Rural Alaska Footage on KTUU Tonight.
21 01 2009Just got word from Dennis Zaki, that some of his footage was used on the 6:00 news on KTUU, and that on tonight’s newscast at 10pm, there will be footage of the tribal chairman saying thank you to the people who have helped. There will also be some footage of food donations being offloaded from the plane.
In addition, to help you get an idea of the area, I’ll post some shots of Bethel, the “big city” near Emmonak taken by Mudflatter Gary in 2006. Wordpress is grumpy right now, but I’ll get them up as soon as it decides to cooperate!
January 21st, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll be switching the news on now.
On a related note–did anyone hear Dan Fagan’s show today (I don’t know why I listen to him–it’s hell on my blood pressure!) He was talking about Emmonak and had a guest on saying the whole thing is a scam.
Any thoughts on this?
Who was the guest, do you know? And did Fagan agree? Just curious. AKM
January 21st, 2009 at 10:27 PM
I was wondering when the Repubs would bring up the “scam” card. They sure know how to do the “scam” thing that’s why they think everyone else is doing it.
Wish I could listen to KTUU, I don’t get that here.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Dang I missed it!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll check out their site.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:43 PM
I watched it on http://www.ktuu.com. Not anything what I thought it would be. Thanks for the heads up.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:55 PM
I saw this yesterday and so apologies if this has been posted already:
http://www.thetundradrums.com/news/story/4598
This is not the first I’ve heard of the concern of villagers who are worried about the attention, possibly negative, on their plight. Ann Strongheart has dealt with this in Nunam Iqua also.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:05 PM
http://www.thebristolbaytimes.com/news/show/4607
“At one point, Tucker interrupted Jolie, rising from his seat to stand over her with hands on hips.
“Tara, right now, we don’t have a year. Without any offense, just like we’re expecting of Obama … we’re saying how effective can you be? Same thing we’re asking of our governor. How effective can you be?”
This is the worthless woman who says it will take a year to get help. Where does Palin find these idiots? I didn’t know we had so many up here… but wait… I take that back!
January 21st, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Well hopefully it will finally get some news coverage. I am soo glad that they are not backing down and saying no more being the quiet guy…talk about perfect storm…why could this have not been two weeks before or after the Obama story (which was great)….but really bad timing for these people of Alaska.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:45 PM
I don’t get it, why the pictures of green fields and fishing? This to protect AK tourist image? Isn’t it middle of winter, frozen river or something? Last time I check temp was below zero, has it all of a sudden turned spring? Wondering did I miss the Dennis footage? I only saw one pic of airplane landing in darkness. I sure hope there will be more. The department heads are trying to make it sound like no big deal. Villages will just have to buck up until, when???
January 21st, 2009 at 11:45 PM
I watched this that is good to see they are at least paying attention now. One of the newscasters looked disappointed that they mentioned Gov. Palin didnt show up. What I liked, was at least there were a few who were honest to say, we saw this coming. (Les Gara) Now to figure out what to do.
It is so discouraging to hear they are saying this is a “scam”.
That was a good story though, something honest finally, but I hope that, this can make it to a real media outlet that will shed some light on it in the lower 48. I wanted to leave a comment on there, but they dont have a comment section, so I guess I will email them to let them know that I am appreciative of them doing this story.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:38 AM
South Side Chicago
Peaceful Granny (23:45:27) :
Maybe the summertime aerial view was used in the video because one covered in snow would not distinguish the villages (no contrast). It was foolish and touristy to show the child riding a bike. It is good that Les Gara spoke up.
Maybe there are no recent snow covered villages video because the villages are unimportant to those who think that socialism is basically an unchristian tenet? and they don’t like that social justice part of Jesus’ teachings? I dunno.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 AM
Three minutes and 21 seconds is not a bad run for an evening news bulletin. Remember, they have to fit in also too all those commercials, juicy scandals, etc ….. and a puppy story.
I remember that from when I used to watch the evening news.
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:33 AM
From The Delta Discovery:
Small villages share
Emmonak’s crisis
1-21-09
by Roderick Phillip
I feel deeply troubled with Emmonak’s crisis and what their people are going through. We the people of Kongiganak are also facing the same problem here and everywhere else in Alaska.
The problem with villages is that there are limited jobs in our communities and some families do not have any income to support themselves with food and fuel.
There is hope for our community through 3 projects going on here in Kongiganak. The new school project, the airport project, and the water/sewer project. The problem with some of these projects is that local people from Kongiganak will not have a chance to work in these projects.
The school project, AMI, told us that they will hire only 10 people from our village and the rest will come from the lower 48… about 20 out-of-state workers. We have many certified carpenters, welders, plumbers, electricians, and equipment operators and only a handful will work in these projects.
What is wrong with this? Our legislators say that these projects are supposed to give our villages jobs, and the people from Alaska.
The water/sewer project is great example of local hire preference. About 90% of the workers are locals and the rest are from elsewhere in Alaska. The airport project will start sometime this month but I have no information on how many of the local people will get hired in that project.
I recently emailed several of our legislators about this problem and this particular project, the school project, but have not received a response from them. I also talked with the Tribal Administrator and Traditional Council about this problem regarding the local hire preference but have not received any information. They will have a meeting with the school project supervisor sometime in the near future.
I’ve seen families in our village suffer with food and fuel, similar to what the people of Emmonak are facing. I’m trying to seek help for these people with jobs that are available here but only a handful will get a job. We are not a priority in the eyes of the school project… the people from out-of-state have higher priority than local people. This is not right!
Roderick Phillip is a resident of Kongiganak, AK.
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:45 AM
I just watched the video on http://www.ktuu.com. and was , as has been mentioned , by the video that accompanied the story.
Green grass, riding bikes, fishing still?
No indication that it was “file footage”, but they included a shot of an airplane landing on the frozen ground. If they had a camera for the airplane landing and the town meeting…but wait…maybe they weren’t real either.
Nice story though…good to see that it’s getting out there, but if you don’t have REAL video, at least identify it as file footage.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 AM
Gotta ask – why, of all the committees, was Homeland Security sent out there on this?
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 AM
@tigerwine(02:33:51) :
From The Delta Discovery:
Small villages share
Emmonak’s crisis
—
What the author of the letter fails to mention is this — if one family member gets a Davis Bacon job, like working on a school construction job or a Village Safe Water project, that family member will support several households with his/her pay. During the summer, it’s hard for the contractors to find enough qualified local people to hire in some villages, but if they’re working on those jobs out there right now, the contractors should be hiring the qualified locals. He’s got a legitimate complaint. (During the summer, everyone is gone, either commercial fishing or working construction. During the winter, folks are home.)
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:31 AM
Good point, Grewingk! I know all about villages emptying during the salmon runs – down here it’s the deer season!
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:50 AM
Watch Sarah Palin take credit for good will of the people of Alaska. We WILL call her out on that next lie and rub it in the little hos face.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Is Mr. Gara being sincere or trying to save face?
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:34 AM
He appeared to be sincere to me…..perhaps grossly outnumbered, but sincere.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Thank you mwthatone I am from Ga. so I am not familiar with the players. I know he sounded sincere.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:44 AM
AKM–I just listened to DF’s podcast (it’s in the first 15 minutes of the show, for those who want to hear for themselves).
First–at the beginning of the show, as Dan was talking with his producer about the day’s topic, he kept calling the village Emmo*ni*ak. It wasn’t until some callers had called to let them know that there was no *i* in the name that he corrected himself. He went on to say that many are criticizing Palin unfairly for failing to help the village.
His first caller said his name was John and that he was on the Emo city council. He claims that the Emmonak Village Corp increased the fuel price by 70% and that’s why things are so bad. He says he wants to warn well-meaning people from sending money because it’s all a big scam.
I stopped listening to the podcast there, but from what I remember from listening to it live yesterday, Dan did seem skeptical about the villigars claims that they need help and blames the liberal media for not investigating further for fears of seeming un-PC. He then went on to blame liberals for the whole “politicaly correct” movement and I had to turn it off.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Speaking of KTUU, there will be a live feed of Sarah Palin’s State of the State address tonight at 7 PM AKST. There’s a clickable banner at the KTUU site.
Also AKPT Gavel to Gavel will have a live feed. They have today’s entire broadcast schedule listed here.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:22 AM
tigerwine, why don’t you e-mail Pat Dougherty at the Anchorage Daily News with the Delta Discovery/ Roderick Phillip story you posted, and a comment juxtaposing that with the Dan Fagan guest commentary suggesting the whole emergency is a scam?
I would myself, but I don’t want to be labelled “obsessive”, as I have been by a similarly cynical guest poster on Celtic Diva’s blog.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Well, God forbid that even one undeserving soul should receive so much as a carrot, even if it means denying the “deserving” ones.
I’m really sick of the self-righteous conservatives claiming “compassion.” If this is “compassion” then give me the un-righteous any day.
off to glower at the news again
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:35 AM
tigerwine,
This is just a guess, but FEMA was placed under the Homeland Security umbrella – I think with the Patriot Act (not sure there, sorry). After Katrina, FEMA was renamed, and supposedly restructured for more efficiency. Something along those lines.
Anyway, I’m guessing that’s why Homeland Security is in the fact finding group.
Nan
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Nan – the FEMA/Homeland Security connection makes sense now, thanks to you!
Kajo – I’ll try to e-mail the ADC as you suggested as soon as I get a minute!
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:18 PM
A person with a radio show can have anybody call up to say anything at all that serves their purpose. And they do.
That’s a reason why the national right-wing talkback shows became so successful – folks believed what they thought they heard.
I can only receive our NPR station, whose brief is naturally to remain non-partisan, which means they have to allow politicians and agitators of all parties to call up and push their barrows if they are on-topic. I switch off a lot.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 PM
You’re right, Aussie, anyone could call up and say something and there isn’t much accountability. I wonder how hard it would be to find out if there’s someone named John on the Emmonak city council and see if he’ll back up the statements made on Dan’s show yesterday. Perhaps Mr. Fagan could put his journalism skills to work and get to the bottom of it, since as he claims, the liberal media is too scared of being called racists to do it.
And Nan, I agree, I’d rather help out even if that means some people benefit who don’t really need help. Better that than to let them all starve or freeze.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:52 PM
Amen.