The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The End of Newsrooms

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

So...how about all these weather events, huh? WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! Then, Lucy is fired up about Week 0 and we discuss how Herm Edwards got away with a lot at Arizona State. Plus, it's time for Stugotz's Weekend Observations. Also, Eric Meyer is the editor and owner of The Marion County Record. His computer was seized in a raid, by the very police department that his paper was reporting on. He's here to tell his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabel Tarshall with the Stugat's Podcast. You've heard me say before Stugat, there are certain sentences or headlines that will get me to continue reading. I saw one last week, just a sentence that read a person has died at the $2 million home of Titans Cornerback Caleb Farley after his house exploded, just a sentence that is going to get me to continue reading. This one oddly enough, apocalyptic as it is, biblical as it is, doesn't keep me reading.

Until now, Ron DeSantis has not felt the need to come back to Florida to publicly address a handful of other emergencies. His administration has faced this summer, including outbreaks of leprosy in malaria, a deadly spree of flesh-eating bacteria, record-breaking temperatures off Florida's shore that have threatened delicate coastal ecosystems, and a teetering property insurance market.

There's lots of those that he can't really fix, though, right? Like, what is he going to do about the temperature? It doesn't even mention that Hurricane is coming at present to Florida. The state of the climate, Stugat, is so insane. So obviously, biblically apocalyptic. You've got Canadian fires, half of Canada's on fire. You've got California, which you just said, it's first hurricane and an earthquake at the same time,

is somehow in a state of emergency. I didn't even know this was possible. A state of emergency for both drought and flood. How? Both drought and flood because the water can't be collected. It comes down so quickly and so much. You've got both going on at the same time. You've got Washington State had the worst air pollution,

breathable air climate in the world. And you've got hot tub temperatures in our oceans that are a ticking time bomb for these tropical storms that are gonna speed up. And I think that we're gonna start having weather events that don't look like any weather events that we've seen before, that we have to start thinking about all of this stuff different

You need a different name for that because that sounds fun weather event. Let's go to a weather event Right play the half something you pay for play the happy music We're all gonna die The girl seems to be falling And we're all wondering why We're all gonna turn on the nears And find out who we're gonna die The rain no sense is stalling We're all gonna reason not to cry We're all gonna turn on the nears And find out, we're gonna reason not to cry We're gonna turn on the hues and find out

that we're gonna die Die We're gonna start doing horrifying climate stats of the day The Heat Index last week in Lawrence, Kansas was 134 degrees Yeah, but the billy's question, what do you want to Santa's to do about it? There's certain problems I wouldn't turn to him to solve. Let's just say.

I stopped reading the sentence. I stopped reading after that. I was saying, yeah, I know all of these things. I know everything that's happening here in Florida, I'm aware of it. I wouldn't keep reading after that. Thank you, Chris. I do appreciate that.

We're gonna have a celebrity start doing this for. I have some good news amongst all that bad news. Football is starting, Dan. Yeah. Get ready for week one where CBS has the sideline reporter telling us how hot it is on the field in Miami. Just a bold prediction. We're gonna have a lot of thermometers the first couple weeks of the year. The dolphins have fans going on their sidelines. Thank you. Lucy, college football is your area of expertise. One of them week zero felt like a fart. I'm just going to say it shut up. I mean the Notre Dame blowout game. I was watching Mercer and what was it? Which Alabama something? Someone didn't watch who I Vanderbilt.

South Alabama versus Mercer. It was awesome. It was great. I don't know what you're talking about. It was so awesome. There was a zero yard putt this week at zero yards. There was a quarterback who threw the ball with his face mask behind his head.

Navy. That was awesome. That was Sam Hartman showed up with the necklace made out of his own ribs. Explain more. That was so sick. We're so back. Back for his 17 season as a college football quarterback. Just mine as one rib.

Is that Martinez kids still playing college football and cans is somewhere? Pros I think. If you tell me black man is still in college, I'm going to punch somebody. You should go to New York because they have a giant billboard of handsome bow for Heisman. If you Martinez is on the lions, yes, with Dan Campbell, I was joking. Bo Nix is still playing. The Heisman season. Oh my God. You weren't there. You weren't listening to the show last week.

Lucy, I wanted to talk to you about something. I thought it would be funny if in his last few years at ESPN, if, uh, still gots, if you can turn down your computer while we're doing the show, yeah, appreciate it. I didn't turn it up. I don't know who did that. It was here last week. Uh, if you can help Lewis, not just you know how to do. Were you not here last week. If you can help Lewis. Does he know how to do it?

Were you not here this week? Did you take my brother's passing to take more vacation? Is that what you did? Oh, I needed time to process. Yeah, it hit me hard. I mean, here's a buffalo. Remember listening to the walls. Yep.

Where I was giving you the scuttle butt. Did you just learn that he wasn't here last week? It's been an adventure. Jess is in Ireland. Where's Tony? He's in Europe for three weeks. More time than I spent on a head of kid. Turned in Ireland. Where's Tony still? He's in Europe for three weeks. More time than I smell when I had a kid. I turned it down.

You turned what down? The computer. Jeremy got married while you're gone also. Really? A lot's gone on. Congratulations, Jeremy. Tony took my honeymoon apparently. I thought that the last few years at ESPN,

that her med words every time he was talking on the screen that they should have put in the graphic under him two and 22 in his last 24 games as an NFL head coach. He parlayed being good at television to getting an Arizona State shop that he turned into a total mountain of shit. And nobody seems to care at all. What happened at Arizona State with her mad words? Lucy, tell the people what happened that. I care quite a bit. So yesterday Arizona State announced

that they will be self-imposing a postseason ban this year, which is wild because the NCAA doesn't make you do that anymore. They're not handing out postseason bands because when Herm Edwards was at Arizona State, he said, you know what, I'm not going to learn a single rule. That is not my prerogative. And he absolutely sent that home. Arizona State has so many recruiting violations coming their way.

It's alleged to be worse than what we saw at Tennessee when they were handing out like McDonald's bags full of money. And so Arizona State's football program is pretty much buried right now. They're gonna lose a ton of scholarships. They already have this weird postseason ban. And when Herm Edwards got fired after losing at home to Eastern Michigan, he basically got a job back at ESPN like the next day

and has yet to address anything that's happened. No one has asked him a single question about what has happened. So brutal for those seniors to learn yesterday, to learn yesterday, hey, we're not going to be playing for a bowl at all. Five days before their season starts, they learn they have no shot at a bowl. I mean, were they going to make a bowl? We're doing a bowl. We're doing a bowl. We gave my self a bowl band too.

I mean, doesn't really mean anything if I'm not going. I I'm not going. But I thought they made a really good hire with Kenny Dillingham. They they had a better shot. They have a really talented quarterback. It was not out of the question and it's wild because they didn't need to do it.

Like the NCAA was not going to punish all these players on the roster who weren't even there when her med words was. What an exceptional grift though. To work in such a shadowy nobody cares

about Arizona State football purgatory that you get to just have huge scandal losses failure and you go right back to the job that you had before and don't take any questions. You go to work for a media company that doesn't ask you any questions about the scandal that was left in your way. How many people watching ESPN when Horm showed up to the first day were like, Oh, it's been a while since I've seen Horm. Where was he the last few years? Just not even knowing he had coached in college for a few years. Oh, look, it's Horm. I don't even think that it was long enough that people noticed that he was gone. I think I was, yeah, I'm sort of the show must be out this week.

Vacation. While I was gone, I saw, I saw precious little and by the way, I need to thank Izegudie Er as Dominique Foxworth and an assortment of other friends during a time of terrible, terrible need who have come and made me feel very much loved in a lot of different ways. I remain heartbroken. I've apologized to you before and will continue to apologize for what the last year has done to me on this show because it has just been very hard to do and I am not yet right and probably will not be for a while. Stugots, because this kind of grief is exceptionally new to me and it's not merely that I wake up every day feeling very sick when I am not sick.

It's also that the grief has a physical weight to it. It feels like that exists in my stomach that reminds me even when I'm laughing, even when I'm laughing, that I am in a bit of pain, but I did see something while I was away that I thought is the coolest baseball play I've ever seen. Really? The coolest of any kind I've ever seen. The best celebration I've ever seen in baseball

was Prince Fielder hitting a home run, landing on home plate and jiggling as he walked off, and all of his teammates that surrounded him fell over like bowling pins. It was like 20, you know, 24 guys fell on the field, but the Mariners two guys, Julio Rodriguez, who was just so much fun to watch. It's got to be one of the greatest feelings in sports to jump over the fence and steal a home run, but he did it. And no one in the park knew that he had done it, and he took 20 steps with the ball, non-shelant, as if he had not caught the baseball.

And so nobody in the ballpark, and the mariners are exciting and fun for a lot of reasons. No one in the ballpark knew that he had the baseball because he didn't react the way that someone would react when they steal a home run from you, which is excitement. All he did was walk very casually with the baseball, 20 steps, and then just shows the baseball to his pitcher from the outfield. Classic J-Rod.

Was the guy still running around the bases thinking he had hit Homer? I didn't see anybody but him because the camera was trained on him. I don't know what you consider the coolest baseball play that you have ever seen, but I didn't have a nominee better than that one. My only nominee would be the ball bouncing off of Jose Kinsek goes head for home. I go jeeter hard number count. Don LeBotard, Kenzie Janssen. I gotta be careful here. Well, not just either Let me start again two gods. He's the closer comes in ninth inning Closes the game app. His name is Kenley Jansen

He has blamed his region This is the down lebertar show with his two gods this time for the Stugats to share his game notes, no one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy's stew. Weekend observations brought to you by Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories available for delivery. DINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Dan! I turned on my TV this past Saturday and saw something I had it seen in a while. I proceeded to watch it and gamble on it and was one in three headed into the Hawaii game. Whatever I was down I put it on the rainbows. And Dan, just like that, make no mistake about it. College football is back. Hell yeah! Billy, why are you shaking your head?

No, they did cover. I thought that you usually bet Hawaii only when they were at home in the chasing game. Well, because last week he's talked to Billy Walters, who had a book that came out about Phil and his gambling addiction and all the problems and Billy told us about the time He spent in jail and all this stuff and he specifically told us to got to snow-weight a gamble if you're gambling Hawaii when you're down Betting everything just to make it back like that's how you have a gambling problem and you'll always lose Don't listen to him. I made it back. I felt a lot I made it back. I felt a lot. I think that's it. I love that bet. Wow, always take a while. Put it on the pole. Never been against it. Why does Vanderbilt exist in football?

Oh, they're back. The Commodores. Hell yeah. They want to see Game Slush here. They did. Speaking of back, hey Dan, Taylor Heinecke is a Falcon, the Green Lizard, Cory Davis, odd time to retire. Hey really, he's got a quarterback finally. Thank you. Looks that's it all. Notre Dame, you want to impress me? Beat Navy in a fight. Jesus, this soccer never stops. There's always more soccer. There is. When does it end?

Doesn't. According to all of them, there are no actual seasons or games that mean anything in any particular time. So it's just a year-round thing. All right. Actual seasons or games that mean anything in any particular time, so it's just a year-round thing. Alright. Has anyone else submitted a talent fee for Libos celebration of life? Hahahaha. C-O-L.

I have not. Yeah. Could you? What's wrong? What happened then? Hahahaha. Chris, I told you to take that out. So no.

It doesn't appear. It appears that you're the only one. Headline. Sam Darnold wins QB2 battle. Lance and Limbo. Dan, you know what the L and Tray Lance stands for I do not really loser. I mean it just said limbo I mean okay Good guess, but no it stands for bust

Thought you would follow along there, okay, I'm sorry, it's right you're rusty By the way, I love a good QB2 battle. Noah Eagle replacing Jack Collins' worth on the broadcast. You know what the end in Navy and Notre Dame stands for, Dan? I do not. Nepotism. Also, why doesn't anyone criticize Kyle Shanahan for the Lance Pick?

Donald Trump, master class on being evil. Brock Purdy. That's why he doesn't get criticized. He made up for it with Brock Purdy. He did. I think that they can play with whoever their quarterback is and that one can't play. And I think somehow we are allowing Shanahan the gift of

an obvious failure and bust. One of the most calamitous decisions ever made you can overcome it because you find quarterbacks in the seventh round because anybody can play quarterback for you except for trade-lights. Deservesome criticism. Hey Lionel Messi pick up someone your own size. Josh Jacobs announced he's back had no idea he was gone. Welcome back. Spain. Odd way to celebrate winning the World Cup. The Rare World Cup celebration that includes

a sloppy kiss, back stabbing, and everyone getting fired. This is crazy. It really is. It's one of the craziest stories ever. And now the mom of the Spanish soccer boss has locked herself into church. She's got a hunger strike. I'm serious. Read up on it. I don't think you have the facts there. There's no way those are the real details, right? Check it. I'll check. Real details. Real, what? Deets. You know, I had Lewis in my headset at the same time as that was coming out, and you know, anyway. Matt Carral.

Good, good. You were right about the church. No, why? Exactly. According to CBS News, I passed them. Yep, she's locked into church. I'll take the L on that one. Lamyco-Parrion, Kansas City Chief.

Also, keep an eye on him. After playing there for 12 seasons, I'll never be able to look at Sam Hartman and not see him in a wake forest, Jersey. The Deeks, Kenyan Drake, Colts, so is Bershard Perryman. You thought that guy was gonna be great, right? Didn't Drake just get cut? By the Colts, so is Bershard, Perryman. You thought that guy was gonna be great, right? I mean, it didn't drink just get cut by the Colts.

Didn't he just get cut? I don't know. Yesterday he was on the Colts. Are you sure that Canyon Drake is a Colts? He was the least. Really? That's too bad. 23 hours ago.

Huh. Bad game. You told me to take that one out too, my bad. Yeah, dude. Sounds like the cults took him out. I can't say cut him. I got it. James and Crowder.

New York Giant. I think. And then your confidence is shaking. Sam Hartman. KG Vets. Damien Williams. Raider shake Sam Hartman, KG Vets, Damien Williams, Raider, Sam Hartman, aging like a fine wine. You know you played college football for a long time when the announcer says there isn't anything Sam Hartman has it seen.

In college football, they're just in life like you've seen everything he is, he's reached the end of the internet. Yes. It's ridiculous. He's been in college longer than I think Justin Herbert's been in the NFL. Think about that. He's older than Tyler Hira. What? Tip of the cap to Bob Barker. Top five game show host of all time.

Number five, Bob Barker. Number four, Mike Greenberg. Hold on a second, you gotta wait for the... I'm gonna read him. Greenberg. Greeny? Yeah. Number three, Scott Rogowski. I

Saw a sad documentary about it. I saw that too. I saw that too. I saw that CNN I felt bad for him. He's just running like a memorabilia He had a run though. He's got a vintage clothing store out in California somewhere And you looked at him and he like dressed up for the interview. Like, oh my god. Like he's in his suit. Like, look at his guys all cleaned up like HQ. And then they show him kind of disheveled and his vintage clothing. Called quiz daddies, I believe.

It made me sad that duck. Sure story as well. Number two, Richard Dawson. Number one, the great, haui shwab. Here comes the brew crew. I thought John Isner would play forever. You see that? Yep.

Tired. Sam. Thought he would serve forever. Wait, could he wanted to? He should be like a relief pitcher. He's like for us, Gombu, just stop running one day. He could serve like that for the rest of time. You bring him in for a tie breaker.

No one can hit that serve. No. Anthony Richards. What? Anthony Richards said, you know Chris, here I'm debating whether to read the Spanish soccer line because you didn't proofread these and I don't know if I should read it. So that's what's happening there.

Okay. Anthony Richards said, is a man. Cody Pickett. Billy, what are you looking at here? I thought the line was actually in Spanish and he was hoping that Chris would correct it for him. Which I was confused by. Well, you wrote something in Spanish that you expected. I wrote something about the Spanish soccer boss relating him to Richard Dawson and I wasn't certain if I should read it Chris what happened to the music there and more to the point what happened in the last segment where you just petered out Shouted Derek Geter and didn't tell us anything else to end up against the clocks I was saying the coolest thing Geter ever did was the the flip play But what you said was Geter because we were up against it

I looked up mid mid because I thought I had time looked up saw one second left so I just said hard number out yeah not my best moment let's keep it moving I'm glad we brought it back here though

I don't even agree that Jeter into the stands play now that was look at me he could stop that was way cooler than the toss no the toss was so cool he's not even there that's not even his backup.

Which is what a play. Dan, well, you were a god and the Yankees fans want maddeningly and jeeter to run things. That's the best time. You love that. Sam Howell, like what I say, I liked what I've seen since North Carolina. He's good, man. George Pickens. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Everyone is saying that about him.

Uh-huh. If I'm Ryan Tanahill, I'd be nervous. Chargers quarterback, Eastern Stick, should be playing baseball. Right? That's a perfect baseball name. You're so right. They put him in the wrong place.

I know. That's such a shame. Eastern stick. They really sure changed that kid getting to the NFL. Yeah, it's redundant even, right? Because Eastern, it's not just stock. It's not just stick, right? Eastern is a baseball bat maker, correct?

Yes. That's why I said it. It's perfect. I mean, it could have just been stick. You get it. You do. It could have just been stick. You get it. You do. It could have just been stick. Stick Michaels.

Not useful. Not a useful reference. Referencing a Yankee general manager. You open up the stick door. From the 19th. If you Google stick Michaels, nothing comes up. It's just craft sticks at Michaels. That's how old he is. How old you are. It's just craft sticks at Michaels. That's how old he is.

How old you are. I think he's dead. No way. I don't even have a wedding ticket. We've got a risk of a $50 fine. What's his actual name? I can't find him. Gene Michael stick.

Gene Michael. Yeah. What's he? It's a $50 possible fine here if he's not dead. This is big He died September 7th 2017 Still gots Jean Michael died. God, but not forgotten Headline Arizona State self-imposes bull band for 2023 season

It's too bad. We won't be seeing the Sun Devils play in the roof claim.com Boca Raton Bowl. I thought both your Boca Raton joke earlier and your Schwab joke earlier were a little too quick for you and it turns out you've already written them. Sit not him. Yeah. Damn, we are just three days away from everyone not caring about soccer anymore. Amazingly, the guy who won the Republican debate was the guy who wasn't there because the next morning he had to turn himself into prison. We're all going to hell. Speaking of hell, our prials.

Dan, those are the weekend observations. Don Lebacard. Mike Morty, shot in Heimerpast. Still got. I don't know how to say that. You're very excited. I was wrong. I was wrong.

I was not excited. I was not excited. I was not excited. I was not excited. What? I was merely pointing out that a Browns legend has to hold on. That was unbelievable. That was unbelievable.

Marty shot in Heimer. I've done. Hold on. And maybe the greatest coach that ever went a Super Bowl. Okay, wait a minute. Let's just everybody, let's settle down. Shut it. Shut it.

Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it.

Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it. Shut. Shut it. Shut it. Shut it Ronan Farrow, who was often a guest around here, has done a documentary for HBO. You can see it on Macs about the dying of local newspapers every single week in America. On average, two local newspapers die. More than 2,500 of them have closed since 2005.

By 2025, the U.S. is on track to have lost lost one third of its newspapers, a third in the 20 years since Facebook became Facebook. I don't need to tell you that Wall Street has chewed up journalism and their real dangers involved to democracy when things like this and checks and balances are destroyed. Eric Meyer is joining us now and he's the editor in chief. He's joining us from the editor in chief's office at the record in Marion, Kansas. And I don't know if you saw this, do you guys? But the police department that his paper was reporting on basically did stuff that you don't expect to happen in a democracy where they rated his office. and I think took the computers joining

us on now. Eric, thank you for joining us. I saw a piece in the Washington post here about some of these details. What walked me through the day of, I guess it was August 11th. Can you explain to us what happened? Explain. I still am having trouble explaining it. I can tell you what happened. A simultaneous rage, something you'd expect for the Medellin drug cartel involving every police officer in the eastern half of Marion County. They even brought some extras in that day, descended upon our newsroom, my and my 98-year-old mother's home, and the home of the vice mayor of Marion.

And we stood around waiting, they threw the people out of the newspaper office while they searched it. They let my mother stay in her house, but I don't know exactly what they did with the vice mayor, but they searched it for evidence of documents that we had obtained from a source that we'd actually told them we had obtained it from the source. We told them where it was.

So did the vice mayor, the vice mayor even sent him a copy of it. There was in fact a physical copy of it sitting right here on my desk next to the computer I that was seized, they didn't take it. So we've never been quite sure why they decided that they needed to rate our office. The document that was given to us by a source came off of a public website that the people operating it to the state of Kansas say anyone's free to access. there's no limitations on it. But we spent three hours or so being searched and and having our computers seized. We're still trying to get back data. They they cloned one of our hard drives and part of our network, 17 gigabytes of data that they still have custody of that we're trying to get back from them. As an in addition to a whole bunch of photographs they took, among other things, my mother said,

they photographed my bank statement, uh, which I don't quite know why. Millie, what are you laughing about back there? Well, they just, in the raid, they seem to have maybe injured the balloon behind you that's kind of just deflating slowly. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Was it happy birth? Like a week ago. Yeah. It was. It was on Wednesday of last week It looks like that. It looks like the sad birthday balloon from last year. It's the sad birthday balloon exactly Should you put on the pole please at Levitage show is Five days too long to have a birthday balloon still in your office at

to have a birthday balloon still in your office at last. Yes, it is. He's been through a lot, Dan. I mean, come on. We did, yeah. What do you attribute to, can you take us through some of the backstory on how it is that this happened? Like, obviously, you weren't expecting this, but what were they trying to accomplish? Well, that's a good question.

We'd offered to help them, and in fact, they knew where we'd gotten the document from. The vice mayor got it from the same place we did and she told them. So we don't know why they're searching us. They never searched the person who, in fact, no one even from law enforcement even spoke to that person until last Thursday. And that was the Kansas Bureau of Investigation coming in to try to figure out what the heck was going on here. They didn't talk to us, as I said, we sent them a note saying we've got this document.

We don't plan to use it because it was really a squabble in a divorce case that had some relevance because the person involved hadn't had a driver's license legally for 14 years and was asking for a liquor license, which is why the vice mayor got involved. She was questioning whether it ought to be investigated. The city administrator, a week before the raid sent out an email to the mayor saying,

we've decided we're not gonna, this police department's not gonna do anything about this. The mayor and the police chief met and then suddenly we and the vice-mayors were raided. It's interesting that you know, the mayor and the police chief, neither one, I'm like us very much. The police chief does and like us because we've been doing some research on him and his past critics of his performance in the past, he left a $110,000 a year job to go to a $60,000 a year job here. And the reason was, and he finally admitted this, that he was being demoted for making sexually inappropriate actions toward a subordinate. He had denied that earlier,

and we had not run our story, but we had all the research from it's on one of the computers that got seized. And the mayor has made no question about the fact that he doesn't like us, nor does he like the vice mayor. So it's kind of interesting. You don't raid the place that provoked got the information. You raid a place that received it from that person, the two places, and you already knew it because we disclosed it to him already. And at said, if you we don't see any follow up here, but if you want follow up, you know, let us know and we'll talk to you and they didn't talk to us. Eric, this is a small town.

It's under 2000 people. How many police officers came in and did you know all of them? There were seven altogether. The entirety of the Marion police force, except for one officer who quit that week and went to work for a different town. And they even brought in a part time officer in addition for the entirety of the Marion police force,

plus three sheriff's deputies. And at that time of day, that's usually the number that are on duty for the whole county. And you know most of these people do you not because it's small? Well, one of the people is next door neighbor. And he was down at the record office. He later went up, I think, to my mother's house. I ended up getting down to the record. I was with her when they first came in. She was tried to rationally talk to the two of them that were there for an hour and a half, just waiting. And then when five more came in and sort of took over her house, She became a little frustrated with them and and spoke up about it. She got very upset with them and very upset just in general. She wouldn't

eat. She wouldn't sleep. She wouldn't do anything. And she died the next day. And sort of a broken heart syndrome that she'd spent, she's still worked for the paper. She worked every week, one day a week, assembling the column of 15 years ago, 30 years ago, 45 years ago, people did these things popular in small towns. She hadn't been able to actually write it for the past year because it's vision problems, but she'd work with me and I'd read it to her and she'd decide what we're going to put in the column. But prior to that, till she was 97, she did everything herself. And she's a very strong-willed woman and nobody even dared edit her copy.

I mean, it was, she was very careful about it. So, but she got very frustrated. It was, and then they took all our computers away. So took her computer, took her router, took my laptop, took my cell phone, took my computer at work, took our server, took our backup disks, took two of our reporters' computers, took their cell phones, injured one of the reporters grabbing the cell phone from her hand, and then took the vice mayor's computer and cell phone as well. Eric, I am so sorry about your mother. You believe that this ended her life.

You believe that the odds of this affected her? It certainly contributed to it, and I will say that the coroner who had previously been her family physician for several years even noted this in the coroner's death report. Do you have any precedent that you can think of for something like this in this country that you've heard of? Well, there was a case way back in the 1980s at the Stanford Daily. And as a result of that case, the federal law was changed to say that, by and large, you don't issue search warrants for news organizations.

You subpoena them, give them a chance to have a hearing, and then they can argue one way or the other whether their material should be released. But other than that, no, the idea of a raid. In fact, when I was talking to our lawyer right afterward, he says, what kind of a libel insurance do you have? And I said, well, I gave him the company. And he says, good, because there's a provision in there for newsroom seizures. And I said, there he is. It happened so rarely that we'd never even noticed that there was a provision in the contract. I was talking to the insurance people the other day. And they said, this is the first time they've ever had to follow through on this claim. It's unprecedented for them. So it is a largely unprecedented thing in the United States.

I taught for 26 years at the University of Illinois taught journalism before I retired to this. This is my retirement hobby, I guess. But I had a student from Egypt who, you know, this kind of stuff happened in Egypt all the time. This was a way of intimidating news organizations. And back to two of us did a paper for a scholarly conference on what it did to journalism as a result of that making journalism very timid and afraid to report almost anything is a straight-out fact. They just, you know, little hints of, instead of there's an explosion in town, people heard a loud sound. You know, like two hours later, fire trucks were seen driving toward the loud sound. like two hours later, fire trucks were seen driving toward the loud sound. incremental reporting was the way they'd get around. And I could see that that

chilling effect happening in the United States. And as Dan mentioned early on, Wall Street has killed journalism and foreign newspapers in the United States. I've often choked that my little newspaper here in Marion, Kansas will be one of the 10 largest media companies in the United States, not because we're going to expand, but there won't be nine others before long. It will just be all some chain that has sold their real estate, got rid of their reporters, fills the paper with junk, uh, and as a result, the public doesn't know anything about what's going on. Uh, and it kind of becomes a, a scene from Pleasantville. Everybody goes into black and white and everything's just pleasant. Eric, thank you for being

on with us. I'm sorry we badgered you about what should have been a celebratory balloon. Uh, I apologize on behalf of our show. Don't worry about it. I was, I just had the, the incoming mayor was in here and it was batting him in the face. And I thought, well, maybe we'll let it hang around for that purpose. Happy birthday. Well, in fact, we can watch you take it down now and just ceremonially we can be done with it. There we go. Let it go, man. We stab it with a with a, with a, yeah,

a, let's see, let's see how we do this here. And this right now, I don't know. He's a big. Oh, one. It's like in the helium, maybe. Yeah, it's like in the helium. I hear your voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Funny high voice. He's got a great voice. He's got a great broad guy. It'd be funny really high pitch. He's got a great he's going. He's trying to help us here. Can I see him? We're gonna see we've got to ride this joke out to see. Wow, that's quite the Yes! Hello! Oh my God, I love you! More! Thank you, Dan!