Kill. Bury. Print. Trailer Exposes a Newspaper Under Threat

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A small family-run newspaper in southeast Oklahoma takes on allegations involving the local sheriff’s office and soon finds itself at the center of the story. As tensions escalate, the journalists secretly record disturbing conversations among local officials about killing and burying them.  Produced by Rachel Maddow, Kill. Bury. Print. examines press intimidation, alleged corruption and what happens when local reporting collides with powerful officials. The confrontation eventually pushed a story from a remote Oklahoma community into the national spotlight.  Kill. Bury. Print. streams September 27, 2026 on Peacock.

Transcript

00:00I remember something that used to be said back in the day.

00:03Don't ever make the Willinghams mad.

00:05They'll look into you and they're good at it.

00:09And they are.

00:11My name is Bruce Willingham.

00:13Bruce doesn't have blood. He has printer's ink in his blaster.

00:18My wife, my son Chris and I, we've been running the McCurtain Gazette for 36 years.

00:23That printer press is getting old, just like me.

00:26My family loves that paper.

00:29And we love this community.

00:32I just wish it still loved us.

00:35McCurtain County has 33,000 people.

00:38It's very much an outlaw culture and there's some pride in that.

00:41If you grew up here, you know.

00:44In 2016, Kevin Clarity was elected sheriff.

00:48We began getting allegations of violence.

00:50If officers do something that's against the law, we're going to write about it.

00:54Flagrant racism.

00:56Withholding crime reports.

00:57The largest jailbreak in county history.

00:59It was a complete madhouse.

01:02The administration under Kevin Clarity may be the most corrupt law enforcement agency I've witnessed.

01:09These stories really got them angry.

01:11And they were spending a great deal of time trying to retaliate against us.

01:16It's a literal pissing contest.

01:18In McCurtain County, if you make enemies with the sheriff's office, you probably shouldn't drive home at night.

01:25Usually you get threatened to be sued.

01:27But this escalated way beyond those things.

01:30I knew they didn't like us.

01:32I had no idea they would talk about killing us.

01:42That's when I take off the gloves.

01:45Plotting to kill journalists.

01:47It was a national news story.

01:49People like that have evil in their heart.

01:53They couldn't possibly get any worse.

01:55It did.

01:57The sheriff's son threatened us.

01:59Sometimes I wish McCurtain County would burn to the ground.

02:02It cost us everything.

02:06I'm very worried about what's going to happen with corruption in small-town America.

02:11Because corrupt people will always run for office.

02:14But we have to stand up to them.

02:16We have to go after them.

02:17We have to go after them.

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