Laura Kelly supports ‘questions’ about Kansas newspaper raid. Gee thanks, Governor | Opinion

With press freedom “advocates” like Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who needs opponents?

When The Star asked our Democratic governor about the unconstitutional police raid of the Marion County Record newspaper that’s been denounced across the country, she had nothing even mildly critical to say.

Instead, she said that as a “strong advocate for freedom of press, freedom of speech,” she’s anxious to know more.

Like what made Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody think he could get away with effectively shutting down a newspaper for the crime of reporting on him, or of reporting on a local business owner, even before they’d written a story on either?

If so, she didn’t say that, or express anything else that real advocates have.

Since she’s in her second and last term, we can’t even conclude that her extra mild response was political.

And the only other options are that she either doesn’t see how outrageous this is, or else does see but doesn’t care.

Her bold response? “I want to make sure that in the state of Kansas, that we are not violating either individuals’ or press’s constitutional right to free speech. So we will continue to support the questions that are being asked all over and we look forward to getting all of the facts out so we know what kind of issue we have.”

One issue we have is that the governor saw no reason to speak out against this frightening overreach, which 98-year-old Record co-owner Joan Meyer correctly called an example of “Hitler tactics” just before she died.

Asked whether she believes the search violated rights, Kelly boldly ventured that it may have or may not have.

“We need to continue to ask the questions, and officials asking those questions,” she said, “so that we can get to the bottom of it and determine if rights were violated.”

This was not a moment for Kelly’s usual “wait and see” response.

This story was originally published August 16, 2023 at 9:31 AM.