Dion Lefler: 1st place in Editorials category for newspapers over 35,000 circulation

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Top honors in the over 35,000 circulation category of the Editorials category of the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition were awarded to Dion Lefler, opinion editor of The Wichita Eagle in Wichita, Kansas. Although this entry originated from The Wichita Eagle, it was judged in the over 35,000 circulation bracket because it was a joint editorial of the Eagle and the Kansas City Star, which have a combined circulation over 35,000.

First-place includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $2,250.

Michael Roehrman, executive editor of The Wichita Eagle, nominated Lefler for the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize — for an editorial about the police raid on the Marion County Record newsroom.

Roehrman noted that the police raid became national news and said “no one did more to put it there than Wichita Eagle Opinion Editor Dion Lefler.”

“On a Friday afternoon,” he said, “we received notice from the state press association that a police raid was underway at the rural Kansas paper, and search warrants were being served and equipment seized at the newsroom and the homes of the owners of the paper and a City Council member.

“Dion immediately began reporting the story, conducting interviews and obtaining documents to find out what was going on — including speaking with the 98-year-old co-owner of the paper, Joan Meyer.

“He came in early the following morning, his day off, and wrote this editorial on what had happened in the raid, naming it for the blatant and unlawful attack it was on the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

“As he was writing it, he got the tragic news that Joan Meyer had died of cardiac arrest, likely brought on by the stress of the police ransacking her home, which he incorporated into the editorial.

“When he finished writing, Dion reached out to the opinion page editors at the Eagle’s sister paper, the Kansas City Star, to see if they’d be interested in publishing it as a joint editorial, something the Star hadn’t done since 2018. Dion felt that it would increase the impact if both of Kansas’ largest newspapers joined voices in support of the Record. Star editors agreed.

This editorial, entitled "Marion newspaper raid is intolerable police overreach," which was posted before news coverage of the event, was a classic example of opinion journalism leading from the front, instead of commenting after the fact.

It put the story on the national radar and has been followed up with numerous news stories and columns about the police raid, which is now the subject of five federal lawsuits alleging violation of constitutional rights, the latest of which was filed the week of this entry.

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Among the comments made by contest judges:

    • Standing up for press freedom from police oppression — a compelling and important read.