Offering vital context to important news events is a crucial part of our job at our newspapers stretched across the high vistas of Eastern Oregon.

Context — a set of facts about some event that occurs — is critical so a reader can accurately and confidently navigate through a logical thought process and develop a conclusion.

Context isn’t an opinion. Opinion, once regulated to specific pages in a newspaper or safely ensconced with set aside time on the air, has all too often wormed its way into stories at newspapers during the past 25 years.

I, and by extension we, are very conscious of how opinion — and not facts — can seemingly unnoticed creep into a news story. That’s why we take a lot of time ensuring that doesn’t happen. Essentially, good news stories should be about the facts. When you finish reading one of our news stories, ideally, you should be able to put the newspaper down and not feel like an opinion either way was pushed on you. Our job is to deliver the facts and then allow you to make a decision. Our opinion page, which is clearly marked as a forum for opinions, is where we deliver our own views regarding a specific subject. Opinion isn’t news.

Along with the commitment to creating a value free platform for our readers, we also want to make sure we can outie the context of every story as much possible. Readers needed the facts of a story, but they also need to know how those facts fit into a broader narrative. For example, a major fine levied by federal or state authorities on a local company should be presented with the background of previous miscues by that firm but also what that particular company has done for the community over the past, say, 20 years.

Both the negative and the positive are important for context.

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The Observer newsroom grew a little this week. Summer Golden comes to the La Grande newsroom through the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism, which pairs student journalists from universities in Oregon with local newspapers. Golden graduated this spring from the University of Oregon with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and a minor in global studies. She hopes to eventually launch a career in journalism. She brings a fresh set of eyes and perspective to The Observer, and that’s a boon.

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If you missed one or more issues of The Observer this week, here are a couple of stories you might have missed.

Last weekend, in print and online we showcased “Voices of resilience,” the first of a two-part series about Indigenous survivors of assault and other trauma. Reporter Bryce Dole started the work for that series last year when he worked for the East Oregonian in Pendleton. Now at our sister paper, The Bulletin in Bend, he partnered with Underscore.news, a nonprofit publication focused on Native American issues, to create the series. Much of that package focused on Desireé Coyote, herself an assault survivor, who is the program manager of Family Violence Services for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. We are running the conclusion to this story in print and online today. Part two focuses on justice for survivors and the legal landscape they must deal with.

The Umatilla National Forest is seeking proposals from interested entities to operate and manage the Spout Springs Ski Area, near Tollgate, and reporter Isabella Crowley has a story on this unique RFP. The site, which had its first public ski season in 1956, is situated in the Blue Mountains of Northeastern Oregon within the Umatilla National Forest at milepost 22 along Oregon Highway 204.

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As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers for their support of The Observer. We can’t do this work without you.