April Editorial Winner

McCurtain episode should be punished

By Kim Poindexter, Tahlequah Daily Press

After the brouhaha unfolding over the past week in McCurtain County, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings has slinked away in disgrace. That’s good riddance to bad rubbish, but there are plenty more like him in the garbage heap of racism and hate.

Jennings was one of those caught making outrageous threats and comments on a recording made by a reporter for the Mc-Curtain Gazette-News. Sheriff Kevin Clardy and sheriff’s Capt. Alicia Manning were also among that group, as was jailer Larry Hendrix, when they began to discuss murdering the journalist and his publisher father, and opining that it was a shame hanging Black people is illegal.

Some of the comments are so disgusting they are difficult to put into print. Jennings told Clardy and Manning, “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them.” Jennings added that he knew a couple of “quiet guys” who also happen to be “hit men,” and claimed that Black people “got more rights than we got.” There was more, but why bother repeating their vile slurs?

In its initial response, the sheriff’s office didn’t bother denying the foul rhetoric, but tried to turn the tables by claiming the recording was made surreptitiously and illegally. Anyone vaguely familiar with Oklahoma media law – and that would include journalists like Chris Willingham and his father, Bruce – knows that’s poppycock. In this state, as long as one of the involved par-ties knows about a recording, it’s fair game. Any argument about the Willinghams’ “planting” the device, and that they weren’t present when it did its work, is also full of holes. This wasn’t a private residence, but a public domain; there was no expectation of privacy.

Public reaction was explosive. Gov. Kevin Stitt called for the four to step down, but as of Wednesday afternoon, only Jennings was remorseful enough – or humiliated enough – to do so. At least the state sheriff’s association gave the boot to the sheriff and two others. Protests also erupted outside the courthouse, which was shut down, presumably due to the cowardice of those who caused the problem. The sheriff’s office bemoaned “a large number of threats of violence, including death threats” against county employees. If that’s true – no recordings have been proffered – that’s wrong as well, but as far as the evil-doers themselves shaking in their boots over the tit-for-tat nastiness? Boo-hoo-hoo.

Part of what prompted the Little Dixie-style threats was the fact that the newspaper had been investigating graft and corruption in county government. Given the reaction to the ongoing determination of the Willinghams to perform their constitution-ally-mandated function as watchdogs, it seems their suspicions were spot on.

This episode stands as a bipartisan example of seething hatred many in this part of the country hold for Black people, and for journalists. The Democratic Party should have already expelled the sheriff, and the Republican party, the county commissioner. Elected officials were right to condemn this incident, but they have to accept part of the blame, at least as far as the threats against the Fourth Estate are concerned. Politicians have always demonized the press, because we hold their feet to the fire and act as watchdogs against their malfeasance. But that hatred has become magnified ever since the steady drumbeat of “enemy of the state” label began at the behest of the 45th president.

The Framers anticipated corruption of people like them-selves, which is exactly why “the press” is mentioned in the Constitution. Whether “we the people” acknowledge it, or not, “the press” is the only real friend they have. As this example proves, many of these politicians – probably most of them – are the true enemies.