68. The Western Edge
Journalism that cuts through
That little number at the top of these posts? That’s how many months I’ve been writing here on Substack. Today marks dispatch #68, which means I’ve been putting out this newsletter for five-and-a-half years. Wild.
This week also marks the beginning of something very new and very exciting.
The Western Edge is a new publication I’ve just lauched here on Substack with my reporting partner, Ryan Haas. You’ve heard us making journalism together for eight years now through the podcasts Bundyville and Hush1, and now we’ve decided to team up to start our own media outlet.
Last week, we published a couple of personal essays about why we started this project.
In my essay — called “Why I Won’t Quit" — I talk a bit about the mental shift I’ve undergone in the last few years about why I make journalism, and how I’ve become more focused on doing reporting on the Northwest for Northwesterners instead of trying to translate our region to readers elsewhere.
An excerpt:
I was so sick of seeing the same paragraphs in every story about my hometown, Portland: for a while it was Portlandia-Little Beirut-bicycles-coffee, then after 2020 it became riots-homelessness-drugs-liberals. There seemed to be a total lack of understanding about the Northwest. Pearl-clutching bullshit was passed off as unbiased journalism. I had aspired to write for many of these publications, but they seemed to be filled with line-toeing, power-loving, state violence-normalizing, conventional-thinking reporters who treated my home like it was a child that needed a lecture from an adult.
Ryan’s piece — titled “I Had a Dream Journalism Job. Here’s Why I Quit.” — is devastating, especially for anyone who believes that public radio, or nonprofit media, is untouched by the storms that have ripped apart other media outlets.
In his piece, Ryan spells out the ways corporate rot seeped into the halls of Oregon Public Broadcasting2, and the way that crushed his ability to work there. The nail in the coffin was the cancellation of our show Hush — a project we both devoted our lives to in the past two years. Here’s a bit from Ryan:
My faith in OPB’s ability to deliver on its mission shattered this fall when they informed Sottile and me that the organization would be ending our investigative podcast, Hush. In two seasons, the show had been a massive success by all measures – it helped free a wrongly-accused man who spent 17 years on Oregon’s death row, and it highlighted the cascading bureaucratic failures that derailed the death investigation of a young woman in rural Oregon. Our first season won a National Headliner award and was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. The series embodied the highest goals of local journalism, bringing voice to the voiceless through rigorous reporting and demanding powerful people answer for their actions. Sottile and I poured thousands of hours into each season. Hush is journalism I’m incredibly proud of.
And yet, OPB canceled the show for no clear reason. When I asked Chief Content Officer Jason Potts, who was hired under Smolkin, if he had even listened to the show before canceling it, he told me no.
From the still-smoldering ashes of Hush, The Western Edge was born, and yesterday we were very, very proud to publish our first piece of journalism.
The story — “Is Redemption Possible in Oregon’s Capital City?” — discusses the media frenzy that swirled around Kyle Hedquist a couple months ago, and the backroom deals that were happening to get him off the city’s police oversight board.
And, here’s an excerpt from that article:
When Hedquist walked out of prison, everyone knew he was a murderer. Newspapers and TV stations ran stories about his clemency. [Nikki] Thrasher’s mother told a television station she was unaware he’d been released. Politicians slammed [Gov. Kate] Brown, even some in her own party, for taking mercy on a killer.
Eventually, the headlines died down. Years passed. Hedquist got a job. He got married. He spent his free time volunteering with the elderly, picking up trash around Salem and signing up for community boards.
It felt like Oregon’s capital city opened its arms to him.
In 2024, Salem’s city council unanimously appointed Hedquist to a spot on the Community Police Review Board, or CPRB, a volunteer citizen panel that reviews complaints about police brought by residents. In early December 2025, city leaders reappointed him to the board for another term.
But days later, something changed.
The city’s embrace of Hedquist abruptly ended.
The idea of The Western Edge is to continue practicing the brand of deep-dive investigative journalism we’ve established with our other projects, and bring it to as many places in the Northwest, and beyond, that we can.
We’re one-hundred percent powered by subscribers. So please give it a think, and if you like what we do, consider a paid subscription.
Nothing will change here. I’ll keep writing to you at least once a month, continuing this project of interviews and essays and chatter about journalism, and whathaveyou. Your subscriptions will continue to fund my work, just like you have been for the past few years3. Lately, subscriber dollars from here have funded an epic public records battle I’ve been waging (will tell you more when I can) and you’ve paid for so much of my time to tackle some of the bigger stories I have in the works, and get the Edge rolling.
And yes, the art at the top? That’s inspired by an essay I wrote in this very newsletter all about The New York Times and the ways it dispatches reporters into our region who, very sadly, think trees smell like taxi-cab air fresheners. At the very least you know that at The Western Edge we can identify the difference.
A FEW MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS!
Well, here’s a cool thing: Blazing Eye Sees All is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award! My book — about lost civilizations and alien/hybrid people and drinking poison and White House seances! Wild. I’m very flattered to be nominated for a second time for this award.
If you’re in Portland, next week I’ll be in conversation with the great journalist Christopher Mathias, who will be talking all about his new book To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right. It all goes down Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 pm at the Clinton Street Theater. You need a ticket for this one (and one option gets you a signed book). I absolutely love this book, and devoured it in one weekend.
On March 6 at 7 pm, I’ll be in conversation with Emily Grosvenor at the McMinnville Library. We will be talking about journalism and my books. Yamhill County never disappoints me with their questions, and I hope you all will come out again and say hello.
For fans of these shows, we were very excited to see the fine folks at Nieman Storyboard at Harvard wrote this article about our approach to ethical true crime reporting, and run a podcast interview all about us.
The OPB Creators’ Union is fighting tooth and nail with management for a fair contract. I hope they can be successful.
By the way, if you’re ever like “what has she done with our money?” I think a cruise over to my website to review some of the greatest hits there will give you a taste of the books, articles and podcasts I’ve made in the last few years.
Congratulations on both your new endeavor and your nomination for "Blazing Eye Sees All," Leah! I just purchased an annual subscription. I share your grief over OPB. I've supported them in the past because of you, not sure if I can continue to do so.