I submitted a letter to the editor to the PDN a few weeks ago that was denied because it was something that I had posted in the CCWD comments section. My comment was also critical of "harm reduction", stating how I thought that harm reduction increases demand for illegal drugs, therefore supporting cartels and cartel violence. This was after the cartels had just burned down Puerto Vallarta. I was told over the phone that they (PDN) do not allow pieces that have been in other publications. When I said that it was a comment that I wrote on someone else's Substack blog, and questioned if that counts as another "publication", I was told that I could resubmit a different letter. I thought that I had written my thoughts perfectly in my CCWD comment, so I never resubmitted.
Jake have your children write the letter to the editor as an assignment in school. Not only will the teachers go ballistic, the editorial staff will melt. Make sure it's hand written. And their friends can join in as well. Civic 101.
Well, getting told he was not gonna have his article in the paper doesn’t surprise me at all. They’re all in bed together. They only care about their own narrative and nothing else. It sickens me to no end and angers me that they can try to get away with this. We must continue to be vigilant!
These are important issues you raise. Not allowing a candidate to write letters to the editor certainly favors the incumbent who can generally delay filing their declaration of candidacy longer than a challenger. And these positive, see no evil, hear no evil news stories written by government agencies and printed (sometimes without attribution) by the PDN which is supposed to be the watchdog over our governmental agencies certainly stand the First Amendment on its head.
And you are certainly on the right track in pointing out the great contributions the Olympic Herald has made to our society in its short existence. Those contributions have been made without attacking anybody but the officials of the governmental agencies being written about.
This would be a useful lesson for you. You have done a great job at identifying issues in need of correcting. But you have totally alienated a huge portion of the population of Clallam County that could otherwise help you correct the issues you raise by personal attacks on members of the Clallam County Democrats, the League of Women Voters, Indivisible Sequim, and the Sequim Good Governance League, all organizations that I have belonged to. And your recent attack on Tim Wheeler, a member of a long time Clallam County farming family that has been on the leading edge of wanting to hold governments accountable (something you are striving to do) was nothing more than McCarthyism gone wild.
The adverse reaction to your writings among these groups is so strong that even my friends in these groups question my alligence to them when I attempt to point out what a service you do in raising issues. You and your candidate would be well advised to cut out your attacks on these organizations and their members and seek a common ground, as I tried to do with you and your more visible supporters who were so vigilant in watching over the proceedings of the Charter Review Commission.
Ron you are one who is brave enough to step forward and give your opinion even if it has your friends questioning your allegiance. That alone earns respect. Keep writing.
Your comments are a mixed bag of messages. If Jeff were to stop writing articles for fear of “alienation” he would then be in the same category as PDN and the other local newspapers that are failing us.
Ron, I respect you as an individual who is honest about his positions in gov't and personal choices. Whether I agree or disagree with CCWD articles and comments, at least I can choose. As Jeff has stated multiple times, decide for yourself. You stated your ideology throughout CRC meetings with special attention to the water steward issue. Even though the majority of citizens did not want the creation of this department in our local government, you ardently pursued it because you have wanted it for over 20 years. You were in a position of authority and used it to your advantage. With the SG and PDN allowing submitted articles from others in authority with no counter statement allowed to be published, we turn to social media sites that can gives more to the story. If these articles make you feel uncomfortable or "attacked", welcome to my world.
Denise, my comment was intended to express how Jeff could be more effective. There are issues that Jeff raises which I agree need correcting, but they will not be corrected by alienating a huge share of Clallam County's population.
What I like most about your response is that you have 6 likes as of my response. This tells me that differing opinions/perspectives agree with you and there's the potential for more points of view to be considered, but I won't know until they state their individual perspectives which like yours aren't censored here or deleted because they differ. What Jeff affords more than anything else is the ability for people to express themselves.
Thanks Ron. I have always appreciated your even, thoughtful replies. However, you should be convincing your "friends" to open their minds, and embrace the difference of opinions. Old people should not become closed minded and stodgy. They should follow your example.
I feel similarly when I see comments like “The libs…” or “The MAGAs…” OTOH, after a couple years of having a front row seat to what Jeff has personally been put through, I give him a pass. If memory serves, he asks the questions from a place of curiosity until such time that the answers stop coming, then backs up his statements with research.
Ron, I respected your civic engagement, while also disagreeing with much of, what I perceive, your ideology. Are you suggesting that your friends, in the organizations you belong, are are not supportive of your opinions that might differ from theirs? To say that stating facts about a self admitted Communist is McCarthyism is a harsh misrepresentation. McCarthyism refers to making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. Can you provide evidence of false accusations referring to Tim Wheeler or the organizations you refer? You seem to suggest that writers should fear push back from groups you mention, and temper criticism of those groups' ideology. Isn't the warning you make the exact opposite of what you claim you are for? "First they came for...then they came for me..." I prefer to stand and die for the freedom to "push back" against organizations you mention. For you to suggest censorship is demeaning to you and I do not respect that. Not that my respect has any meaning to you.
As Jeff has pointed out, residents can support people who are willing to step forward and challenge the status quo. People’s opinions matter, but alone don’t hold as much power as a substack. If a substacks becomes too powerful in presenting data and questioning policies, they become a target. Below is a perfect example of our county court system in action.
The Olympic Herald went online in Jan 2026, has grown fast (around 600 subscribers) and like CCWD (around 3.8K subscribers) is being censored in discriminatory fashion...worse yet, the more power a system is that is being exposed, the more these individuals are exposed to ever increasing pressure to remove their articles.
Clallam County Court Ends Unconstitutional Social Media Viewpoint Censorship After Olympic Herald Sends Letter: “The Olympic Herald has sent a formal letter to Clallam County Superior Court addressing a troubling pattern of censorship on the court’s official social media channels.”
Internal Emails Reveal Court's Frantic Scramble to Silence Public Before Deleting Facebook Page:
“Newly obtained internal emails reveal that the sudden disappearance followed a frantic, behind-the-scenes scramble by court officials to disable public commentary and delete specific photos after constituents began exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Olympic Herald Facing Legal Attack From Clallam County Judge's Associate After Reporting About The Judge: “The motion asks the court to order the removal of certain articles and requests a coercive fine of up to $2,000 per day until the articles are removed.”
great article that touches on another breach of 1st amendment rights of the citizens in our state. Our county is truly heading in the wrong direction.
Suppressing opposing views or just a different way being shot down is no way to run anything.
I had Pizza with my grandkids in Enumclaw last night and they get it and that's south King County. Clean and again zero graffiti.
you have to ask who wouldn't want a better Clallam county and why?
Public schools have been in trouble for a long time. They want control over all kids just like the countries people flee from. Seems odd to create a place others escape from.
please keep up the good work and Jake is the way to vote!
Wow, I’m new to anything to do with the PDN but this shocks me. Will they at least publish Jake’s comments in the form of a letter to the editor?
Also, I can’t say how much I admire the Forks Forum. It is also owned by PDN. However, as far as I can tell, it is run entirely independently by Christi Baron. Christi writes, edits and many time is photographer for the stories. She’s supported by the community who frequently write stories for each edition and offer a variety of perspectives. Sometimes I hear some gripes about lack of coverage of issues, but for a one woman paper I think she does an incredible job. I encourage anyone looking for a paper to publish an article—submit it to the Forum. It may not have a wide paper circulation but she has a huge Facebook following.
Christi mentioned one time that in however long she’s been running the paper, she hasn’t received a raise.
It's no wonder why the legacy media is dying. Censorship has become so blatant. We had a PDN subscription for 20 years....knowing that they swung left on every issue. It wasn't until they became so clearly one sided 4 of 5 years ago that we ended it. They used to at least pretend to cover both sides of an issue. Until they return to that model they we will no longer support them.
Harm reduction is a self deprecating program. As comparison, why not murder reduction. The principle being that harm or by comparison murder is accepted as inevitable, leaving only attempts to reduce it, as a viable option. The answer to how many times an addict can relapse before society stops their harm reduction is there is no limit. This harm reduction revolving door serves to constantly convince an addict that the problem is not theirs because society took the results of the addict's choices from them. The problem then becomes interminably society's problem, not the addicts; "come back again y'all". We've got free everything to support your addiction; clean needles, less addictive drugs, boofing kits, overdose kits, medical care and more. A way out of addiction should be available, but not repeatedly. When someone repeatedly shows they no longer want their life, how many times should society take that choice from them ? The Ozias brag of less overdose deaths actually shows a lack of compassion. It insures the harm reduction program will increase, by supporting addiction, while simultaneously stealing the results of the addicts choice from them.
Silencing your neighbor so you and your cronies can continue with your theft of other of your neighbors’ money and worse, theft of still other neighbors’ health and happiness, has become painfully obvious to us.
"Harm Reduction", is the bread and butter of liberals. Much money is made off these false narratives for NGO'S. People aren't blind though, we see the values of our town being destroyed little by little. Just like the millions we pay to public defenders to get these revolving door offenders back out on the street to offend again and again. What right do these drug induced people have to offend law abiding people. They have more rights than us, that's clear. VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT!!
I had a relative, old-school Democrat, visit from the east coast who fervently defends the organization. Could not believe what I told them about Harm Reduction. Quickly saw the problems with it and on their own stated that the only way it makes sense is because someone is making money from it.
Interesting because Jake could pay the fee to PDN to have his opinion piece published and document that under PDC rules, but as noted there's nothing in his opinion relating his position to his campaign. Maybe the PDN needs the money.
Mainstream media sources such as the Seattle Times have an internal ethics code which prioritizes diversity of thought. Most papers seek to "elevate ideas that help readers think about the world differently". A challenger’s piece on harm reduction may be seen as high-value "fresh perspective" rather than a political attack, which this clearly is not.
This also helps the PDN avoid an appearance of bias. To maintain reader trust, many editors will provide the challenger a "rebuttal" or "alternative view" slot if they feel the incumbent has received disproportionate "free" exposure for their programs.
Good Governance Daily Proverb:
Good governance does not fear more voices; it fears gatekeepers deciding which citizens may speak and which may not.
I submitted a letter to the editor to the PDN a few weeks ago that was denied because it was something that I had posted in the CCWD comments section. My comment was also critical of "harm reduction", stating how I thought that harm reduction increases demand for illegal drugs, therefore supporting cartels and cartel violence. This was after the cartels had just burned down Puerto Vallarta. I was told over the phone that they (PDN) do not allow pieces that have been in other publications. When I said that it was a comment that I wrote on someone else's Substack blog, and questioned if that counts as another "publication", I was told that I could resubmit a different letter. I thought that I had written my thoughts perfectly in my CCWD comment, so I never resubmitted.
I have a feeling that they have a whole list of reasons why opinion pieces opposing harm reduction won't be published.
$$$$
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for people to send in satire praising harm reduction and what it creates. Yay harm reduction! LOL.
PDN has to read CC Watchdog to see when theyve been scooped.
I count 7 times at least.
John Hauck, news assistant also:
*ran for district 3 charter review but lost
*served as non voting member of PA lodging tax committee same time as out of town BNB owner selected by LSW (Sullivan)
* just finished a term on the arguably dysfunctional PA public safety board
So did he stop writing for the paper during any of those times?
Jake have your children write the letter to the editor as an assignment in school. Not only will the teachers go ballistic, the editorial staff will melt. Make sure it's hand written. And their friends can join in as well. Civic 101.
Here! Here! We should all send letters!!!
BRILLIANT! Have the youngest children use crayons.
just don't have them write in cursive....
Can’t stop laughing !!!
<3 <3
Well, getting told he was not gonna have his article in the paper doesn’t surprise me at all. They’re all in bed together. They only care about their own narrative and nothing else. It sickens me to no end and angers me that they can try to get away with this. We must continue to be vigilant!
I believe the official term is "allergic to work".
Jeff,
These are important issues you raise. Not allowing a candidate to write letters to the editor certainly favors the incumbent who can generally delay filing their declaration of candidacy longer than a challenger. And these positive, see no evil, hear no evil news stories written by government agencies and printed (sometimes without attribution) by the PDN which is supposed to be the watchdog over our governmental agencies certainly stand the First Amendment on its head.
And you are certainly on the right track in pointing out the great contributions the Olympic Herald has made to our society in its short existence. Those contributions have been made without attacking anybody but the officials of the governmental agencies being written about.
This would be a useful lesson for you. You have done a great job at identifying issues in need of correcting. But you have totally alienated a huge portion of the population of Clallam County that could otherwise help you correct the issues you raise by personal attacks on members of the Clallam County Democrats, the League of Women Voters, Indivisible Sequim, and the Sequim Good Governance League, all organizations that I have belonged to. And your recent attack on Tim Wheeler, a member of a long time Clallam County farming family that has been on the leading edge of wanting to hold governments accountable (something you are striving to do) was nothing more than McCarthyism gone wild.
The adverse reaction to your writings among these groups is so strong that even my friends in these groups question my alligence to them when I attempt to point out what a service you do in raising issues. You and your candidate would be well advised to cut out your attacks on these organizations and their members and seek a common ground, as I tried to do with you and your more visible supporters who were so vigilant in watching over the proceedings of the Charter Review Commission.
Ron
Ron you are one who is brave enough to step forward and give your opinion even if it has your friends questioning your allegiance. That alone earns respect. Keep writing.
Your comments are a mixed bag of messages. If Jeff were to stop writing articles for fear of “alienation” he would then be in the same category as PDN and the other local newspapers that are failing us.
Amen, Sister!
I'm not suggesting Jeff should stop writing. There are issues that I wish he would have addressed but has not.
Ron, I respect you as an individual who is honest about his positions in gov't and personal choices. Whether I agree or disagree with CCWD articles and comments, at least I can choose. As Jeff has stated multiple times, decide for yourself. You stated your ideology throughout CRC meetings with special attention to the water steward issue. Even though the majority of citizens did not want the creation of this department in our local government, you ardently pursued it because you have wanted it for over 20 years. You were in a position of authority and used it to your advantage. With the SG and PDN allowing submitted articles from others in authority with no counter statement allowed to be published, we turn to social media sites that can gives more to the story. If these articles make you feel uncomfortable or "attacked", welcome to my world.
Denise, my comment was intended to express how Jeff could be more effective. There are issues that Jeff raises which I agree need correcting, but they will not be corrected by alienating a huge share of Clallam County's population.
Ron,
You lost me at the “Tim Wheeler blah blah”…
You need only to Google him and see his association with the Communist Party USA newspaper…
Not someone I am interested in hearing from.
It would be good for some who think the same of Jeff to read the CC Watchdog.
Only if comments don't offend you and your friends?
What I like most about your response is that you have 6 likes as of my response. This tells me that differing opinions/perspectives agree with you and there's the potential for more points of view to be considered, but I won't know until they state their individual perspectives which like yours aren't censored here or deleted because they differ. What Jeff affords more than anything else is the ability for people to express themselves.
Thanks Ron. I have always appreciated your even, thoughtful replies. However, you should be convincing your "friends" to open their minds, and embrace the difference of opinions. Old people should not become closed minded and stodgy. They should follow your example.
Amen
Are you implying I and my friends are old?
I feel similarly when I see comments like “The libs…” or “The MAGAs…” OTOH, after a couple years of having a front row seat to what Jeff has personally been put through, I give him a pass. If memory serves, he asks the questions from a place of curiosity until such time that the answers stop coming, then backs up his statements with research.
Sometimes ya gotta break a few eggs.
Ron, I respected your civic engagement, while also disagreeing with much of, what I perceive, your ideology. Are you suggesting that your friends, in the organizations you belong, are are not supportive of your opinions that might differ from theirs? To say that stating facts about a self admitted Communist is McCarthyism is a harsh misrepresentation. McCarthyism refers to making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. Can you provide evidence of false accusations referring to Tim Wheeler or the organizations you refer? You seem to suggest that writers should fear push back from groups you mention, and temper criticism of those groups' ideology. Isn't the warning you make the exact opposite of what you claim you are for? "First they came for...then they came for me..." I prefer to stand and die for the freedom to "push back" against organizations you mention. For you to suggest censorship is demeaning to you and I do not respect that. Not that my respect has any meaning to you.
A CURIOUS CASE OF SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP
As Jeff has pointed out, residents can support people who are willing to step forward and challenge the status quo. People’s opinions matter, but alone don’t hold as much power as a substack. If a substacks becomes too powerful in presenting data and questioning policies, they become a target. Below is a perfect example of our county court system in action.
The Olympic Herald went online in Jan 2026, has grown fast (around 600 subscribers) and like CCWD (around 3.8K subscribers) is being censored in discriminatory fashion...worse yet, the more power a system is that is being exposed, the more these individuals are exposed to ever increasing pressure to remove their articles.
AN ATTACK IN SHORT ORDER
FEBRUARY 12, 2026 https://www.olympicherald.com/p/olympic-herald-challenges-clallam
Clallam County Court Ends Unconstitutional Social Media Viewpoint Censorship After Olympic Herald Sends Letter: “The Olympic Herald has sent a formal letter to Clallam County Superior Court addressing a troubling pattern of censorship on the court’s official social media channels.”
FEBRUARY 24, 2026 https://www.olympicherald.com/p/internal-emails-reveal-courts-frantic
Internal Emails Reveal Court's Frantic Scramble to Silence Public Before Deleting Facebook Page:
“Newly obtained internal emails reveal that the sudden disappearance followed a frantic, behind-the-scenes scramble by court officials to disable public commentary and delete specific photos after constituents began exercising their First Amendment rights.”
MARCH 05, 2026 https://www.olympicherald.com/p/olympic-herald-facing-legal-attack
Olympic Herald Facing Legal Attack From Clallam County Judge's Associate After Reporting About The Judge: “The motion asks the court to order the removal of certain articles and requests a coercive fine of up to $2,000 per day until the articles are removed.”
Good morning Jeff,
great article that touches on another breach of 1st amendment rights of the citizens in our state. Our county is truly heading in the wrong direction.
Suppressing opposing views or just a different way being shot down is no way to run anything.
I had Pizza with my grandkids in Enumclaw last night and they get it and that's south King County. Clean and again zero graffiti.
you have to ask who wouldn't want a better Clallam county and why?
Public schools have been in trouble for a long time. They want control over all kids just like the countries people flee from. Seems odd to create a place others escape from.
please keep up the good work and Jake is the way to vote!
Thank you and have a great day all.
Wow, I’m new to anything to do with the PDN but this shocks me. Will they at least publish Jake’s comments in the form of a letter to the editor?
Also, I can’t say how much I admire the Forks Forum. It is also owned by PDN. However, as far as I can tell, it is run entirely independently by Christi Baron. Christi writes, edits and many time is photographer for the stories. She’s supported by the community who frequently write stories for each edition and offer a variety of perspectives. Sometimes I hear some gripes about lack of coverage of issues, but for a one woman paper I think she does an incredible job. I encourage anyone looking for a paper to publish an article—submit it to the Forum. It may not have a wide paper circulation but she has a huge Facebook following.
Christi mentioned one time that in however long she’s been running the paper, she hasn’t received a raise.
It's no wonder why the legacy media is dying. Censorship has become so blatant. We had a PDN subscription for 20 years....knowing that they swung left on every issue. It wasn't until they became so clearly one sided 4 of 5 years ago that we ended it. They used to at least pretend to cover both sides of an issue. Until they return to that model they we will no longer support them.
Harm reduction is a self deprecating program. As comparison, why not murder reduction. The principle being that harm or by comparison murder is accepted as inevitable, leaving only attempts to reduce it, as a viable option. The answer to how many times an addict can relapse before society stops their harm reduction is there is no limit. This harm reduction revolving door serves to constantly convince an addict that the problem is not theirs because society took the results of the addict's choices from them. The problem then becomes interminably society's problem, not the addicts; "come back again y'all". We've got free everything to support your addiction; clean needles, less addictive drugs, boofing kits, overdose kits, medical care and more. A way out of addiction should be available, but not repeatedly. When someone repeatedly shows they no longer want their life, how many times should society take that choice from them ? The Ozias brag of less overdose deaths actually shows a lack of compassion. It insures the harm reduction program will increase, by supporting addiction, while simultaneously stealing the results of the addicts choice from them.
Been debating for a long time about keeping PDN.
Leans one way and really doesn't cover much locally.
This made my mind up to cancel.
Yea, easy call for me as well.
To the PDN and the rest:
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Silencing your neighbor so you and your cronies can continue with your theft of other of your neighbors’ money and worse, theft of still other neighbors’ health and happiness, has become painfully obvious to us.
Do you think God won’t notice?
“Thou shalt not steal.”
"Harm Reduction", is the bread and butter of liberals. Much money is made off these false narratives for NGO'S. People aren't blind though, we see the values of our town being destroyed little by little. Just like the millions we pay to public defenders to get these revolving door offenders back out on the street to offend again and again. What right do these drug induced people have to offend law abiding people. They have more rights than us, that's clear. VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT!!
I had a relative, old-school Democrat, visit from the east coast who fervently defends the organization. Could not believe what I told them about Harm Reduction. Quickly saw the problems with it and on their own stated that the only way it makes sense is because someone is making money from it.
JAKE SEEGERS 2026!!
Interesting because Jake could pay the fee to PDN to have his opinion piece published and document that under PDC rules, but as noted there's nothing in his opinion relating his position to his campaign. Maybe the PDN needs the money.
Mainstream media sources such as the Seattle Times have an internal ethics code which prioritizes diversity of thought. Most papers seek to "elevate ideas that help readers think about the world differently". A challenger’s piece on harm reduction may be seen as high-value "fresh perspective" rather than a political attack, which this clearly is not.
This also helps the PDN avoid an appearance of bias. To maintain reader trust, many editors will provide the challenger a "rebuttal" or "alternative view" slot if they feel the incumbent has received disproportionate "free" exposure for their programs.