Weekend Picks: Shooting the messenger

Apr. 20—It's hard to sit at my desk and contain my emotions as I watch the story unfold out of McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

First, there's the content of everything that the members of the McCurtain County Sheriff's Office and McCurtain County Board of County Commissioners discussed during an illegal meeting — a stretch of audio that would fit well as an archived recording from the jailhouse of a pre-civil rights "sundown town." I'll save those comments for you to research yourself.

But there's also the matter of this same group conspiring — genuine or otherwise — to kill two of the journalists employed at the small, family newspaper headquartered in Idabel, Oklahoma, a town that lies geographically nearer to Little Rock and Dallas, and is just over an hour drive from Texarkana.

Their threats include lynching, burning and burying the reporters, of which the members joke that said graves are ready to be dug with one of the speakers' excavator.

Obviously, racist and violent ideologies can be found in any barbershop, diner, bar or closed circle, but it's a scary thing to see not just as a journalist, but as a human being who was hoping that such recourse among leadership in America had been overcome.

The news also inspired me to Google a question I hadn't thought to ask prior the events in Oklahoma: how many journalists have been murdered on U.S. soil? And what was their story?

Well, I couldn't find the answer to the first question, though I did gather that it's over 40 individuals. The second question yielded better results, all compiled in a nifty column format on Wikipedia (that I did fact check), and it turned out to be worth the time.

All of the accounts are somber, yet fascinating for their largely forgotten historical significance.

Above all else, they accumulate into a larger theme and the reason why people seek to kill journalists — fear.

— The first known journalist to be killed for their work on U.S. soil was Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in 1837 for supporting the abolition of slavery.

— The co-founder and editor of The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, Narciso Gender Gonzales, was shot and killed by then-state Lt. Gov. James H. Tillman after being critical of his personal conduct and political policy. Tillman, an "arrogant, bombastic, and a notorious drinker and gambler," according to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, was acquitted at trial, despite Gonzales being unarmed, with his hands in his pockets, at the time of the shooting.

— One event that lies close to my own heart was the killing of civilian journalist Paul Guihard in Oxford, Mississippi, when he was working as a photojournalist during James Meredith's integration to the then-racially segregated University of Mississippi. Originally assigned to document Meredith's enrollment, Guihard soon turned his focus to the riot that broke out on campus.

— Throughout the 1980s, multiple journalists of ethnic publications were murdered for their coverage. The most prominent of these killings were five Vietnamese-American journalists — Tried Le, Nhan Wrong Do, Tap Van Pham, Nguyen Dam Phong and Duong Trong Lam.

— A Los Angeles citizen-reporter named James Edwin Richards was shot in his driveway for his local crime reporting, with the Los Angeles Police Department reporting that "Mr. Richards had received threats from local gang members, and his property was often vandalized prior to his murder."

— Jarrod Ramos killed five employees of The Capital Gazette in Annapolis because the paper had published a story about his guilty plea in a criminal harassment case in 2011. As a highly publicized case in 2018, it's best to read about it on your own.

— Last September, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jeff German, was stabbed to death outside of his home. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was arrested and charged with German's murder, for which he will stand trial on Nov. 6. German had published a series of articles reporting on "claims of bullying, hostility and mismanagement at the Clark County's public administrator's office," wrote the Review-Journal.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Newseum in Washington, D.C., before it closed in 2019, which has since been purchased by Johns Hopkins University to become classrooms, offices and event spaces — because I'm sure D.C. needs more of those.

Before I was a journalist, or even passionate about journalism, the Newseum had a role in showing me the impact that the profession can make on the world. The museum featured a room lined with every Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, an archive of authentic newspapers containing articles of events from the end of the Civil War and the sinking of the Titanic, to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy and the Boston Marathon bombing.

There was an interactive map covering press laws throughout the world. I clearly remember watching a family of tourists search for the restrictions in their home country, then responding with a plain "Oh ..."

Perhaps the most important piece was the memorial section — a display of hundreds of journalists who had been killed while on assignment worldwide. The number of journalists who have been attacked or threatened is even larger.

The common thread among this memorial and the accounts listed above is that journalists have, and will continue to face the ultimate repercussion for reporting on individuals abusing their power. The threats directed at the reporters of the McCurtain Gazette-News, a paper with no online outlet serving a county of roughly 30,000 people, are evidence that this is still a very possible outcome.

Luckily, the team at the Gazette-News did what inevitably leads to a despot's downfall — revealed the truth. The country has seen that truth and responded accordingly.

I'm one to talk, since I have the pleasure of reporting on the arts. But I've had coworkers that have reported on issues not dissimilar from some listed above, and that is reason enough to reflect on the subject.

So, while the world seems to become an increasingly dangerous place, you can find solace in knowing that there's plenty of opportunity to escape this weekend with some local events for all interests.

Tonight is another Tobler and Friends Comedy Night at Black Tooth Brewing Co. Renowned comedian and Cheyenne native Brandt Tobler is once again bringing his comedian friends to the stage at a local favorite brewery.

Commanding the majority of the weekend is the Cheyenne Gaming Convention, beginning Friday afternoon. The three day event, covered previously in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, gives attendees the chance to frolic through any and every variation of game for the entirety of the convention's run. Tickets should be still available at the door.

Saturday morning is the Earth Day Extravaganza at Sunshine Plant Co. The event is a public plant swap and $50 "Plantiness Workshop," presented by Sunshine, Flydragon Art Studio, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens and Rooted in Cheyenne, among others.

For music fans, The Lincoln Theatre is hosting its second installment of the Local Music Showcase series. Saturday night invites local rock bands to the stage, including Angelus Errare, Stay Awhile, Union Goons, We the Few, YOTP and Hell's Half Acre.

Meanwhile, over at the Historic Atlas Theatre, Cheyenne Little Theatre Players is spearheading two nights of Silent Movies at the Atlas. For $12, residents get the silent movie experience with a screening of four Laurel & Hardy films, featuring live musical accompaniment by Dave Niemann.

The weekend concludes with the long-awaited Alan Kirkbride Memorial Poetry Gathering at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. Kirkbride, a former Wyoming rancher who died recently, will be honored through the work and performances of regional poets, including two cowboy poets. The event begins at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.