The Power of Independent Journalism: Our First Six Months

Six months ago, The Olympic Herald was launched with a single, uncompromising mission: to provide fearless, independent investigative journalism that holds power accountable.

Two hundred and fifty years ago this month, Thomas Jefferson wrote the job description for every honest newspaper that would follow: “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

For 180 days, that has been our entire job. Not to flatter the powerful. Not to protect institutions. To submit the facts.

Because we operate entirely without corporate backing, we don’t answer to wealthy donors, advertisers, or media conglomerates. We answer to you, the citizens.

And in six months, the facts have gotten results.

Over the past 180 days, we have published more than 280 articles across Washington State—every one of them available in The Olympic Herald’s online archive.

In the last month alone: a federal grand jury indictment in a case we have covered since the first arrest, a half-million-dollar court order against a school district whose failures we exposed, public records pried into daylight after officials declared them off-limits, and a school board censure fight that has escalated into a full-blown constitutional showdown.

The truth is gaining ground. Here is how.

Protecting Our Students

Our most consequential new battle erupted in Port Angeles, where the school board voted 4-1 in June to formally censure newly elected Director Nancy Hamilton—an official whose apparent offense was asking too many questions about district finances and operations.

Resolution 2526-18 did not stop at a reprimand. It erected administrative barriers restricting Hamilton’s ability to request district information and explicitly threatened legal action to physically bar an elected official from executive sessions.

Before the vote, The Olympic Herald sent the board a formal letter warning that the resolution constituted unlawful First Amendment retaliation and an illegal prior restraint. The board pushed it through anyway.

That same night, the board approved a new 2026–2029 superintendent contract containing a provision allowing the superintendent to disregard public records requests from individual board members that she deems “voluminous” or “complex” without full board approval.

We believe that language directly conflicts with the Washington Public Records Act, and we have publicly committed to filing weekly public records requests to ensure the district cannot choke off transparency.

When the district then claimed it needed roughly 90 business days to produce the very records its own board had quoted in the censure resolution, we sent a demand letter.

On July 8—our deadline—the district produced the Hamilton letter at the center of the fight. It was the first installment, not the last. We are not done.

Meanwhile, the financial reckoning at the Quillayute Valley School District continued to mount. Following the federal jury verdict finding QVSD liable for a hostile work environment, the court ordered the district to pay $500,000 in attorney fees on top of the nearly $250,000 awarded to a former coach—pushing the district’s court-mandated exposure in a single civil rights case past $800,000.

We were in the room as community members packed QVSD board meetings demanding to know when the district’s culture of silence would finally break, and we documented harrowing public testimony describing intimidation of a trial witness.

These stories build on the foundation we laid in our first five months: exposing the decades-long cover-up within the Sequim School District that cost taxpayers and insurers more than $2.35 million in settlements, tracking federal lawsuits and complaints against the Bainbridge Island School District, and publishing state audit findings—from an estimated $871,000 in federal overpayments at South Kitsap to misappropriated funds at Bellevue College.

The battle for student safety extends into the religious institutions operating in our communities.

Over six months, we have reported on lawsuits alleging that Issaquah LDS leaders trafficked a child to Spain for abuse by a known predator, monitored the church’s controversial “no legal duty” defense against liability for allegedly failing to report abuse, and tracked the criminal prosecution of a former Wenatchee stake president.

A pivotal federal hearing on that “no legal duty” defense has now been postponed to August 5—and we will be covering every filing and every argument.

Unmasking the Courthouse Crisis

Six months ago, the inner workings of the Clallam County Superior Court were a black box to most residents. Today, thanks to relentless reporting and hard-won public records, the picture is very different.

The case of former Drug Court Coordinator Johnny Watts Jr. reached a new stage on June 23, when a federal grand jury formally indicted Watts and a co-defendant on drug distribution and weapons charges—including the alleged possession of fentanyl and 500 grams or more of a methamphetamine mixture with intent to distribute.

Watts pleaded not guilty at his arraignment the following day and awaits trial. We broke the story of his arrest, we took the legal action that forced the court to release records after a blanket denial, and we published the full indictment for the public to read.

Our investigation into former Court Commissioner Brian Parker—whose fast-tracked appointment and troubling background we first exposed, and who was ultimately terminated—entered a new phase as well.

Parker now faces an amended civil lawsuit alleging he sexually harassed a domestic violence survivor and conspired to strip her of custody.

We obtained and released the public records surrounding his hiring and firing, revealing among other things that the court interviewed only three candidates for the position.

We also turned our records work on Judge Brent Basden himself, who remains under formal investigation by the Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Our earlier investigations documented Basden steering a lucrative taxpayer-funded murder-defense contract to a close friend and former business partner previously suspended from the practice of law, and published courtroom video of him discouraging a parent from cooperating with a Child Protective Services investigation.

Now, newly released records from the Governor’s Office, obtained through our Public Records Act request, shed light on the insular process behind his controversial 2019 appointment—including suspected leaks and a deliberate freeze-out of the local press.

And we introduced readers to a danger they never voted for: visiting Kitsap County Judge Cadine Ferguson-Brown, rejected by Mason County voters by 15 points, yet repeatedly invited to preside over Clallam County cases.

Our reporting documented a track record of extreme leniency preceding preventable tragedy—including a suspended sentence handed to a convicted child molester—and we have publicly called on prosecutors to act.

The court’s response to this scrutiny has been more secrecy. When we requested years of judicial search warrant logs—records the Washington Supreme Court has recognized as vital to evaluating whether judges act as neutral magistrates—the court administrator denied the request in full and declared the matter closed.

On July 6, we filed a formal Petition for Internal Review challenging that blanket denial. It is the second time this year we have had to fight this exact stonewalling tactic. We won the first round. We intend to win this one.

Defending the Free Press

When an independent newspaper starts dismantling entrenched power, retaliation follows. Our first six months proved it.

We defeated a motion seeking coercive fines of up to $2,000 per day unless we deleted more than thirty investigative articles—a modern-day burning of the press that a visiting judge rejected as unconstitutional prior restraint.

We defeated a second gag attempt in May. And our non-party motion in the Court of Appeals was granted, helping ensure these victories protect every independent journalist in Washington, not just this one.

This fight is personal. Sixty years ago, my grandfather, the columnist Tom Hennessy, watched a county judge block his Pittsburgh newspaper from publishing an investigation into one of the wealthiest families in America. He refused to accept it then. We refuse to accept it now.

Censoring a newspaper, gagging an elected school director, and blanket-denying public records are all symptoms of the same disease. The cure has not changed since 1776: publication.

Investigations are our backbone, but they are not the whole paper.

Between the courtrooms and the board rooms, we have also covered the life of this community—summer concerts on the pier and in the park, breaking public-safety news, and the everyday business of local government that never makes corporate headlines.

Looking Ahead

This six-month milestone arrives with two announcements we have been working toward for a long time:

• Our New Website Launches This Weekend: After several frustrating delays, the wait is finally over. The Olympic Herald’s completely rebuilt website goes live this weekend, bringing a faster, modernized platform, a better reading experience, and easier access to our full archive of investigations.

• Weekly Printed Newspaper: Our printed edition remains on track to reach Clallam County in August, bridging the digital divide so every resident—online or not—has access to the truth. In the coming weeks, we will share details on how you can sign up to receive the print edition at your home or business.

We Need Your Support to Keep Fighting

None of what you just read happens for free.

Behind every story in our first six months are thousands of pages of purchased court records and public records, countless hours in courtrooms and board meetings, and expensive legal battles against well-funded efforts to silence us.

The new website and the printed newspaper carry real costs, too—hosting, printing, and mailing physical copies across the Olympic Peninsula.

The Olympic Herald is 100% reader-supported. We do not answer to corporate media conglomerates or local political establishments—which means this reporting survives only because readers like you choose to sustain it.

To the more than 140 people who have contributed financially to this work thank you. Your trust is the reason hidden emails and records were pried into daylight, the reason two attempts to gag this newspaper failed, and the reason this newspaper exists at all.

If you have been reading along these past six months and believe this work matters, there has never been a more meaningful moment to join them. Every new subscription and contribution directly funds the next records request, the next courtroom, and the first print run in August.

And if you are not in a position to contribute financially at this time, you can support this mission just as powerfully by sharing this article with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues—and encouraging others who are able to make a donation.

Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing our stories, and thank you for standing with The Olympic Herald. The first six months proved what an independent press can do. The next six will prove it wasn’t a fluke.

How You Can Contribute

If you value fearless reporting and want to help fund my ongoing work, please consider contributing through one of the following methods:

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