Raid on Washington Post reporter’s home raises urgent questions for free press

Jan 15, 2026

“We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital. … if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started. They get started by suppressing free press.” — John McCain, former U.S. Senator

In 2024, local government raided the newsroom and home of Marion County Record Publisher Eric Meyer. At the time, when asked if he thought what happened to him was a harbinger of things to come, Meyer said that he feels “it’s evidence of things already here.”

Unfortunately, he was right.

The raid yesterday on a Washington Post reporter’s home reverberates far beyond a single newsroom, raising urgent questions that are especially consequential for local journalism. While national outlets often have legal teams, a broad base of readership and corporate support, the pressures exposed by such a raid — government intrusion, source protection, and chilling effects — are magnified at the local level.

At its core, a home raid targeting a journalist signals a willingness by authorities to blur the line between reporting and criminal suspicion. Even when justified as part of a legal investigation, the optics matter. Journalism depends on trust: between reporters and sources, and between the press and the public. For local journalists, who rely heavily on community insiders to expose corruption, misconduct, or incompetence, having those sources silenced by fear can be fatal to the accountability citizens expect in local reporting.

Strained by shrinking revenues and staff cuts, the thought of a huge legal battle is chilling for a small newspaper.

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