FROM THE PUBLISHER | Sen. Moran's strong statement

“Nothing to date has revealed this to be anything more than an unlawful search on a constitutionally protected free press. There are always legitimate concerns about the prejudices and biases of today’s media, but the ability for the press to seek and report the truth should always be defended regardless of one’s political leanings. Many times, in my efforts to solve problems, I only know of the problems because of investigative journalism.”

Don’t think I could’ve said it better.

In case you’re just now catching up, the police raided the office of the newspaper and the home of the publisher, who lived with his 98-year-old mother. That raid contributed to her death the next day, the newspaper reported. You ought to watch the video on YouTube of her dealing with the police during that search.

The cops were fishing around for evidence that a reporter had done something illegal; the allegation was that she had used a state government website to check a person’s driving record.

I’m not even kidding. As if that should be a crime. Is this Russia?

But somehow, a judge caved in and signed the search warrant. Is this Venezuela?

A few days later, the prosecutor realized the stupidity of the situation, rescinded the search warrant and returned all the equipment that the cops had seized. Hence Sen. Moran’s statement that there’s no indication this was anything other than an unlawful search.

It is a sad measure of our time to say that it takes some political fortitude for a national political figure to come to the defense of the free press. But that’s the reality, and so I want to thank Sen. Moran for demonstrating those guts.

Local independent professional journalism is at the root of our system of democracy. We in the business are directly interested in serving our subscribers with the information they need to make their own choices. Without that information, citizens are just flying blind, and our system doesn’t work.

That’s why the First Amendment exists, and why the law protects the ability of journalists to do their jobs. That’s why you can’t allow the cops to raid a newspaper office, just because somebody doesn’t like the questions that reporters are asking. Kudos to our U.S. Senator for making exactly that point.