'Sarah Palin's Alaska' may be TLC's strongest play for a middle-class audience

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Los Angeles Times television reporter Scott Collins writes that Discovery Communications' TLC network is making what may be its strongest appeal to date for the non-elite, middle-class audience, with "Sarah Palin's Alaska," its new series starring the former governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate:

The combative former Alaska governor is teaming with reality super-producer Mark Burnett to start production next month on a one-hour, eight-episode series in which Palin "will show, first-hand, what it means to be Alaskan," according to an internal summary developed by the channel's ad department. "Each one-hour episode will feature taking on a different job, a new adventure.

"She may be hauling nets with her husband, Todd, on his commercial salmon fishing boat on Bristol Bay, roughing it in a logging camp or spotting grizzly bears while camping on Kodiak Island," the summary continued. (Neither Palin nor Burnett was available to elaborate.)

Whether the show will connect with its target audience is anyone's guess; Palin is already a contributor and show host for Fox News, another network self-consciously aimed at non-elites. But it's the strongest proof yet that TLC, a unit of Discovery Communications, which also operates Discovery, Animal Planet and other networks, is determined to become the antidote to Bravo, a rival cable network that has perfected the fine art of chasing upscale viewers with wry, trendy, often-sensational fare.

"We tend to be less snarky, edgy," TLC president Eileen O'Neill said from the company's offices in Silver Spring, Md. "There's something for everyone here. We do shoot all around the country. Our topics and people tend to represent a lot of daily American lives — a little less of the edgy, cooler" material than is found on Bravo or elsewhere.

[...]

O'Neill promised that the ex-governor has been intimately involved with the show's development, even though "there won't be her opinions in the show, politically or otherwise."

"There's nothing on TV, honestly, that we can say this is like," she added. "People have asked, 'Is it a nature documentary? Is it a travelogue? Is it a docusoap? Is it a reality show?' It's going to have pieces of a lot of things people are familiar with, but there's no one label."

A well-organized campaign by leftist political operatives and radical animal rights activists to pressure Discovery into dropping the series seems to have become an EPIC FAIL. Discovery understands that such anklebiters are not among its target audience, but likely watch Bravo instead. "Sarah Palin's Alaska" will debut on TLC on schedule. The more her enemies try to destroy Sarah Palin, the stronger she seems to become.

- JP

A sample letter to Discovery Communications' CEO

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Sarah Palin supporters, conservationists and others who simply would like to have the opportunity to view the series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" and judge it for themselves are up against a well-organized and well-financed negative campaign by the radical leftist front group Defenders of Wildlife. Even those who are not supporters of Gov. Palin should be concerned that a pressure group is attempting, through rank censorship, to determine what they can and cannot watch on television. Such a practice is the antithesis of the concept of free speech, the basis of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

We urge all of our readers who have not done so to sign the petition to let Discovery Networks know that you want to have the opportunity to watch "Sarah Palin's Alaska" on their TLC channel when it airs this summer. All you have to do is click on the widget at the top of this blog's sidebar on your right.

You can have more impact by also sending a letter or email to Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Such letters are always more effective when written in your own words, but for those who don't have the time to compose such a letter, we offer the sample below:

David M. Zaslav
President and CEO
Discovery Communications Inc.
One Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Dear Mr. Zaslav:

I was pleased by your company's announcement in March that Discovery Communications had acquired rights to the proposed series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska. The 49th State is America's last frontier, and it is a land of natural wonders and majestic beauty. It is also a place where the pioneer spirit is still very much alive in the interesting characters who choose to live in a rugged wilderness which offers many challenges and great rewards. My friends and family have been looking forward to viewing these programs on The TLC network, but now we fear that we may never get the chance to see the series.

It has come to our attention that a well-financed public relations smear campaign by the animal rights group Defenders of Wildlife is being conducted to urge Discovery communications to drop “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” before the first episode is even given an opportunity to be shown. What the Defenders' campaign amounts to, in our opinion, is a form of censorship which is the antithesis of free speech, the very foundation upon which mass communication through various media outlets in our nation is based.

The rhetoric coming from Defender’s reflects an unscientific, emotional appeal which ignores the science supporting the predator management program in Alaska, one which was practiced before, during and after Governor Palin's term as Governor of that state. After years of research, it is recognized by practically all state and federal wildlife officials that predator management is a prerequisite for guaranteeing stable populations of prey species. Given that many Alaska residents rely on moose, caribou, and other wildlife species for food, it becomes imperative that those species not be decimated through lack of predator management. The Alaska wolf management program accomplishes this. It does so through a rigorously regulated, scientifically based system targeting only those predators in areas where wildlife populations are not able to reach adequate levels of sustainability in the program’s absence.

While Defenders may have at some time in the past been genuinely concerned with the well being of wildlife, the organization's increasing focus on targeting Sarah Palin reveals that today, Defenders is more interested in practicing politics than it is concerned about wildlife. Please do not allow Discovery Communications to bend to pressure from Defenders and similar "animal rights" groups with radical political aims.

As Americans, we are all guaranteed the right of free speech by the Constitution of the United States. That includes Discovery's right to air "Sarah Palin's Alaska" as well as all Americans' rights to enjoy whatever we choose to view from the diverse menu of cable and broadcast television offerings available today. I implore you not to let this pressure group take away my right to watch "Sarah Palin's Alaska" or any other program on your networks.

Sincerely,

Please edit the sample to match your own concerns. Personalized communications are always more effective than form letters. To send your letter by email, click here. You can also call Discovery Viewer Relations at 1-859-342-8439 to express your views.

- JP

It's time for the Pretenders of Wildlife to go

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Just say YES. Tell Discovery Communications you want to see the series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" on TLC.

- JP

Defenders of Wildlife can't be that stupid, can they?

They are all about destroying Palin, not saving wolves
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The organization Defenders of Wildlife would like you to believe that the group's name describes what they are all about. This is the mission statement:

Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities.

While that may have indeed been the organization's goal at one time in its history, today that mission statement is a lie. Truth is, Defenders is nothing more than a front group for radical leftist politics. Consider that if the group's real purpose was protecting animals in their natural communities, they would show at least a modicum of concern for the herd animals -- caribou and moose -- which are the prey of wolves. But no, all the hacks want to talk about are fuzzy, lovable wolves.

One doesn't have to do much research to learn that if left alone, wolves would decimate the herds in Alaska. Do the math. Wolves bear litters of four to five pups at a time, while caribou and moose are limited to single births. Those same caribou and moose are the wolves' favorite food group, and their hunting tactics are deadly efficient. Every time the State of Alaska has taken a hiatus from controlling the wolf population, the numbers of herd animals quickly drop to alarming levels. We say "alarming" because Alaska's native people depend on hunting caribou and moose to feed their families.

Most native Alaskans live in very small, remote villages which don't have supermarkets, and even if they did, the price of beef and pork would be prohibitive for the natives, many of whom live at the subsistence level. Indeed, many of the villages are so remote that electric power transmission cables and natural gas lines are only a pipe dream. They burn wood for heat and have to depend on portable generators for electricity. The primary modes of transportation are dog sleds and four-wheelers. Hunting caribou and moose is not a sport for these people, and it is much more than a tradition. It is a necessity.

This is why the Fish & Game Department practices scientific predator control. It's not done out of rank cruelty, as Defenders and other such groups insinuate, but rather to protect the herds from their primary predators -- the wolves. What is cruel is the impact wolves would have on Alaska's native populations if Defenders of Wildlife is allowed to have its way, as this video from Defenders of Wild Food attests:



Which is more humane -- a clean shot through the head of a wolf, or the pack running down and eating caribou calves alive? Now we have no quarrel with letting the wolves get their meals in the wild, but again, in certain areas, to keep them from driving down the herds' numbers to dangerously low levels, the wolves' numbers have to be managed through the practice of predator control.

Defenders of Wild Food is an organization which was formed to fight the lies being spread about wolves in Alaska by the well-financed Defenders of Wildlife, and to educate people about the importance of wildlife to the everyday lives of Alaskans.

We've covered all of this before, here, here, here and here, just to cite a few of our posts on the issue.

But again, it's not about wolves or wildlife. To answer the question posed in the title of this post, no, Defenders of Wildlife, at least those who control it, are not that stupid. In its present-day incarnation, the group exists primarily for the purpose of promoting the radical far left political agenda. That's why they ignore the facts of Alaskan life and continue their attacks. And those attacks, especially since the day she was named to the number two spot on the 2008 GOP presidential ticket, have been almost exclusively aimed at Sarah Palin. It's clear to anyone capable of rational thought that the aim of these leftists is not to save wolves, but to destroy Sarah Palin.

One thing that leftists abhor is the unencumbered presentation of both sides of an issue so that people can decide for themselves. Free speech is not an option for anyone but those who are on their side of the issues, so they are pouring their considerable resources into an all-out campaign to try to convince Discover Networks, Inc. to drop the series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" before it even gets a chance to air. Rather than let people decide with the channel buttons on their remote controls, the leftists want to silence the former governor.

Please take action. Let Discovery Communications know that you support their production of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” There are two ways to do this. The easier option is to sign this petition. You will have the option of including comments, if you so wish.

You can also write to David Zaslav, Discovery’s CEO. Please let him know that Gov. Palin is regarded as a conservationist by those familiar with the principles of wildlife management and predator control, and the anti-Palin rhetoric coming from Defenders is at best an unscientific, emotional appeal and at worse pure politics. Mr. Zaslav's address is:

David M. Zaslav
President and CEO
Discovery Communications Inc.
One Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910

You can also send Discovery an email about its programming by clicking here or call Viewer Relations at 1-859-342-8439.

Thank you for supporting Gov. Palin, Native Alaskans and reasonable, scientific methods of wildlife management.

- JP

Petition Drive Supporting 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Gains Momentum

- By special guest blogger Fay
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As with all things Palin, Governor Palin’s upcoming Alaska documentary series has come under attack by the left, in the guise of protection of wildlife. Radical environmental groups, such as Defenders of Wildlife and CREDO, have led the charge. Backed by considerable funding, they have collected over 500,000 signatures through petitions sponsored by Defenders, CREDO, Care2, and Change.com. A summary of their efforts to date against Governor Palin’s show can be found here. To top it all off, CREDO plans to present their petition with signatures to Discovery Communications at their annual shareholders meeting in Washington, D. C. on Wednesday, May 5.

Radical environmentalist efforts against Governor Palin are not new. We are all familiar with Ashley Judd’s propaganda against then Governor Palin’s predator control program. (See here also.) As U. S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA) pointed out then, predator control is essential to ensure that there is enough caribou for Alaskans to hunt for food. Predator control was conducted responsibly and scientifically by Governor Palin’s administration.

Environmental extremists have also attacked Governor Palin over her call to “Drill Here, Drill Now!” As Governor Palin has explained on numerous occasions, energy independence is essential for national security and prosperity. In Alaska, the gas and oil industry provides a significant portion of its citizens’ income. Again, her administration responsibly monitored the oil and gas industry so that there was minimal impact on the environment.

As the fiasco in the San Joaquin valley has taught us, we have to balance the needs of human beings with our need to protect the environment. Due to the uproar of eco-terrorists over a three-inch minnow that wasn’t even indigenous to the region, that fertile valley, the bread basket of the nation and even the world, was turned into a dust bowl. Thousands lost their jobs and their livelihood before the federal government was forced to respond to citizens’ demands to turn the water that supplied the farms in the valley back on.

I’ve said all that to say this. Upon becoming aware of the eco-terrorists’ latest attack on Governor Palin, a group of Sarah Palin supporters decided to do something about it. The authors of Sarah Palin Web Brigade and the Sarah Palin Information Blog spearheaded a petition drive in a counter-attack. Other Sarah Palin support sites joined the effort, and our numbers have doubled already.

We have set up a petition in the form of a letter to Discovery Communications President and CEO David Zaslav in which we support Governor Palin’s and Discovery’s Alaska documentary series and at the same time present the facts about her responsible stewardship of Alaska’s wildlife. All supporters of Sarah Palin are asked to sign this petition as a show of support for Governor Pallin. Strength is shown in numbers, and we want the world to know that Governor Palin’s support far exceeds that of the opposition. If you bought her book or stood in line to get her autograph or traveled the distance to hear her speak, please take time to go here and sign this token of support for her. You’ll be glad you did!

- Fay