Matthew Moore: We begin this Tuesday edition of Ozarks at Large with our pal Andrew DeMillo. He is the editor in chief of the Arkansas Advocate. He is out of Little Rock. Andrew, thanks for being with us today.
Andrew DeMillo: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Moore: So let's talk about first, we've got the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coming up later this week. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
DeMillo: I was interning in Washington, D.C., at the Washington Post that day. So I got to see a lot of history unfolding for that firsthand. And just kind of how scary and uncertain of a day that was, where we didn't have smartphones, we didn't have news alerts. The unthinkable had happened that day.
So any kind of rumor that came up that day, you almost believed it just because it was just so shocking what had happened. And it's something that really stuck with me.
Moore: We're looking at 25 years coming up on this Friday. We're also looking at a generation of students, even college students at this point, who were not alive when 9/11 happened. One of your reporters, Antoinette Grajeda, did a story that came out earlier this week talking about 9/11 from an oral history standpoint, from a classroom standpoint. Tell me a little bit about that reporting.
DeMillo: Yeah. This is a great story and a really great opportunity to kind of take a look at 25 years and, like you said, college campuses, nearly all of the students were not alive then and didn't experience this firsthand. And we were curious to see how our students learning about this.
And an interesting thread that she found was the role that oral history was really playing for students to learn more about this, to talk to family members, friends, people in the community who were around then and kind of seeing how it affected them.
And it's a really interesting way to kind of learn about a major moment in history that, for our generations, is up there with Pearl Harbor and JFK assassination in terms of the day that people really can't forget. And trying to kind of communicate that to younger generation is difficult to do. I think having these oral histories really helps, especially when you learn it in the context of so many different threads of history that we're seeing happen right now.
Moore: It's interesting you talk about the JFK assassination, because one of the things I think many folks who are too young to have known about it firsthand think about it is in the realm of conspiracy theories. And that is certainly true with 9/11 as well. Is that for everything we think we know about 9/11, there is a dozen conspiracy theories to counteract that or to push against that.
Is that something that the reporting found as well, is that teachers and people who experienced it firsthand are having to push back against the idea of conspiracy theories?
DeMillo: Yeah, I think that is something that kind of came up in some of the discussion on this. And I think that's why some of the teachers were really trying to find a way to help them understand about that day and understand the value of valid, trusted sources of information, especially something like this where we've seen conspiracy theories abound over 25 years.
And it's kind of a symptom of a larger problem that we have with misinformation happening over the years with just about any major event, but especially that day. So I think that kind of fits in with the lessons that were happening for these students in terms of just kind of learning about primary sources, learning about the value of having these interviews rather than kind of some garbage you might find on internet these days.
Moore: Yeah. Any news peg, we have to really re-emphasize media literacy as a good excuse to talk about things like this.
DeMillo: Yeah, absolutely. Especially a day like that. I've had conversations with people where I kind of shudder to think what that day would have been like if you had had the environment that you have right now in terms of just social media and people being able to share things as quickly as they can. It's good for news and information, but also misinformation travels just as quickly, if not faster.
Moore: First thing this morning, an article showed up on arkansasadvocate.com. The headline says "Democrats see rare signs of hope in solidly red Arkansas' midterms." The story here is about the annual Mount Nebo Chicken Fry. One of the takeaways that I get from this is the lack of Republican presence at this big chicken fry that happens every year.
DeMillo: Yeah. It was kind of a small symbolic thing that we saw from this event. The Mount Nebo chicken fry, generally, generations have gone there. And it's really one of those kind of required stops. There used to be one of those required stops for candidates.
And this fits in with kind of a larger big question over Arkansas, which is this is a very challenging midterm environment for Republicans right now. And that means even in Arkansas, a state that two thirds of the vote went to Trump a couple of years ago. There's some optimism for Democrats, which is rare optimism. Democrats have just not been able to break through here, as you've seen in other states.
But they see signs, especially Trump's low approval numbers, some candidates who have gotten a lot of national attention. Hallie Shoffner in the Senate race, her story and her background in farming. She's gotten national attention with that. Chris Jones in the second district, raising hopes yet again that this Little Rock area district could be competitive once again for Democrats.
There are still a lot of challenges right now, but is one of the better environments that Democrats say they've had in years. And this election really is going to be kind of a big test of just Trump's problems with approval ratings, if this is going to hurt even in pretty solidly Republican areas right now.
Moore: The Democratic nominee for Secretary of State here in Arkansas, Kelly Grappe, was quoted in the article as saying, "I'm tired of people going to the polls to vote against something. I want to give people something to vote for." I think that really kind of gives us a bit of where we are here in 2026, is this idea of voting against something doesn't have the same power now as it does to just vote in favor of something?
DeMillo: Yeah. And I think that's one of the big challenges that Democrats have right now is how do you take advantage of this environment where Trump's popularity has taken a hit nationwide and, at least according to at least one poll in Arkansas, his approval ratings have been down here. But this is also a state where he was very popular. Mount Nebo, Yell County. And yeah, I think he got like 80% of the vote there.
And how do you appeal to voters who supported Trump but really don't like his policies right now? Don't like what's happening with tariffs, don't like what's happening with gas prices and with the war in Iran. And that's going to be the big challenge they have is trying to take advantage of this environment, but also not turning off independent or Republican leaning voters that they might be able to take advantage of this opportunity right now.
Yeah, I think you're seeing Republicans take advantage of this opportunity right now, still making a nationalized race. But instead of focusing on Trump, focusing on Democratic figures who they are counting on being as unpopular, if not more unpopular, than Trump. You see Senator Cotton talking about Shoffner's past support for former Vice President Kamala Harris. Mayor of New York gets mentioned in mailers and ads.
So they're still trying to attach Arkansas Democrats to national figures that they hope will turn off voters, especially these independent voters that they both are really going after right now.
Moore: Another big takeaway from the Mount Nebo chicken fry is not just the presence of Democrats, but the big presence of the Libertarian Party there as well. In fact, normally, as the article points out, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party rented out a cabin each. And this year the Libertarian Party rented the Republicans' cabin instead.
DeMillo: Yeah. And I think that's going to be one of the really big questions about the midterms right now is what kind of impact do the Libertarians have? I think Colt Shelby in the governor's race appears to be doing better than Libertarians have in the past. It's still single digits.
But the question is, is he going to pull away votes that Governor Sanders normally would have had, the Republicans would have had? Or is he just going to end up siphoning off votes away from Democrats and making it even more of a challenging situation for them?
And but also, does this lay the groundwork for Libertarians to be able to take advantage of a lot of the angst that Republicans have about parts of Trump's agenda, parts of the Republican agenda, including down home in Arkansas? Colt Shelby was one of the strongest voices against the Franklin County Prison project. That project's on hold. And really seem to be able to kind of take advantage of the pushback that there was from this rural area who felt like they were kind of left out of this process and their voices weren't being heard.
So I'm going to be watching that very closely to see what they're able to do with this. And also, does this create kind of a longer term foundation for them going forward as well.
Moore: Finally here, I want to touch on your latest column at the Arkansas Advocate, where you talk about the intersection of data center wars and Freedom of Information Act and press freedom here as a whole.
DeMillo: Yeah. This column was based off of what we saw last week. Entergy's unsuccessful attempt to block publication in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of further details about an agreement regarding West Memphis data center. The newspaper had received documents that were confidential documents that had been released in error by the Public Service Commission through a Freedom of Information Act request to a central Arkansas woman. Entergy claimed that these were trade secrets, went to federal court to seek their publication being blocked.
It's an extraordinary step even just making that request. When you look at, there's decades of precedent against prior restraint, against trying to restrict what newspapers and news outlets can publish. Most famous being the Pentagon Papers. And this was a troubling move to see them even make this request right now. Because this is already a very fraught period when it comes to press freedom and when it comes to threats against journalism right now.
And to see something that seems to be a pretty solid case against prior restraint still being sought out was concerning, and also seemed to kind of underscore some of the concerns that opponents of data centers have right now, which is, yes, they're concerned about energy use and impact on just way of life, but just lack of transparency and secrecy surrounding some of these projects.
And this really seemed to kind of feed into that perception when you go to court and try to silence newspapers and silence a citizen from publishing details about something on documents that they receive, they receive illegally. They didn't break the law. They weren't the ones who released the documents. So yeah, I think it kind of fits in with just kind of these larger concerns about press freedom right now.
Moore: Yeah. And I think when we are looking at a topic like data centers that are on the political spectrum unpopular, this is certainly not helping that case either.
DeMillo: Yeah, definitely. And the First Amendment experts I talked to said that these types of lawsuits are rare. Winning these lawsuits are even rarer. And as I described it, there's no such thing as a slam dunk case, but there seem to be pretty wide consensus that this was at least as close as it comes to it, especially when it comes to prior restraint.
Moore: Well, you can find that column, all of the reporting we've talked about here today and so much more when you go to arkansasadvocate.com. That is where Andrew DeMillo is the editor in chief. Andrew, thank you as always for your time today.
DeMillo: Appreciate it. Thank you.
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