One can admire VCA’s two-year-old performance hall and the leaders and donors who made it possible and also admire a news article that explains how the development of the center went a bit awry. We can be fans of the facility, if we are, and grateful for good local journalism too.

I’m speaking, of course, of Elizabeth Shepherd’s June 20 article, “Arts center answers a $6 million question.” It is the finest piece of reporting I can recall reading in The Beachcomber since 1992, which is when I started calling Vashon home. One measure of the article’s quality is that nobody, in the letters to the editor over the past two weeks at least, seems to dispute the truth of what it says. Instead, critics see it as embarrassing to VCA and to the passionate, well-intentioned people who gave the arts center life.

President Trump denounces journalists and organizations who shine truthful spotlights on that which he wishes to hide. He suggests that they are less than good citizens. Let’s not fall into that trap here on our beloved island. Vashon needs fearless journalism.

— Peter Rinearson