An ugly strain of anti-press hatred is stalking the nation.
The latest victim of this poisonous, anti-democratic virus is a small-town newspaper in Kansas.
On Friday, local police, acting like the Gestapo, raided the office of the Marion County Record, as well as the home of its owner and publisher. They used a trumped-up search warrant approved by a compliant local judge to seize newsgathering equipment, including the computers and cellphones of reporters. The raid was so traumatic that the publisher’s 98-year-old mother, who was the newspaper’s co-owner, died on Saturday as a result.
The police were trying to suppress the truth that the newspaper had uncovered about a local restaurant owner who hosted an event for the region’s far-right member of Congress, Rep. Jake LaTurner.
The Marion County Record was doing basic accountability reporting, the lifeblood of small-town journalism.
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Jim Risen, a best-selling author and former New York Times reporter, is The Intercept’s Senior National Security Correspondent, based in Washington, D.C.
Risen also serves as director of First Look Media’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, which is dedicated to supporting news organizations, journalists, and whistleblowers in legal fights in which a substantial public interest, freedom of the press, or related human or civil right is at stake.
