Kansas newspapers grabbed international attention last summer with the police raid on the Marion County Record. While that story still rumbles along, fresh concerns have emerged. Kansas public television saw its funding threatened this month after a state senator took offense, and news outlets across the country have faced challenging economic and political headwinds.

After such high-profile conflicts, it seemed like an opportune to time to check in on the state of Kansas journalism and free speech.

I rounded up two experts on the subject: Emily Bradbury, the executive director of the Kansas Press Association, and Max Kautsch, a media lawyer from Lawrence. Both have contributed to Kansas Reflector before as columnists and sources.

Their verdict? The state of journalism in the Sunflower State is strong. On the other hand, public officials could stand to brush up on some First Amendment basics.

Kautsch tackled the subject while talking about state Sen. Caryn Tyson’s attempt to slash the state’s entire public TV budget because of her outrage over the documentary “No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate in Kansas.”

“One of the problems is — it’s just been trickling down from the national discourse — which is a misunderstanding about what the First Amendment is,” he told me. “The extent to which I think that some people believe the First Amendment amounts to a get out of jail free card. Also the extent to which some people think that the First Amendment doesn’t exist, and then speech can just be censored because it is disagreed with. … Opinions about governmental matters, you know, some opinions are going to be unfavorable.”

Tyson’s move to cut the half-million dollars in funding was rejected by the Senate commerce committee, which trimmed $50,000 instead. The Senate ways and means committee reinstated that funding last week.

Bradbury offered a high-level overview of industry challenges with her trademark optimism and determination.

“Our industry is in a state of transition, right? We’ve got … online, internet, social media platforms that essentially steal the content without paying our members for that,” she said. “It’s been a real struggle. And then when you combine that with a 36 percent increase in postal rates over the last three years, that is a lot. And the service has declined with those postal rates. So we’ve got papers out there that are struggling and having to raise subscription prices, not because they want to make more money, but because they have to pay the post office to deliver their product. But our readership is high — 86 percent of Kansans look at a paper, whether online or in their hands.”

Bradbury hits on a point that I emphasize time and again to Kansas audiences. More people read the work I do today, that my colleagues do today, than ever before. Online dissemination of journalism, through websites and social media, mean that news reaches an ever-expanding audience.

The challenge has seldom been readership. The challenge has been fiscal.

Bradbury told me that Kansas boasts 190 news outlets, both print and online. Every one of Kansas’ 105 counties has a newspaper, except for Elk County, which enjoys coverage from a neighboring outlet. Sobering tales of news deserts have drifted in from surrounding states, but at least for now the local industry has endured.

“We have been so lucky,” Bradbury said. “We don’t have a true news desert in Kansas. So our communities and our papers are out there, they’re supporting each other, but there’s just a lot of external factors that are putting pressure on the industry.”

Marion matters

I told Bradbury and Kautsch that based on the correspondence I receive, Kansans remain fascinated by the police raid in Marion. They want to know what has happened with the investigation. Unfortunately, we know little besides the filing of a recent lawsuit and word that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has become involved.

The raid happened Aug. 11, 2023. We’re still waiting to know the actual outcome.

“Law enforcement has every right — and the public expectation — to conduct an investigation and to do whatever is necessary to establish probable cause and to gather evidence to go formulate charges,” said Kautsch, who also serves as president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government. “And purportedly, that’s what’s happening. However, it seems to me that at this point, it’s been several months. Why hasn’t there an announcement been made about about charges? Who is being charged? Or who is being investigated, and who might be charged? … It’s not even clear exactly who is being investigated.”

If you recall, a Record reporter was accused of breaking the law while reporting a story. Legal experts have since said what she did was entirely legitimate, but the investigation remains open. Kautsch suggests that delay has burdened Kansas journalists.

“Until that announcement is made, I just I don’t know how a journalist can’t have some level of a chilling effect on what they do,” he said.

Bradbury and Kautsch have been tracking legislation at the Statehouse, and they talked about what bills interested and concerned them. We also delved into the practical concerns of keeping a free and fair press vibrant for generations to come.

Clay Wirestone serves as Kansas Reflector’s opinion editor. Kansas Reflector is a nonprofit news operation providing indepth reporting, diverse opinions and daily coverage of state government and politics. More information at https://kansasreflector. com/.