Sunday blog: Stupidity is something every Kansas small town should avoid
Photo courtesy of Associated Press.
Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — I am stunned over the goings-on in Marion involving a weekly newspaper and an overzealous police force.
Not because of the incident itself; nothing surprises me anymore. I’m stunned that it didn’t happen to me. It’s the kind of crap I seem to get myself into.
Kudos to journalism, that dirty word a lot of you hate but can’t live without if you want to preserve this thing called a democracy (or republic for those acting wise).
This was a good week for newspapers everywhere. Because despite a rather bleak two decades of foreclosures, dwindling revenue, corporate idiocy, and public condemnation – there is still proof the U.S. needs good old-fashioned independent journalism that government can’t touch.
I have been thinking about what I would have done in a similar situation had I been running the Marion Record. First, I hope I never have to deal with such stupid people. Wellington has its faults, but, for the most part, we’ve been blessed with good leadership.
My first inclination is to call the police chief and discuss the situation. If he/she has concerns about how I obtained certain information, I would give him all I knew – provided I wasn’t revealing a confidential source of mine. I hope the police chief would be wise enough to express his/her concerns to me, and we could hammer out some kind of agreement.
It’s called being an adult.
Unfortunately, Marion has some stupid people in key positions of leadership. Police Chief Idiot Gideon Cody was able to authorize a Gestapo-style raid on the small newspaper, seizing its computers and leading, perhaps, to the death of the 98-year-old woman co-publisher the next day.
I could delve into the details of the case, but it is being aptly covered by the Washington Post and New York Times. Yes, the Marion County group of law preservers did something so stupid now; everyone in the world knows every sordid detail of their private lives.
Ooops.
It’s called the Streisand effect – an unintended consequence of attempting to hide something when instead, it backfires by increasing awareness of that information.
Cody — dismissed from the Kansas City police force for making inappropriate sexist remarks to a woman colleague — could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just going to Marion Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer and talking to him directly. If I were Cody and knew the Marion Record had such information, I’d go to the newspaper office and say something like this:
“Hey, I got into some trouble when I was at the Kansas City Police force as you probably have heard from sources from where I used to work. I was an idiot and made a few mistakes. But I am now trying to work it out and start anew as the police chief here in Marion. I’m hoping you can help me piece together my life and assist me in helping make this a safe community to live in.”
Again, it would be the adult thing to do.
Had such a meeting transpired between Meyer and Cody, I’m guessing the tone of any article would have been less adversarial or not even been written.
I don’t know Mr. Meyer personally, but I wish I did because of how he runs his newspaper. Here’s the thing about most small-town journalists. If you display just an ounce of kindness toward us, we will give you the benefit of the doubt — especially if you are a police chief. It isn’t in our best interest to create enemies unnecessarily because, in this business, enemies are like flies on rotted fruit.
But obviously, Cody is stupid, and so were the people who assisted him in the raid, including a judge with previous drunk driving convictions who authorized it.
That’s the thing about a judge, county attorney, police chief, or anyone else in authority. You are paying for their expertise. They should be educated enough to say, “Hey, this isn’t going to fly. Let’s approach this thing more rationally.” If you have stupid leaders, your community has a problem. Marion has a problem.
I have always contemplated whether stupidity is contagious or is it the fabric of stupid people coming together.
But it sure is affecting an awful lot of America.
Because of the confluence of stupidity, Marion — this small town of 1,922 people — has become the focus of a nationwide obsession. And unfortunately, many will now offhandedly refer to it as that “small town where they seized the newspaper.” It’s utterly unfair to the good folks of Marion, who have nothing to do with the situation.
Which brings me back to Sumner Newscow. I love, love, love Wellington. So understand this.
When I’m reporting on stupidity, I’m doing so in hopes that stupid people will:
a) quit being stupid;
or b) go away and get replaced by less stupid people.
Because the last thing Wellington needs is to become a headline in the New York Post for being stupid.
