As we gather to celebrate family, friends and the overwhelming tiredness that follows turkey feasts, let’s give thanks for free expression.
That’s right, let’s thank our lucky stars for the protections of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, here in Kansas and everywhere else in our 50 gorgeous states. Without the right to free speech, Kansas Reflector couldn’t report the news, let alone publish an occasionally spicy opinion section.
Yet this year, let’s be sure to accompany such thanks with a note of caution.
We can only enjoy free speech if we zealously protect it for everyone, not just the folks with whom we agree. I worry that in an increasingly fractured political landscape, those on both the left and right want the other side to simply shut up. If that can’t be managed, other approaches — ones that fall afoul of the First Amendment — look appealing.
In Marion, for example, an outspoken newspaper editor and publisher appears to have run afoul of local power brokers. The subsequent raid on the Marion County Record Newsroom raised national alarms, both for its overreach and unprecedented nature.
On one hand, that alarm should hearten anyone who welcomes public debate.
On the other hand, the raid still happened. Those approaches I mentioned earlier looked mighty tempting to law enforcement officials.
As Maxwell Kautsch, president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government, told me Wednesday: “The massive public outcry against the raid, the withdrawal of the search warrants, and the Marion County Record’s continuing viability would seem to suggest that freedom of expression is alive and well in Kansas. And maybe someday the state-sanctioned search of a community newspaper and the homes of two local families will be viewed as a stark condemnation of authoritarian tendencies in this state.”
However, he points out, the saga has yet to reach its end.
“But as the public awaits an announcement from law enforcement about the results of its investigation, and until additional lawsuits are resolved unequivocally in favor of those whose persons, homes and offices were raided, the chilling effect of the searches is as insidious as it is unmeasurable,” Kautsch said.
Those who care to look and check the temperature around them can feel the chill settling in across the nation. Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has sued liberal advocacy group Media Matters. Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media network, has filed a lawsuit against 20 news outlets including MSNBC, CNBC, Reuters, The Daily Beast, the Miami Herald, The Hill, The New York Daily News, the Daily Mail, Axios and more.
You can read more on the specifics of each case in the links above. Lawsuits against news media outlets face high barriers in the United States, thanks to both the Constitution and sturdy Supreme Court precedent. Yet court battles take time, cost money and generate stress. They deter speech on important issues of the day.
Thankfully, few folks from the general public appear to be on the side of irritable government officials or politically minded plutocrats.
Eric Meyer, editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, said on the Kansas Reflector podcast that “we have received tens of thousands of messages nationwide, from people all across the political spectrum, telling us that they support the idea of a fourth estate of journalism, holding people accountable, of asking questions, of not being clamped down by government. The fact that it’s come from right wing, from left wing, it’s come from everybody.”
Let’s give thanks for that spirit today. Let’s pray that it endures through an upcoming hard-fought election season. And while we may disagree on much as a state and nation, let’s agree to give each other the space to have our say.
All of us want to be heard.
“I was looking through notes and I saw one and it says, ‘Oh, those people who did this to you, they must all be Democrats,’” Meyer said. “And literally the next note I went to, ‘All those people who did that to you, they must all be Republicans.’”
No matter our party, no matter our location, no matter our age or race or gender or creed, we share this country with one another. Let’s give thanks for that, too.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Excerpts or more from this article, originally published on Kansas Reflector appear in this post. Republished, with permission, under a Creative Commons License.
