The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

After last Friday's raid on the "Marion County Record," a family-owned newspaper covering a county situated approximately 60 miles north of Wichita, I am worried that freedom of the press - a fundamental principal of democracy - may be eroding in rural America.

Since Sunday, I've scoured every news report covering the raid, which included all five members of Marion's police department and two county deputies. The agencies seized everything: computers, personal phones, bank records, external drives and more. The staff has a newspaper to publish. They go to press on Tuesdays, however, they are starting from scratch. No ad sheets. No access to photos. No way to tap into stories they've already written.

Based on reporting from reliable sources, it's a case of sour grapes. I'll paraphrase: The local newspaper received sensitive documents from a confidential source, which showed a local business leader, who kicked out "Record" reporters from an event a few weeks back, has a driving under the influence conviction on her record and is tootling around town sans license. Said business owner is in the midst of obtaining a liquor license for her catering business. The 2008 DUI could prevent that. When the paper received the documents, they investigated - on a publicly-available website - but did not write a story. That's when editor Eric Meyer notified police about the situation.

During a city council meeting, the business owner vented that the newspaper illegally obtained sensitive documents. Her claim is false, according to the paper, when it printed a story in Thursday's edition, negating the businesswoman's claims.

Friday, around 11 a.m., several officers showed up at the editor's home, which he shares with the paper's co-owner, his 98-year-old mother. At the same time, the other officers showed up at the newspaper. At both places, a search warrant was presented. However, a search warrant violates federal law that offers protection against searching and sezing materials from journalists. The law is clear that a subpoena may be issued for such materials.

On Saturday, the editor's mother, Joan Meyer, died from stress of the raid. About Meyer's death, "Kansas City Star" reporter Melinda Hennenberger wrote, "...the 98-year-old enemy of the people, died in the line of duty on Saturday." God speed, Joan.

Unless I'm missing a vital piece of information, the Record's search and seizure violates first-amendment guarantees. If journalists are not able to serve as watchdogs and lose the ability to maintain privilege with sources, the fundamental function of journalism vanishes.

We citizens cannot allow that to happen.