Friday, February 28, 2025
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Regarding coverage of the happenings in D.C.

| January 31, 2025 3:00 AM

I’ve gotten a few calls over the last week regarding coverage of the change in the Oval Office recently. Callers have wondered why we haven’t been covering various actions of the newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump or the outgoing actions of former President Joe Biden.  

We’re not ignoring the administrations, past or present. It’s simply that we’re staying focused on our primary mission of covering local news rather than national. We know you have hundreds of choices on TV, online and even through national newspapers to get the news coming out of Washington, D.C. However, at the same time, you don’t have a lot of options to get news about Moses Lake, Ephrata, Mattawa, Quincy and the other cities in our coverage area.  

That local coverage is our focus, and with rare exceptions, that’s what we’re going to remain intent on bringing to you.  

Will you see coverage of the actions President Trump and his administration take in the Columbia Basin Herald? Yes, but only when there is a local impact that is directly affecting our readers such as the rumors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement taking local action to remove those in the country without proper documentation. Those rumors, proven false, directly impacted local school districts and law enforcement agencies and people in our communities served by both.  

While the appointments and confirmations of the president’s cabinet are important, there are dozens of choices to find coverage of those actions.  

Dependable coverage of the new Moses Lake city manager, how those being laid off from REC Silicon are being helped or how local school levies are going — that’s the coverage we’re here for. If we spend time covering national issues, each national story we put out is going to take away a story we could have put out on things closer to home. Issues like the Grant Public Utility District changing rates and trying to plan to meet future demands on its power infrastructure. News about law enforcement’s efforts to curb drug activity in the region. Stories about local students who have worked hard and earned a bit of recognition in the local newspaper.  

It isn’t that we’re neglecting national news. It’s that national news isn’t our mission. Our mission is to cover local and make sure our readers get news that will directly impact them at home, on the road to work or in their workplace. Local news is about what Reps. Tom Dent, Alex Ybarra and Judy Warnick are doing for the Basin community in Olympia. It’s about state legislation that will affect the Basin directly. 

Local news matters. That’s our focus. Whoever sits at the Resolute Desk has our respect — that’s a dang hard job — but our duty here at the Columbia Basin Herald is to cover what’s happening in Grant and Adams counties.  

Take care of one another out there. Stay warm. There's less than two months until spring gets here and planting begins in the Basin. And thank you for your readership. 

R. Hans “Rob” Miller
Managing Editor
Columbia Basin Herald
Basin Business Journal