A Mystery in Marion (Part One)

On a Friday morning in rural Kansas, the publisher of a tiny local newspaper hears a knock at the door. It’s the police—with a search warrant. Within minutes, they’re inside his home, seizing his electronics. At the same time, officers are raiding his newsroom, confiscating computers and phones. No subpoena. No warning. And, according to legal experts, no right to do it.

The publisher scrambles to understand: Why is this happening? Who’s behind it? He has made some enemies over the years, in this town of just 2,000 people. 

And then—just as he starts to piece it together—something even more devastating happens. A tragedy that would make national news, and change his life forever.

Part Two of this story drops next week.

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“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Reporter Brian Reed re-examines everything about journalism, the profession he thought he knew. In the middle of making his second hit podcast, Brian got sued. Accused. Told the biggest story of his career — the Peabody Award-winning series S-Town — wasn’t journalism. Which meant he had to spend years proving that it was. Obsessing over the question, “What is journalism, anyway?”