Even if you live under a rock, it’s fair to say that most people in the United States, however they voted (or didn’t), are thinking about how they meet the moment we find ourselves in. This newspaper is no different.
The election of a new president is always a momentous occasion — a time to reset, assess priorities, stick a finger into the wind and see which way new political realities are going to blow. This time is no different. Politicians of yore have perhaps been a bit more circumspect about their intentions for those in our industry — but not the man who will soon occupy the White House for a second time. He has been resolute in calling journalists “enemies of the people,” in threatening to take TV stations he doesn’t like off the air and in threatening to jail reporters who don’t reveal confidential sources.
That type of rhetoric has repercussions. In a February 2024 survey of people engaged in training with the International Women’s Media Foundation, 36% of respondents reported they’d been threatened with or had experienced violence while working as a journalist. Respondents also reported attacks by law enforcement at rallies, when clearly identifying themselves as members of the press.
It’s into this landscape that we have discussions in our own newsroom about our mission — to tell important local stories, and to go deeper into the stories Central Oregonians are talking about — and how we carry that out. Regardless of political changes, our mission does not. If anything, it only puts that objective more in focus. What journalists do to hold governments and elected officials accountable does matter.
As a new administration prepares to take over, here are some of the ways the actions of the federal government could impact your life, and how we plan to cover them:
-Covering Access — or Lack Thereof — to Health Care. Since the 2022 Dobbs decision, Oregon has already become a haven for health care refugees who struggle to access care for important things like reproductive health and vaccines. With a patchwork of differing state laws around reproductive rights and health care access, and with some states now empowered to dig deeper into restricting rights, we expect the number of health care refugees coming to Bend only to grow. We’ll be there to witness it.
-Reporting on Threats to Environment and Education. This past summer, Oregon experienced the most extreme fire season we’d seen in a long time. Fires and other climate-induced disasters are accelerating, and people need access to credible information when there are evacuations or big fires on the horizon. We’ll continue to cover those local events, as well as diving deep into how the federal government is — or is not — supporting fire suppression and forest management efforts in the local area.
If this president makes good on threats to defund “rogue cities and states,” and to hobble both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Education Department, you can bet that will have an impact on Oregon’s children, families and forests.
-Watchdogging Law Enforcement. Throughout the campaign season, reporting on the candidates running for Deschutes County Sheriff became one of our most talked-about coverage areas. Being a watchdog for the most prominent law enforcement official in our county is just the tip of the iceberg; if law enforcement officials once again become empowered to personally interpret the Constitution, or to band together in favor of an extreme firearm protection ordinance (which happened during the first Trump administration), we’ll be there to ensure you have the information you need to know.
Last week, we announced an expansion of our editor team, adding a managing editor and promoting our current editor to Editor in Chief. Earlier this year, we added an investigative reporter to our team. All of these changes now coalesce as a demonstration of our commitment to continue to cover changes that affect Central Oregonians – and to cover it better than we have before.
This is how we meet this moment.
This article appears in Source Weekly November 14, 2024.
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Thank you for literally, taking care of us all with your excellent reporting and caring for Central Oregon, please know you are truly appreciated constantly.
What was the “extreme firearm protection ordinance?” As an ordinance, this must have been something at City or County level, so had nothing to do with who was in the White House.
A ballot measure passed in Columbia County, declaring themselves a sanctuary County, not going to cooperate with State gun control laws. Maybe during the Trump Administration. But the same voters’ elected commissioners sued to overturn it. The judge did overturn the Ordinance and without evidence and irrelevant to the case, attacked Initiative backers as racist anti-semites in her written decision. Is that the kind of personal interpretation of the law you are concerned about? I don’t recall you reporting on that story.
I do appreciate your coverage of topics of concern to Central Oregon.
Raproberto – here’s a story we did on that proposed ordinance in 2018. https://www.bendsource.com/news/more-gun-e…