"Good reporting takes time: to get the records, check the facts, and follow up. Your contribution helps us do that work."
That is the pitch on the Olympic Herald's donate page, preserved in an archived copy captured October 25, 2026. The page asks for one-time gifts of $25 to $500 and memberships of $10 a month or $100 a year. Under the heading "Your support goes into the reporting," it lists two functions: "Public records, requesting documents, reviewing the details, and making records accessible," and "Local accountability, following courts, public agencies, and decisions that affect Washington communities."
"That work" is doing heavy lifting in those sentences. So TROH looked at what the work actually is.
The pitch vs. the publication
The page works hard to make the giving feel good. It carries testimonials from readers: "Olympic Herald provides timely, hard hitting stories that I seldom see reported on other local media," says one, identified as Ed Evans. "Your research and links to documents are the receipts the community need and are much appreciated," says another, Wendy Larson. A third, identified only as Susan: "We must have fearless reporting like you are doing. Thank you. Your journalism gives me hope."
The FAQ anticipates hesitation. "Do I need to pay to read The Olympic Herald?". "No. Our reporting is free to read." "Are contributions tax-deductible?". "No. Contributions to The Olympic Herald are not tax-deductible."
What none of the warm language mentions is the actual composition of the journalism being funded. The Olympic Herald has published 425 articles, every one bylined by the site's owner, Anthony Tomashefsky. TROH's verified census of the archive shows how the coverage distributes across named local individuals:
- Judge Brent Basden. 109 articles. Basden denied Tomashefsky's motion to revise a stalking and harassment protection order in an October 21, 2025 opinion that found the record "amply supports" the case against him.
- Court Commissioner Brian Parker. 58 articles. Parker signed the August 27, 2025 order rejecting Tomashefsky's anti-SLAPP motion in the same protection case.
- Ben Mavy. 17 articles. Mavy obtained the one-year stalking and harassment protection order against Tomashefsky on August 26, 2025, after Tomashefsky failed to appear at the hearing.
- Dr. Steve Tutty. 6 articles, and Dr. William Singer. 5 articles. Two psychologists drawn into the site's coverage through family-court matters.
These five people are, by a wide margin, the most-referenced local individuals in the archive, each connected to its owner's litigation. That is what "your contribution helps us do."
The accountability claim
The donate page's phrase "local accountability" deserves particular scrutiny. Accountability journalism examines people in power on behalf of the public. The Olympic Herald's two most-covered figures are indeed powerful, a Superior Court judge and a court commissioner. But the documented trigger for the coverage was not their conduct in office before the site's existence; it was their rulings against the site's owner, in a case where he was found to have stalked and harassed a private citizen. The site did not exist until two months after Judge Basden's ruling. Its domain was registered December 26, 2025, per registry records; its first articles appeared in January 2026.
The underlying case file is specific about the conduct at issue. The temporary order's findings describe Tomashefsky's email campaign to Wyoming's Game and Fish Department aimed at getting Mavy prosecuted, note that he declined to state any purpose for those emails, and record the court's finding of "long standing rancor" and an intent to see Mavy prosecuted. That is the dispute the site's coverage never describes in full, including, as Reddit readers documented, an article about wildlife allegations against Mavy that omitted the protection order entirely.
A donor giving $500 on the strength of "get the records, check the facts, and follow up" is funding, in the main, a campaign against the people who ruled against Anthony Tomashefsky. The donate page does not disclose that. The archive does.
Contributions are, as the page concedes, not tax-deductible. They are also, on the evidence of 425 articles, not what the pitch describes. The gap between the solicitation and the substance is not a matter of interpretation; it is measurable in the site's own archive, article by article, name by name.
This article relies on public court records and public complaints. TROH welcomes a response from Mr. Tomashefsky and will publish it in full.