A newspaper in Marion, Kansas, becomes the microcosm mirroring the nation-wide fight between democracy, the free press, and repression. Presented by Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.
Director: Sharon Liese
Runtime: 92
Fest Year: 2026
Marion, Kansas: small town USA, home to the weekly newspaper, the Marion County Record, in print since the 1800s. “SEIZED… but not Silenced,” shouted the headline in summer 2023, just days after local law enforcement raided the newspaper office and the homes of the city’s vice mayor, the editor/publisher Eric Meyer, and his 98-year-old mother, Joan, a co-owner of the paper who died the next day. The attack on local news became national news. Footage from police body cams and security cameras provides unique access to the raids and their aftermath. Interviews with Meyer, townspeople, and government officials tell a complex story as director Sharon Liese examines how a “tiny and old-fashioned” hand-folded newspaper is a microcosm of threats against a free press in the U.S. (LK)