker 1: Eric knows he needs a lawyer, fast. But the police
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  Speaker 1: have already confiscated his cell phone with all his contacts.
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  Speaker 1: So he picks up his mom's landline and dials the
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  Speaker 1: Marion County Records office, where his employees are.
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  Speaker 2: So I tried to call them.
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  Speaker 1: But they're not answering. He starts to worry. Are the
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  Speaker 1: cops over there too?
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  Speaker 2: Don't turn it off, Eric.
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  Speaker 1: He said don't turn it off.
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  Speaker 2: Don't turn it off. or I couldn't get through. Anyone there,
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  Speaker 2: please answer the goddamn phone.
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  Speaker 1: The police won't say what Eric has supposedly done wrong,
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  Speaker 1: but he starts running through theories in his head about
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  Speaker 1: what could be behind this. Of course, the mayor comes
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  Speaker 1: to mind. He clearly was not happy with the paper.
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  Speaker 1: But there was also the police chief. His name was
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  Speaker 1: Gideon Cody, listed prominently at the top of the search warrant.
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  Speaker 1: He was the one who applied for it, And he
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  Speaker 1: was in charge of the officers who were now raiding
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  Speaker 1: Eric's house. Chief Cody was new to town. He'd just
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  Speaker 1: started in the position a few months earlier.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you have to understand, he had been a captain
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  Speaker 2: of police in Kansas City, Missouri, earning almost $ 120, 000 a year.
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  Speaker 2: He was one year away from retirement there. He took
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  Speaker 2: a job in Marion, Kansas at $ 60, 000 to be the
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  Speaker 2: chief of a town of 1,900 people. Something didn't make
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  Speaker 2: sense there.
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  Speaker 1: And when the record had published Gideon Cody's name, reporting
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  Speaker 1: that he'd be Marion's new police chief.
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  Speaker 2: We got inundated with calls from people he had worked
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  Speaker 2: with previously who said that he had a terrible record.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, they called him the worst officer they had
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  Speaker 2: ever served with. Wow. And I'm talking about dozens of
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  Speaker 2: letters that we got that he was about to be
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  Speaker 2: demoted by the Kansas City police. And that he was
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  Speaker 2: coming here because if he stayed there, he was supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be demoted to sergeant from captain. And his retirement
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  Speaker 2: would forever be limited by that. So he needed to
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  Speaker 2: leave before he got demoted.
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  Speaker 1: Eric and his team had been looking into this, of course,
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  Speaker 1: investigating the new police chief's past. But they hadn't published
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  Speaker 1: any of the reporting yet. They were still trying to
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  Speaker 1: get people to go on the record and nail it down.
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  Speaker 1: So is that why the police were coming after them?
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  Speaker 1: Because they were investigating their new chief? Certainly seemed possible.
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  Speaker 1: Nervous about what's happening to his staff over at the
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  Speaker 1: records office, Eric calls a friend.
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  Speaker 2: Can you go to the record and tell them that
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  Speaker 2: I need them to talk to me right now? I
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  Speaker 2: can't get through to them. I have two police here
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  Speaker 2: seizing my computers. I later learned that they'd been escorted
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  Speaker 2: out of the building and told to stand outside in
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  Speaker 2: 100 degree heat.
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  Speaker 1: Your staff? Your staff had been?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And had their phones ripped away from them.
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  Speaker 1: So the cops were over at the newspaper office.
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  Speaker 2: There were at least five of them there.
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  Speaker 1: Five cops at the office. At one point, there were
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  Speaker 1: seven cops at his mom's house. By comparison, Eric points
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  Speaker 1: out that a few months before this, there'd been a
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  Speaker 1: search of a home of a suspected child rapist known
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  Speaker 1: to have a stock of weapons in his house. For that,
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  Speaker 1: they just sent two officers. After handing over his devices,
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  Speaker 1: Eric leaves his and his mother's house, and he races
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  Speaker 1: over to the office. It's also been raided. Computers taken,
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  Speaker 1: boulders torn through, all with a search warrant listing the
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  Speaker 1: same alleged crimes— identity theft, unlawful use of computers, and
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  Speaker 1: the same lack of details about them. Though, there was
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  Speaker 1: one line that gave another hint as to who might
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  Speaker 1: be responsible for this. In the list of items police
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  Speaker 1: were supposed to seize from Eric's house and from the office—
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  Speaker 1: Number four read, quote, documents and records pertaining to Carrie Newell.
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  Speaker 1: Carrie Newell was a local business owner. She ran a
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  Speaker 1: restaurant inside the old Elgin Hotel in the center of
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  Speaker 1: town and a coffee shop across the street. Not long
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  Speaker 1: before this, the record had been leaked some documents pertaining
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  Speaker 1: to Carrie, which they also had not yet reported on.
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  Speaker 1: They'd done some looking into them, but decided they didn't
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  Speaker 1: warrant a story. And on its face, at least, this
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  Speaker 1: seemed likely. like it could be the most likely explanation
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  Speaker 1: for what was happening. Because Eric knew that Carrie knew
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  Speaker 1: that the paper had this info about her. Because she
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  Speaker 1: complained about it at the most recent town council meeting.
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  Speaker 2: It was brought to my attention today that.
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  Speaker 1: My private and personal information that was illegally obtained by
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  Speaker 1: a local reporter... And Eric had stood up to defend
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  Speaker 1: himself and the paper in front of the council.
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  Speaker 2: We did not obtain it. Someone sent it to us.
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  Speaker 2: We actually... Kerry Newell had also just hosted an event
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  Speaker 2: for a congressman at her cafe and refused to let
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  Speaker 2: record reporters attend, which was a whole situation. So these
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  Speaker 2: are the possibilities. Mayor Mayfield....
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  Speaker 1: Police chief Cody, Carrie Newell, that are running through Eric's
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  Speaker 1: mind as he tries to figure out who's behind these raids,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: what they're about. Though he was about to be distracted
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  Speaker 1: by a situation that was escalating with the police back
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  Speaker 1: at his house. We'll hear about that in a second.
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  Speaker 1: Eric's running back and forth between the records office, where
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: his employees are freaking out, and his house, where his
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  Speaker 1: 98-year-old mother is freaking out. Her name's Joanne.
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  Speaker 2: I'm an only child. She moved to this house the
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  Speaker 2: day before I was born. So she'd lived there for
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  Speaker 2: 70 years. I was 70 at the time. She was
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: very upset to have these cops. And they stood there
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  Speaker 2: for two and a half hours. just stood guard over
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: her for two and a half hours. She got very
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: upset about that. I was trying to calm her down.
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  Speaker 1: To be fair, your mom does seem pretty fiery in
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  Speaker 1: the video I've watched.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not dumb.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. I may be 90-some years old, but I
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  Speaker 2: know what's going on.
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  Speaker 1: And what's going on is illegal as hell. Joanne is
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  Speaker 1: in a nightgown, leaning on her walker. You're all going
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  Speaker 1: to get in trouble. Berating the cops as they occupy
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: her living room. At this point, Eric is gone, heading
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  Speaker 1: to the paper's office.
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  Speaker 2: I worked at that newspaper for a good many years.
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  Speaker 1: I've owned the newspaper for a good many years.
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  Speaker 2: The first time.
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  Speaker 1: I've ever seen anybody allowed to do an illegal thing
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  Speaker 1: or ordered to do an illegal thing.
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  Speaker 2: She was very upset about it. She was demanding of
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  Speaker 2: her rights. She was trying to reach me. At one point,
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  Speaker 2: you can hear my cell phone ringing in the evidence
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  Speaker 2: bag sitting on the table.
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  Speaker 1: Joanne glares at the cops, questioning them. Why are they here?
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  Speaker 1: On what authority? The judge ordered it, a cop says.
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  Speaker 1: The judge ordered it.
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  Speaker 2: On what reason?
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  Speaker 1: That's all what, I don't have access to all that.
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  Speaker 1: That was another odd thing about the search warrant. Eric
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  Speaker 1: knew who the normal judge was in the 8th Judicial District,
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  Speaker 1: which included Marianne. But the signature on this warrant, it
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  Speaker 1: didn't look like that normal judge. Eric and Joanne talk
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  Speaker 1: about it as the cops are hunting through their house.
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  Speaker 1: The county attorney, the city officials, they all should have
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  Speaker 1: known it's against the law to allow a raid of
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  Speaker 1: journalists this way. And if not them, a judge absolutely
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  Speaker 1: should have known not to approve this. I want to
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  Speaker 1: know what reason she did it.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have.
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  Speaker 1: This is my house. I own this house.
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  Speaker 2: I understand that.
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  Speaker 1: Ninety-some-year-old lady sitting here asking questions and some stupid judge.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, God.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk anymore. Okay. Had you ever
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: seen your mother with that kind of, like, had you
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: ever seen, your mother's very upset in the video. She's
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: yelling at them, swearing. She's slamming her walker. Had you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: ever seen her like that?
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: No, no. I mean, I've seen her, you know, when
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: her husband died. I've seen her when other serious things happened.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: She's usually very calm. Don't you touch any of that stuff. Ma'am.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: You asshole. We'll be out of here pretty quick.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: She knew that raiding someone who was involved in news
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: gathering was wrong. If in 98 years she hasn't convinced
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: people of this town that she's an honorable person who
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: doesn't do things wrong... Why the heck are they standing
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: in her house? We were respected people.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: We're not respected anymore when they let cops come in
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: my family home when they let people tear up our
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: newspaper home. It's terrible. It's just plain terrible.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I tried to reassure her at some point. I said,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: I think they've grossly overstepped what they can do legally.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: This is going to be on the front page of
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the New York Times.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, you knew that you could tell?
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't know it. I mean, I just knew
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the type of story it was.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You had a sense that something big was happening, like
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: beyond the normal scope of what happens.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: In Marion, Kansas. And I tried to tell her, I said,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: bullies usually get caught when they do the one thing
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: too many. And they've done it. They've gone one step
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: too far. And her answer to me was, yeah, but
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I won't be alive to see it. You guys caused
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: me to have another stroke. That's going to be murder.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: They're going to give me a stroke.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You can't take that.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. Listen.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: What is it? It's the bag that the laptop goes to. Well,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: what else is in it? That's what we're looking for.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, shit. Oh, God.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: You don't know what you're doing.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Damn it. Sons of bitches.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: You come in my house, who has been in this
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: house living lawfully for years, and caused my death.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Finally.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're leaving. The police leave. But that doesn't make
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Joanne feel any better.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: She wouldn't eat that evening. She wouldn't go to bed.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: She sat in her chair. She was still sitting in
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: her chair at 5.30 in the morning. At 6.30 in
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: the morning, she'd gone to bed. Finally, a little afternoon,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I went in and I heard that she'd stirred and
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: gotten up and gone to the bathroom. She came back
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: to her bedroom and I said, you really need to
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: eat something. You haven't had anything to eat since Thursday noon. Uh,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: you need to have something to eat. Should I, you
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: want me to make something for you and I can
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: bring it in here to the room or I can,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: you know, where do you want it to go? And
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: she says, I don't know. I don't feel too. And
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: she died in the middle of that sentence. The coroner
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: listed the stress of this raid as a contributing cause
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: for her death.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: The coroner's report says Joanne died a natural death from
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: sudden cardiac arrest. He describes the anger and the upset
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: she felt from the raid leading up to it.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: The EMTs were in here for an hour running CPR
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: on her and she did not respond. And I just
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: was kind of like sitting in the other room. I mean,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do. I'm not a crier.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I'm somebody who was raised by my mother and my
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: father to, you know, You react to a situation by
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: doing what you can to correct the situation. And so
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I tried to do what I could.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And he figured what he could do is put out
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the next issue of the record.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: I have to arrange for a funeral. I have to
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: put out a newspaper. And by God, I'm going to
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: put out the newspaper. There is no frigging way that
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going to let them seize our equipment and keep
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: us from publishing that week. My mother would have skinned
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: me alive if I had. She was very concerned, as
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I think anyone should be, that, as she would say,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: where are all the good people? why aren't they stopping this?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: The judge should have stopped it. The county attorney should
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: have stopped it. The sheriff should have stopped it. The
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: mayor should have stopped it. There was no reason for it.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: And yet they went ahead and did it.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: The raids were on a Friday. Eric's mom died the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: next day, on Saturday, the day she'd normally write her
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: column with the microfilm in the living room. On Sunday,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Eric went to the records offices and worked three days straight,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: pulling all-nighters, And without any of their computers or electronics,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: only some crappy old desktops, they had collecting dust in
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a junk room. He and his staff got an issue
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to the printers at 5.30 in the morning on Wednesday.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: And what did you publish?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: The top story was the story of the raid with
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: a headline that says, Seized but Not Silenced.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Eric was right when he told his mom that the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: New York Times would cover what the police were doing
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that day in their house. Raid of small Kansas newspaper
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: raises free press concerns was the Times headline. CNN also
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: covered it. The Washington Post. The BBC. NPR. PBS. Fox News.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: National press organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists. It
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: was a big, international story. But there was also a
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: journalist much closer to home, a TV reporter in Kansas City,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: who started looking into the situation. And it was her
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: who would eventually get to the bottom of who prompted
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: this raid and why, and actually help hold someone accountable
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: with criminal charges for what they did to Eric, to
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: his newspaper, and to his mom. But in order to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: do that, She would need to wade into the small-town
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: squabbles and finger-pointing that were overtaking Marion. It was her
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: ex-husband who gave her driving information to her ex-best friend
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: who gave it to the newspaper. To be continued next week.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Please rate and review our show on Apple or Spotify,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to us. We did email Gideon Cody
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: and Carrie Newell to ask if they wanted to comment
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: on the raids. They didn't respond. Today's episode was produced
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: by Emily Malterre with help from Rebecca Lacks. It was
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: edited by Robin Simeon and Jonathan Goldstein. Robin Simeon and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I are the executive producers of Question Everything. Our team
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: also includes producers Sophie Kazis and Zach St. Louis, along
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: with contributing editors Neil Drumming and Jen Kinney. This episode
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: was fact-checked by Annika Robbins and sound designed by Brendan Baker.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Our music is by Matt McGinley. Our KCRW partners include
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Arnie Seipel, Tejal Ajmera, Natalie Hill, and Jennifer Farrow. We'll
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: see you with the rest of this tale next Thursday.