Alaskan lives don’t matter.
Via KSKA:
In the wake of President Obama’s visit, Alaskans are still sorting out the significance of new climate initiatives, cultural recognition, and more. But there’s lingering frustration among one particularly vocal group, who found that all the president’s messages came from the same place: His staff.
Obama was in Alaska for two-and-a-half days. In that time he made an important speech on the imminent threats of climate change, announced new programs on Arctic research and community relocation, and sped up the timeline for a new ice breaker. During that same stretch of time he did not take a single question from the press.
“There were no opportunities to ask questions, whatsoever,” said Hannah Colton, who covered the president’s visit to Dillingham for KDLG.
“There was not a single opportunity to ask the president questions,” KNOM News Director Matthew Smith said from Kotzebue.
“He did not take any questions,” APRN’s Liz Ruskin told News Director Lori Townsend during Obama’s trip to Exit Glacier near Seward. Asked why the press was on a separate boat from the president in a tour of Resurrection Bay, Ruskin replied, “I think that helps us take better pictures of him.”
The president’s message in Alaska was on the immediate effects of climate change across the state. That story was told visually. Each day of the visit there were poignant press photos of the President standing before a shrinking glacier, holding a glistening salmon, or inspecting fish racks.
“No one would be drying their fish on Kanakanak Beach, in the rain, in September,” Colton said. It was especially hard covering Wednesday’s rainy photo ops for radio, Colton added, because the press was kept too far away for microphones to reach.
Veteran print reporter Lisa Demer with the Alaska Dispatch News was bothered for different reasons during the Dillingham stop.
“I made my best pitch for an opportunity to get in one question. They said ‘that’s just not happening,’” Demer said. “It was terribly frustrating.”
HT: aPLWBinAK