When Eric Meyer answered the door to the home he shared with his mother on August 11, 2023, he couldn’t have expected what was waiting on the other side.

The editor and proprietor of a small Kansas newspaper was being raided by police, who were looking for evidence of supposed illegal data access by one of his reporters.

Not used to seeing the police intervene so overtly and unabashedly in the workings of the press, Americans sent letters of support to the newspaper in their tens of thousands.

In this episode, Eric tells host Chris Stokel-Walker how he believes the raid was politically motivated; this small town scuffle potentially being an augur for the future of press freedom in a world where opinion is increasingly replacing fact-based news.

Producers: Christopher Hooton and Nicola Kelly

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