Aaron Caught It, Brendan Didn't

Anchorage AM Radio KFQD talk show host and Anchorage Daily News columnist, Dan Fagan, started an internet presence, called the Alaska Standard, apparently on October 1st.

The site's masthead proclaims, "Raising the banner of journalism in Alaska." Fagan lists, as of today, the following people as contributors:

Dan Fagan, Rebecca Logan, Dave Dittman, Alex Gimarc, Glen Biegel, Penny Nixon, Marc Langland, Rep. Mike Hawker, Glenn Clary, Loren Leman, Ken Boyd, John Binkley, Sarah Erkmann, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Fauske, Becky Hultberg, Jim Minnery, Larry Norene Ralph Samuels, Dan Jarrell, Rep. Charisse Millett, Dave Stieren, Mead Treadwell, Paul Laird, Scott Hawkins, Matt Moon, Paula Easley, Mike Porcaro, P J Hill.


I can find contributions by many of these folks at the site, but not all. And I look forward to seeing more opportunities for great Alaskans, like Mead Treadwell, to express their views.

I don't visit the site very often, but it looks like it will shape up to be something viable. But "journalism"?

Brendan Joel Kelley, in this week's Flashlight column at the Anchorage Press, tried to compare Fagan's blog to the most interesting new internet journal in Alaska, the Alaska Dispatch. As far as I can determine, this was Kelley's first reference to the Dispatch.

In the Flashlight piece, Kelley waxed about Fagan's blog. And, as Aaron Selbig noted yesterday, at The Penitent Scribe, Kelley was imprecise in his description of Fagan's new niche:

I love political blogs and read every one that's listed on the left side of this page.

I guess the problem I have is when ambitious sites like this declare their intention to "raise the banner of journalism" and pretend to be something they are not.

Let me try to be clear on this, as I think I have a special perspective on this as both a journalist and as the former publisher of one of the first politically-oriented websites in Alaska. The argument that many bloggers, AM radio talk show hosts and "citizen journalists" seem to be making is that the mainstream media is so full of biased and political bent, it's up to them to put out information and reporting to counter it.

And that's just fine. Put out your opinion. Get your thoughts into the marketplace of ideas. But remember one thing: there is, and always will be, a place for trained journalists, folks who spend all of their time chasing the stories that matter to their community and trying to present them in an unfiltered, unbiased way. Sure, journalists have political ideals of their own and sometimes it's difficult to keep those biases from creeping into stories. But every journo I know ALWAYS has that fact in mind and holds close to their heart the true purpose of their profession: to serve their community.

Journalists, unlike bloggers, always have their bylines attached to what they write and face consequences for getting facts wrong or for painting a story in a slanted way.

You are a blog, Alaska Standard, as are the rest of Alaska's political opinion blogs. Go with it. You are not trained journalists, you are sellers of a political ideology.

When Fagan told Kelley, "We’re going to have people who are liberal post and help too..." Kelley didn't come back with what most journalists would have immediately wanted to ask, "Which liberal journalists?"

I suppose we'll find out soon. Maybe Dan has Brendan in mind, eh? Probably not me, though. Unlike Brendan, I'm not about to suck up to the big guy. And yes, Brendan, that's exactly what your Flashlight piece was. Sucking up.

I can't believe that, on the one hand you compared the Dispatch to the Standard in the same set of paragraphs, and then - on the other hand - neglected to point out the serious distinctions between the approaches toward fact presentation at the two sites. You're young, so maybe you'll learn.

Before I leave this BJK subject for the next, I should point out that Dan Fagan recently won an Alaska broadcasting award. He was honored last month, by the Alaska Broadcasters Association, with their Best Radio Show Division 1 Award, for a segment called "Dan Fagan vs. an Atheist."

After the KFQD Program Director, Joe Campbell announced the award on Dan's program, I was the first to call and congratulate him. And that, after him having called me a "despicable person" for having defended Obama (after he hung up on me) a couple of days before the election.

Back to Brendan. In Kelley's salute to Robert Dillon, who has had to close down his blog, An Alaskan Abroad, to take a new job as an energy advisor, supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski's role as ranking member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Brendan wrote this:

The new gig means that Dillon has shuttered his popular D.C./Alaska blog, An Alaskan Abroad, which stood head-and-shoulders above the glut of hand-wringing, partially-informed, political blogs here in the state.

Kelley then goes on to compare Dillon to the supposedly incomparable Sheila Toomey, at the Anchorage Daily News. He fails to mention which Alaska blogs are so pathetic. Why? Is it lack of courage, or discretion. After all, we are so few, Brendan.

Writing the Flashlight column at the Press is a tricky niche. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to watch how writers at the Press handled the Flashlight responsibilities along with their other tasks there as journalists. Brendan seems to be caught in some sort of a weird labyrinth of his own making.

He'll need a very good flashlight to find his way out.

Update - Saturday 11:50 p.m: I have changed the inaccurate references to the Alaska Dispatch, which appeared as Alaska Journal or Journal, to be accurate.

image of Dan Fagan by Edward Teller