Announcing The Olympic Herald

Bringing Uncensored News to Washington State

Corporations and billionaires have taken over what were once hard-hitting news organizations. A media that used to rival any other on the globe for accuracy and transparency has been captured by the interests of the world’s wealthiest.

For instance in 2013, Washington state billionaire Jeff Bezos, who was the CEO of Amazon at the time, made headlines when he purchased the Washington Post for $250,000,000.

In October 2024, Bezos intervened to block the Washington Post editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate, breaking the paper’s decades-long tradition of endorsing presidential candidates and triggering an immediate backlash. Over 200,000 digital subscribers cancelled in protest, and several prominent editors resigned. The staff argued Bezos was silencing the paper’s voice to protect his other massive business interests, specifically Amazon and Blue Origin contracts, from potential retribution by a second Trump administration.

Earlier this year, Skydance Media acquired CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global for $8 billion. Skydance is run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who is the second richest person in the world.

David made a number of concessions to the FCC, and then he promptly hired Bari Weiss as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News and acquired her publication, The Free Press.

In December 2025, Weiss proved exactly whose interests she was hired to protect. In a move that shocked the CBS newsroom, she personally intervened to spike a fully produced 60 Minutes investigation into the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.

The segment, reported by veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, had already cleared the network’s rigorous legal and standards reviews. Yet, hours before it was set to air, Weiss pulled the plug. Her justification? The Trump administration had refused to comment, and she claimed the story wasn’t “fair” without their perspective.

The message was clear and chilling. As Alfonsi noted in a leaked internal email, Weiss effectively handed the government a “kill switch”—allowing powerful officials to kill any negative story simply by refusing to answer questions.

The moment Weiss was given power by a billionaire owner, she became the censor. She didn’t kill the story because it was false; she killed it because it was inconvenient for the powerful interests Skydance and the Ellisons are desperate to appease.

Washington state has also suffered from the corporate media takeover. In 2024, Washington’s largest newspaper publisher, Sound Publishing, was sold to out of state investors.

Many important stories go uncovered here in Washington. For example, I was shocked to learn that a family court commissioner (a type of judge) in my local court, Brian Parker, was appointed to his position despite his 2023 arrest for perjury.

I filed an administrative records request for the court’s communication with other journalists. Kelsey Turner of InvestigateWest was the only journalist to inquire, and she wrote an excellent article on issues within the Washington state Guardian Ad Litem industry.

When I inquired further into the Brian Parker appointment, I discovered that Presiding Judge Brent Basden made the decision. Basden had seemingly avoided due diligence, he considered just one other candidate, and Basden went out of his way to waive the county background check requirements to bring on Parker.

I also discovered examples of cronyism, including awarding some of the court’s largest contracts to Basden’s close personal friends, and Basden directly or indirectly interfering with law enforcement investigations for the benefit of his close personal relationships.

I’m starting the Olympic Herald to pursue a different type of journalism in Washington state. A fearless, independent investigative journalism that holds power accountable, from the local courthouse to the state capital.

My late grandfather, Tom Hennessy, was an award winning columnist. In the 1960s, he started an alternative weekly newspaper called the Pittsburgh Forum.

The night before it was due to publish a story on local corruption, the paper had been illegally restrained by Judge Wentley of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas from printing a report linking the city’s vast Mellon family business interests to the financial deterioration of the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-1960’s.

My grandfather explained: “it is my personal view that the Forum has rightful possession to the document and to its publication and that the denial of such publication would be a denial of the freedom of the press provisions of the First Amendment to the Constitution.”

In 1975, he began reporting for the Detroit Free Press. He mostly covered environmental and social welfare issues. Then, he joined the Long Beach Press Telegram in 1980, and he wrote for them for nearly 30 years.

He was not afraid to cover controversial issues, even when they negatively impacted well-known politicians or wealthy individuals. He would expose local corruption. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia described my grandfather as: “a Long Beach institution, not just well-known in the newspaper world, but in the entire community through all the work he did.”

The Olympic Herald will offer a similar type of journalism. I will not answer to shareholders, hedge funds, billionaire owners, or their wealthy friends. Our loyalty belongs to the citizens of Washington.

While other outlets cut staff and consolidate resources to maximize profit, we are digging deeper into the documents they ignore. We will follow the paper trails, attend the hearings, and ask the uncomfortable questions that others are too afraid—or too compromised—to ask.

There will be no paywalls. I intend to make everything I write available to all subscribers. If you want to support me and my work, you can make a donation to my GoFundMe or you can upgrade to a paid subscription.

Welcome to the Olympic Herald.