CBS examines misguided editorial in the "Mat-Su Frontiersman": "Use of deadly force" against Joe McGinniss just a "humorous" remark? - UPDATE!

Yesterday, the Mat-Su Frontiersman wrote an editoral titled "Wasilla fence fascinating for national media outlets" in which the paper repeatedly referred to the rest of the US as "Outside", was unsympathetic to author Joe McGinniss and contained a closing paragraph that was interpreted as a warning to him:

"Finally, those who are fond of Joe McGinnis might remind him (if he doesn’t already know) that Alaska has a law that allows the use of deadly force in protection of life and property."

The editorial wasn't signed and caused a strong reaction, as was apparent in the earlier comments. Here are a few examples:

" No author on this "opinion" piece? Just curious, because I would love to ask him or her what he/she means by the last 2 lines of this article. Is it meant to be a threat, or "friendly" warning, much like Palin's FB rant? To me, it's quite threatening. Shame on you Frontiersman and author of this piece. "

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THIS IS AN EDITORIAL OPINION?? Are you sure you want to go there?
Because, of course, your apparent warning to Joe McGinniss and anyone who's supporting him WORKS BOTH WAYS -- and if anything happens TO Joe McGinniss -- anything at all -- the Palins and ALL their close friends, associates, cronies, and political allies become prime suspects."

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" Wow...
Cancel my subscription. Perhaps if enough of us do that, you'll think a bit more about publishing threatening editorials with no by lines. Shame on you Frontiersman. Perhaps your editor needs replacing, or perhaps we need to go back to no newspaper in the valley. "

Today this editorial caught the attention of Scott Conroy from CBS:

CBS found out who wrote the editorial:

Managing editor Tom Mitchell, who wrote the editorial, said that it was vetted by the Frontiersman's publisher, Kari Sleight, and a reporter at the newspaper.

"I didn't see it as being controversial. It's just a statement of fact," Mitchell told CBS News. "Plus, it was intended to be more humorous than anything."

Mitchell added that he wrote the editorial because he was surprised by how much national interest the controversy had generated.

Mitchell also used some of Sarah Palin's words:

"Fences have been known to make good neighbors and everybody knows we could use a lot more of those around here."

We would like to raise a few points:

• Regarding the fences, this a very curious statement. What do they mean? Is it the Alaskan way to build as many fences as possible?

• The editorial was written by the Managing Editor and "vetted" by the publisher and another reporter: What does it say about journalistic standards at the Frontiersman, one of the leading AK newspapers, that nobody thought that there was something wrong with the editorial?

• Immediately after the editorial was published yesterday, people left outraged and/or critical comments on the Frontiersman website. There would have been enough time to clarify what the Frontiersman actually meant, AND the readers in their comments actually ASKED the Frontiersman right from the start to clarify what they intended to express! Despite this, the Frontiersman didn't respond or clarify. Therefore we think the statement that the last sentence was meant to be"humorous" is not credible - they saw that many people were outraged and took the sentence seriously. They had the obligation to clarify, which they still haven't done in the article.

• Several Alaskans showed in the comments as well and they were unhappy with the editorial. Not all Alaskans want to build fences or believe that violence is the answer in resolving their grievances.

• When Mitchell says that it was just a "statement of fact" he doesn't say that it was written in a very strange way and could very well be understood as if the killing of Joe McGinniss could be justified under certain circumstances. Also, it is not understandable how such a "statement of fact" can be "humorous" at the same time.

• People like the Palin-fanatics at C4P also take the Frontiersman very seriously and applaud them:

"At least there is still someone out there in the media with a sense of common courtesy and honest reporting."

Finally, we find it disturbing that the "Frontiersman" completely fails to acknowledge the general picture.

We have this absurd situation where a mad and uniquely unqualified woman like Sarah Palin is sitting in her compound in Wasilla plotting with the help of leading Neocons and other shady individuals to become the next US President (and we KNOW that she will run for President, make no mistake). The well-informed journalists at the "Frontiersman" and at other papers know very well that this woman comes with heavy baggage and has absolutely no business in running for President. Hardly any contender for this position ever had more skeletons in the closet than Queen Sarah.

It should be the task of the local Alaskan media to tell the world the truth about Sarah, instead of getting agitated about the fact that Palin's crazy fence got attention from the national media. If Alaskans would do their duty, the "politician Sarah Palin" would come to an end soon. They should applaud the fact that an author from "outside" wants to find the truth about Sarah and her ugly secrets. It's what THEY should be doing themselves.

The national media is not looking at the fences in Wasilla. They are looking at Sarah Palin.

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UPDATE (by Patrick):

Already an update. The Alaskan ice princess just twittered, "offering some advice to Gov. Jindal", as C4P calls it. I would like to share this tweet with you, which was written by the woman who is on a mission from God to become the next US President:

"Gov.Jindal:to avoid ravished coast, build the berms.Ask forgiveness later;Feds are slow to act,local leadership&action can do more for coast"

She really wants to build walls now ;-)

Kathleen found an interesting link regarding these "Gulf sand berms" with very detailed information:

"Politics trumps science and common sense again - my view, clearly, but I am not alone. I wrote earlier this week of what seemed to me to be a lunatic and massive experiment in sediment engineering along 80 miles of the Gulf Coast under the guise of oil protection. Now we read, from the US Army Corps of Engineers:

NEW ORLEANS – Today, May 27, 2010, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District Commander Col. Al Lee offered an emergency permit to the state of Louisiana for portions of their barrier island plan.

OK, it's now only 45 miles long - an initial experiment - but it's a huge project nevertheless, of unknown effectiveness and consequences. This post will be largely an attempt to guide readers to the key documents and highlight the key issues - and concerns. Since I concentrated previously on the Chandeleur Islands (otherwise known as the Breton National Wildlife Refuge) and a long stretch of these islands will be the location for one half of this experiment, I'll continue to use them as an example. I'll then provide extracts from the submitted permit and the commentary on it, together with some extracts from a deeply relevant piece of excellent science published last year - that seems to have been entirely ignored. This will be a long post, largely because I want to make available some of those extracts that are important, and so I'll copy them here, together with the links for further investigation."

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UPDATE 2 (by Patrick):

Brilliant! You think it's a slow news days, and then Sarah Palin's eternal stupidity strikes again!

Sarah Palin deleted the twitter message shown above! It doesn't show up in her list of tweets any more, and at first I wondered whether this is a technical glitch, but in this rare case I believe the Palinbot-commenters at C4P:

Well, Sarah: Maybe double-check your tweets with your highly paid neocon consultants next time, before you write "ravished" garbage again?

Another Peebot-commenter has a different possible explanation - leave it to them to decide why their Queen is a moron ;-)

Funnily, we probably would have never known about this tweet, had not C4P trumpeted that their great leader "offers some advice to Jindal" and linked to the tweet:

Thank you so much, Peebots!

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BONUS - Palinbot commenter of the week:

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