Should Alaska Media Call Out Palin on Her "Wasteland" Comments on ANWR?

Here's Media Matters for America's clip of Sarah Palin being interviewed by Greta van Susteren for FOX's upcoming series of The Record interviews with Palin:


Both Palins claim that the coastal plain part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is somehow barren:

Sarah: Todd's suggesting there that the fundraiser pictures and the websites that show waterfalls and moose and mountain ranges and Dall sheep climbing along shale - that's not the real ANWR.

Van Susteren then asks Todd, "Is there anything to ANWR besides the "flat" that we've seen? Is this pretty much a representation of what we've seen of ANWR?

Todd: Pretty much.

Back on the shore of Lake Lucille, the Wasilla lake Palin's mayoral policies helped to further imperil, Palin says of ANWR, "Everybody expects it to be different because they believe the extreme environmentalist fundraiser posters and websites that want you to believe it is this pristine, mountainous, flowing with rivers and waterfalls and lots of wildlife up there. Some people refer to it basically as a "wasteland."

Later in the segment, Palin continuously refers to the Democratic Party as "the Democrat Party."

"Those that represent the Democrat Party, and one of our Senators does represent the Democrat Party, isn't getting anywhere, because his Democrat colleagues want nothing to do with the safe, responsible domestic drilling any place in Alaska. But he's in favor of it."

Meanwhile, Ruport Murdoch, Palin and Van Susteren's boss, has given another one million dollars to the GOP.

Will Alaska's "lamestream media," to borrow Palin's term, call her out on this inaccurate portrayal of the wildlife refuge? Of course not.

Jesse Griffin covers other aspects of Palin's Van Sustern interview today, notably their talk about the Islamic Community Center in lower Manhattan.