The Fairfax Chief Small Town, Big Stories
Story & Photo Contributed by Carol Conner/The Fairfax Chief Photo Above: Left to right CNN cameraman Jordon Guzzardo films, CNN Reporter Sara Sidner interviews Carol Conner Editor of The Fairfax Chief and CNN’s Anna-Maja Rappard adjusts the lighting. The CNN crew was in the Osage covering the story of the Osage Nation effectively vaccinating both Osages and others for the COVID virus.
Being a small-town newspaper editor just isn’t the job you might think it is. Locals and outsiders alike think it only means you know the owner of every stray dog or cat. But in over five years as editor of The Fairfax Chief, we’ve had several local stories turn into national stories. The corrupt practices of the owners of The Fairfax Community Hospital; the incredible story of our hospital employees working for four months without pay to save the place; and the subsequent bankruptcy made the front page of The Washington Post, as well as ABC News. The wind farm built around Highway 60 without permission from the Osage Nation or their trustee, the federal government, has generated national and international attention. Enel, the international company that mined Osage Nation’s minerals without permission, even appealed to the Supreme Court, to no avail.
over the town for hours – then move on. Within a week they will begin filming in various sites here. Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro have been just across the street from our office. We’ve been interviewed by several TV stations about the murders in the 1920s; about tornadoes that ripped the roofs off our most historic buildings, including the TallChief Theatre; and about the hospital situation. But CNN hits like nothing else. Wanting to cover the story of Osage Nation and other tribes effectively getting vaccines to people, they reached out through the newspaper network – and Rusty Ferguson at The Cleveland American gave them our name. Sara Sidner and her crew – Anna-Maja Rappard and Jordan Guzzardo – came in to The Fairfax Chief office in a pouring rainstorm – camera gear at the ready. These incredible professionals quickly set up to film, drank one sip of coffee, then Sidner started in with an hour or more of questions that felt more like a conversation with a friend.
The story of the Osage murders in Fairfax in the 1920s has brought attention for years now. Once David Grann’s book, The Killers of the Flower Moon, was published in 2017, people have driven here from all over the country and calls came from many people in many places.
And then there you are a few short hours later – on national TV. Every idiosyncratic gesture, every hair out of place, every pandemic-inspired new pound and wrinkle – right there on national news for all of one sentence.
Dozens and dozens of movie folks – led by Martin Scorsese – take
Sidner and her crew were among the nicest media people we’ve met, but in the midst of trying to get the newspaper done and trying not to say anything foolish, the experience all felt pretty unreal.
And then there you are a few short hours later – on national TV. 10 May 2021
But the good news about being a small-town editor is that reality is never far away. Once the crew packed up and was gone, a local dog, panicked by the rainstorm, ran up onto our front porch. So, we did our small-town editor job and made sure it found its way safely home!
