Volume 5, number 2, March 2003 Murkowski’s Free Pass Each year, the Alaska governor delivers the "State of the State" address before the Legislature, and, in keeping with the ceremonial nature of the act, is usually allowed a fair amount of leeway to openly boast of leadership abilities and speak with self-important, rhetorical flourishes. This does not, however, absolve the news media of providing a fair critique of the speech. In this regard, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner’s coverage of Governor Murkowski’s Jan. 23 speech was woeful. The coverage is little more than a bland recitation of his words, altogether absent of any interpretation or analysis. The News-Miner noted that Governor Murkowski "touched on" several issues, including education. Readers of the newspaper may be heartened to see that education is an issue on the governor’s agenda, but what the News-Miner failed to mention was that the only detail in the speech emphasized a reliance on the federal government to provide education assistance. This demonstrable lack of leadership deserved mention. There are other examples where the News-Miner was remiss in providing any meaningful analysis. While the governor’s address notes his "commitment to a healthy spirit of cooperation with the Alaska Native community" and that "rural Alaska will have a seat at the table," the press coverage failed to mention that the governor previously removed the only Alaska Native on the University of Alaska Board of Regents, Byron Mallott, off the board. Additionally, consider that the governor’s address contains only three sentences on health care. By comparison, he uses fourteen sentences to plead the case for streamlining permits for resource-extraction industries. Here’s another comparison: the three sentences on health care are equal in number to those decrying environmentalists and Bill Clinton for shutting down logging in the Tongass. Health care consistently ranks among the most important concerns for citizens, yet the paucity of attention in Murkowski’s speech too goes unmentioned by the News-Miner. Finally, the news coverage noted that the Governor spoke extensively on the role of oil production to increase revenue, yet the News-Miner failed altogether to analyze whether such broad generalities are realistic options for solving Alaska’s budget woes. In this, their coverage mirrors that of the gubernatorial campaign, where Murkowski went largely unchallenged in his sweeping, and overly optimistic, claims of expanding oil production. These items are worthy of mention in the news coverage of Murkowski’s speech. One expects the governor to employ bold rhetoric and lofty platitudes; one also expects the news media to do more than regurgitate what he said. The News-Miner has a duty to report the governor’s words, that’s true, but also to place those words in a context that makes their relative importance known, and affords the opportunity for individuals to evaluate the merit of his proposals. Anthony Lewis, in a recent review of Bob Woodward’s latest bestseller, Bush At War, writes:
Though the News-Miner may still be satisfied with "just the facts," its readers clamor for some degree of analysis and interpretation. The current state of the news media in Fairbanks, indeed throughout Alaska and the nation, is dismal. Where one is reminded never to confuse outright bias and the nefarious manipulation of facts with plain old sloppy reporting coming from understaffed newsrooms and overworked reporters, consumers of the local news media are often treated to a healthy dose of all of the above. The case provided in this column is but one example of the disservice our news media performs almost daily. The ability of a community to make rational, informed decisions about its own governance is entirely dependent on its access to information. The news media hold a significant responsibility to provide that service, and their failure to do so represents a failure in the workings of our society. There exists a fundamental need for oversight and criticism of our local media outlets. To that end, I announce the formation of Fairbanks MediaWatch, a group of locals dedicated to informing the public of how the media works (or doesn’t), and empowering individuals to demand fair, balanced, and comprehensive reporting. We intend to publish articles like this one in all manner of forums, including e-mail alerts and a quarterly newsletter. Those interested in learning more about Fairbanks MediaWatch and joining our mailing list should contact the author at 479-6946, or mediawatch[at]mosquitonet.com.
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