The Voice of Themselves

Quite a few years ago, living in a small town, with a population of slightly over 1000 with a rural area of perhaps 500 citizens, a state politician’s staffer bought the local newspaper which was slowly beginning to capsize. With the new owner, it continued to cover stories on the local council’s itinerary, the regular, births, deaths, criminal activities which were rare, and social entries by a few locals that always ended with, “A good time was had by all”. A number of the editorials written by the owner were purportedly written by his pet ‘slug’ – yes, the small snail-like creature - and elsewhere the paper was filled with other comedic content. The newspaper always bolstered the town – it seemed the owner’s duty. After a few years, he eventually sold the paper – perhaps his slug met his final slimy demise.

The legacy media normally neglects the small-town USA. Many in the ostentatious sections of the larger city, and the legacy media seem to think of smaller towns and rural areas as simply flyover states, by-pass regions, or as Katie Couric so arrogantly proclaimed, the lands of the “unwashed masses”.

Some in the media may neglect these small towns and agricultural villages because the crime rates are low, the pace is often more sluggish and the majority of its citizens just want to maintain a life of self-reliance, self-sustainment, and self-support. For many, there are no grandiose ideas or future perceptions of fame, wealth, and celebratory recognition.

However, when it comes to protecting their own, the legacy media will send in the big guns, the editorial Howitzers, trucks with extensive communications abilities and then pen a 3600+ word essay on how the government infringed on their component of the First Amendment of the constitution namely “freedom of the press”. While they constantly challenge, battle, and censor the preceding right, “freedom of speech”, protecting themselves is a most worthy, yet selfish, task.

I bring your attention to a Washington Post article, “How a small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism”, which involves the local newspaper the Marion County Record, and its writers, the Marion County Police Chief Gideon Cody, and local Restaurateur Kari Newell. 

Unlike the small town I lived in, “The Marion County Record” does not seem to ingratiate itself to its local population of 1900 saying, “We don’t want to make everything negative about the city of Marion. It would be nice if the city of Marion did something positive for once. We would love to write about the city doing something nice.”

In summation, the Washington Post article details, how the police headed by Chief Gideon Cody raided the newspaper and the home of the editor after a complaint by the Restaurateur Kari Newell that her rights had been violated by the newspaper in the discovery of a drunk driving violation she received quite a few years ago. At the time Newell was endeavoring to acquire a liquor license for her restaurant. As necessitated by law, a magistrate judge approved the search. In the end, it was uncovered that the newspaper had performed the search on Newell.

Chief Cody said, and I say rightfully. “There’s no way someone can conduct a search warrant on their own without going through our series of checks and balances. If they were any other Joe Citizen, no one would think twice, but because they’re journalists, I am being attacked everywhere.” In the meantime the Washington Post states, the judge, “whose decision to approve the search warrant has been criticized by press advocates, has declined to comment.

The story is loaded with prejudicial styling in favor of the press. Yet, this is the same press, that censors ideological viewpoints and free speech, especially anything against leftism, anything against the progressively woke, the current administration, and in my case the deception of climate change.

The charges of government intrusion with X (previously called Twitter) as brought forth in congressional testimony by journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger proved absolutely nefarious collusion with the government, as did Mark Zuckerberg’s admission of weekly censorship meetings with the FBI and other government officials and deep state personnel - not to mention $450 million in political contributions to one party. When one reads honest and trustworthy news, as well as scientifically empirical evidence, then one knows the immense censorship activities within the leftist legacy media.

But step on them, even if it’s earned and deserved, the heavy-handed hammer of the press comes knocking. They have long since quit being the voice of the people, but are now the voice of themselves.