More messy aisle cleanups regarding the Crazy Woman today. In chronological order, they played out this way:Early morning: Alaska blogger Jesse Griffin and reporter-videographer Dennis Zaki drove from Anchorage to north Wasilla, to cover the book signing of the pathetic and outrageous collection of lies penned under Sarah Palin's name, titled Going Rogue, being held at the Curtis Menard Sports Complex and Community Center. When they got there, they were refused entry, because it was a private event and the security personnel claimed they were concerned for Griffin's and Zaki's safety.
Late Morning: Andree McLeod's lawsuit, seeking release of emails that the CW and parts of her retinue possibly illegally sent and received on private accounts before she quit her public job to get more involved in "private events" began. Although KTUU-TV was there, and ran coverage of the opening arguments on Tuesday's broadcast news, they haven't yet posted a story on their web site.
Tuesday Evening: The Anchorage Daily News, in their story on the Wasilla book signing, as they added new material on the banning of Griffin and Zaki, cut off comments to their article on this, and disappeared earlier ones. It is the only story featured on the ADN page web edition that currently offers no comment opportunity. No explanation has been provided.
******
Today's overall coverage of Palin is just the latest example of how willingly much of Alaska media merrily continues to go along with enabling this flaky, narcisistic, destructive, dangerous personality, as they so selfishly continue to indulge a fetish that brings them cherished web hits. The ADN article on the Wasilla Sports Complex banning incident, though it permits no comments, seems to be overly incurious, to say the least. And the article links - as always - to the ADN Palin Shrine.
At least the ADN Palin shrine no longer always appears directly under the ADN masthead. The week Bob Poe filed as a Democratic Party candidate for Governor, Progressive Alaska requested that they remove it from the front page, and the ADN complied.
I suppose that, among other things, my friends and colleagues Griffin and Zaki (apparently other progressive Alaskan bloggers - along with their web-based color photos are on the list) were banned for:
Observing that a couple of weeks ago, on a national venue, the CW stated that she has provided a public copy of her youngest child's birth certificate. It was a bald-faced, brazen lie. We covered it, the Alaska media ignored it.
Observing that Palin has, for the past 14 months, reached out almost fervently to the darkest recesses of the basest base of the GOP, through sometimes coded, sometimes over-the-top imagery, and got an ugly response that endangers our president and our Republic. We covered it, the Alaska media ignored it.
Observing that, by instead of going to Western Alaska last winter as our chief executive, the CW chose to instead go there in company with a televangelist who seeks to destroy our Alaska Natives' heritage through surrender to a creed that makes that heritage and its 10,000 years of development meaningless. We covered it, the Alaska media ignored it.
Observing that Palin, by choosing the awful Wayne Anthony Ross to succeed the worst Attorney General in Alaska history, Talis Colberg, had made an historically inappopriate decision. Not only had Ross left a HUGE trail of racist bullshit behind that the ADN and other media sources might have easily pulled up from their own archives, he was more universally reviled by Alaska's Native community than any cabinet nominee in our state's history. We covered it, the Alaska media largely ignored it.
I could continue this list for several more pages, but I am just too fucking sick and tired of wasting time and electrons on Palin. I have been for months.
Will the Anchorage media find out who else was banned? I doubt it.
Will they ever openly admit to their readers that the CW quit because the questions citizen activists like Andree McLeod and Linda Kellen, and Alaska's other progressive bloggers asked about Palin's legal defense fund and book contract forced that resignation? I doubt it.
I've been writing this post for 90 minutes. The ADN comments are still shut off on this story, and this story only.
Why?
Updated - Wednesday - 10:00 a.m: The ADN finally has begun allowing comments, beginning at 9:54 a.m. Alaska time. The influential national blog, Talking Points Memo, is leading with this story.
Updated - Wednesday - 1:30 p.m: ADN Editor Pat Dougherty has provided his version of an explanation on why they arbitrarily turned the comments off on the Wasilla book-signing story:
Readers:
Some of you have asked why comments on this story were turned off. The answer is that because of a defective update of the Pluck commenting software, we have been unable to delete comments anywhere on adn.com since last weekend. And because commenters on Palin stories are unusually prone to violating our commenting guidelines, we were not willing to host those comments without the ability to moderate them. The software was fixed this morning and we can once again moderate comments. You can find a more discussion of our handling of comments on Palin stories on the Editor's Blog.
Pat Dougherty
Here's a link to the discussion at the ADN Editor's Blog.
Once again, Dougherty is treating Palin as some sort of special case. If one goes back through articles at the ADN regarding the actions of citizen activists like Andree McLeod or Linda Kellen Biegel, there are hundreds of instances of commenters "unusually prone to violating our commenting guidelines." These comments weren't moderated,or at least they don't appear to have been. Yesterday and today, for instance, commenters at Richard Mauer's short article about Andree McLeod's Tuesday court appearance have been quite rude and crude toward Andree.
19 comments:
B/C few people read it and those that still do are retired military/revisionist/dinosaurs who ADN ad reps still tell local business owners who advertise on it they will deliver those very mindless sheepeople. the savvy have all moved on to the blogs/alternative media/web shopping
Thanks Phil, nice piece. I do like it when you get angry; it's some of your best political commentary.
Regarding local news coverage of Palin, well at least the Frontiersman let 19 comments through re: the lovefest at the Mack. 18 were not supportive. #19 was a comment from a person that was happy that Palin is a white woman progressing the christian agenda.
If the police officers that removed people from the building did so at the behest of Sarah Palin, then I truly hope that these officers were not in uniform acting in an official capacity as officers of the Wasilla Police Department.
If they were not working as private security officers out of uniform and not driving official vehicles, well then the WPD has some explaining to do regarding taking orders from PRIVATE CITIZEN SARAH PALIN regarding expelling people from a public event.
Last I heard the uniformed, official police car driving officers take orders from their superiors within the force, not Sarah Palin.
Partner and I are looking into how to get info from WPD regarding what capacity officers were acting in; official or not.
This really pissed me off; Palin should not be able to use law enforcement that we pay for as her own personal "pit bulls".
Thanks for letting me vent.
AKPetMom,
Big hugs!
Good questions
Once again, Great post!
And.........Thak you for keeping us all updated with the goings on inside Alaska regarding the Crazy Woman.
It's almost an insult to the real Crazy people outthere to associate their medical disorder with this.... (I hate to call her this, but, woman).
Merry Christmas to you and all of your loved ones!
Dennis Zaki is not a reporter.
"...... to succeed the worst Attorney General in Alaska history, Talis Colberg"....
Phillip, you forgot Renkes, who was Murkowski's AG and hands down the worst AG in Alaska History.
Your critique of Talis is unreasonably harsh and and appears to more of a reflection of your opinion of Palin.
Robert
Great post Phil. The good that comes out of following the antics of the CW is your quest to hold the AK press accountable. Don't stop.
Anonymous said December 23, 2009 5:04 AM...Dennis Zaki is not a reporter.
Sure he is. Do you think he posted his pictures on Alaska Report with no captions, or story? Do you think someone else wrote the stories?
Alaska Report has stopped 'Net-publishing, but that doesn't mean Dennis Zaki isn't still a professional.
Philip, I too long for the day that the CW's 15 minutes of fame have been exausted, and I can watch a TV without her being on it.
Until then, continue with your fine work. Somebody has to keep stating the obvious, that Palin is indeed crazy. It's frustrating that not everyone can figure this out for themselves. All you have to do is look at her eyes when she's talking.
And, since I'm a Canadian, I'll post a link to an outrageous story that most people missed: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/26/palin-tricked-by-comedian_n_371698.html
HuffPo also linked to an article recognizing Palin for telling the Lie of the Year: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/dec/18/politifact-lie-year-death-panels/
Hi Phil, I've been following ADN's comment fiasco since last evening. Pat Dougherty put up a fairly lame excuse (software glitch) for a reason for the lack of commenting on any CW article. I noticed that if the item was solely about CW, no comments were allowed. The story regarding Andrea and the email lawsuit though, even though CW's name is in the headline, was operational. I added the following comment to the list, addressed to Mr Dougherty. I'm copying it here and at Gryphen's site just in case it somehow vanishes from ADN.
kerryann63 wrote on 12/23/2009 11:33:59 AM:
Mr. Dougherty,
I would greatly appreciate it if you could explain to me how shutting down the comments on this story, due to a software failure, differs from allowing comments on the Palin email lawsuit article? I had visited your sight Tuesday evening and found that, while comments were turned off here - they were working just fine over there. Is your software excuse real or are you just protecting Mrs. Palin? Seems that if someone wanted to slam Andrea McCloud in your other Palin article, well that was just fine with you, as long as no one disparages Mrs. Palin.
IMO Colberg and Renkes are tied for worst AG in Alaska history. They both belong in jail.
Phil!
Glad to see you have come to your senses and allowed anonymous commenters again...
HA! It is just easy and quick for those without a google account.
Where is the commentary on Zaz Hollander's pro Mrs. Palin Slant? Zaz said it was a homecoming and not protest signs...directly contradicting a woman with a walker who had 3 signs confiscated. She commented on Shannyn Moore's website...There WERE PROTEST SIGNS...but they were BANNED!
Kajo - Zaki may look like a reporter, he may even pretend to imitate a reporter, but he's no reporter.
He is a fine photographer, a good website designer and even a passing videographer, but he's no reporter.
Not all print reporters make good TV reporters or radio reporters, and not all TV or radio reporters make good print reporters, each medium has it's advantages and disadvantages when it comes to telling a story.
A website that repeatedly publishes as "news", rumors and headlines that haven't been properly vetted, is not producing real "news", it's advocating an opinion or an agenda.
That is of course, as someone who has worked around many professional reporters, only my humble opinion
A professional, even a freelancer would at least have a business license or registered corporation to do their business, but a quick check of the State of Alaska Corporations database shows no corporation or business license registered either under the name Dennis Zaki, or under his real name.
Often times having a business license is the only way to legitimately bid on certain types of jobs, the Municipality of Anchorage requires it of all their freelance contractors.
No, Zaki is good at making up headlines and he takes a hell of a picture, a skill that I readily admit that I do not have, but he's not a reporter.
Thank you.
the argument that Zaki needs a business license before he can be considered a reporter is ludicrous.
You can look up business licenses to your heart's content and you won't find business licenses for all kinds of reporters.
All that argument shows is how far the anon commenter is grasping.
freeper
I've been with Dennis a number of times when he asked far more important, probing questions of politicians than did the other so-called "reporters" at the events. Often he has done this when behind the video camera that is there to record the politician's verbal response to Zaki's query.
If ALL Anchorage and Mat-Su Valley reporters showed the moxie and pluck Dennis has when he gets passionate about revealing the truth, we'd be far, far better off.
DZ can't match AK MSM's diligent, tireless, muckracking reporters who get the NAME and correct spelling of our elected leaders on video.
Requiring any kind of "license" for a journalist would be unconstitutional because it would violate the First Amendment. You need a license to teach school, practice medicine, and even to cut hair in Alaska and most other places, but no one needs permission from the government to practice journalism.
Obviously none of you have ever freelanced in this town. He needs a business license in order to legally conduct business, whether he's selling hot dogs on the street corner or running a so-called "news" website.
I've been freelancing for many years and to even bid on some jobs you need a business license.
Professionals have business licenses, it's what separates us from people like Dennis Zaki.
I've watched Zaki in action when he almost got his ass kicked during the Bill Allen perp walk.
Why did he almost get his ass kicked ? It certainly wasn't because he was acting professional, it was because he was being rude and cocky to Mark Allen. He doesn't have a supervisor to answer to so that gives him license to act like an ass I suppose. If a photog for one of the local TV stations acted like he did that person would have been given a talking to, if it continued he'd have been fired.
A professional wouldn't represent a TV station the way he did that day.
I only make these observations because I HAVE worked around real reporters, professional reporters, and Zaki just doesn't cut it, sorry.
He's a fine photographer, and a fine website and graphics designer, but he's no reporter.
Hey, hey, hey. It's the ranting, misogynist hate fest of the left !!!!
Maybe this bone, tossed to the hysterical anti-Palin losers of Alaska, is this blog's way of avoiding the complete and utter farce of the way the Healthcare bill was passed on Christmas Eve. We have the most crooked Administration in history and all the Alaska leftists care about is Sarah Palin....how truly, truly pathetic...
Post a Comment