SocraticGadfly: WHAT is up with the Anchorage Daily News on Tripp Palin?

January 04, 2009

WHAT is up with the Anchorage Daily News on Tripp Palin?

First, we have the ADN getting scooped by People magazine, a non-news enterprise

Then, the mystery deepened, with People changing its initial report of the day of Tripp's birth, two different birth weights reported, etc., the ADN gave us an unbylined story as its initial reporting.

That, then, was followed by Gov. Palin's lying press release about Tripp's birth, in which the ADN didn't challenge a single claim of Palin's press secretary about unidentified alleged lies in media coverage of Tripp's birth.

Then, the ADN runs an inane story on People's "Levi's not a dropout" phone call from Sarah Palin.

You can e-mail Kyle Hopkins, perpetuator of the latest non-story "story," here.

Other e-mail addresses include:
1. Pat Dougherty -- Senior Vice President & Editor
2. Julie Wright -- Managing editor
3. David Hulen -- Assistant managing editor

Here's what I told the four:
Let me see, so far you've been stiffed with a non-press report from Gov. Palin's press spokesman Bill McAllister, followed by uncritically printing one that had the whopper lie of claiming "misinformation" in coverage of Tripp's birth without specificing WHAT misinformation was run by either conventional media or blogs.

In between, the ADN has run your story about Sarah's phone call to People, and had its initial report of the birth being nothing but linking to People's story.

So, when is the ADN going to do some ACTUAL reporting?
1. What hospital was Tripp born in?
2. Any information, on background (to get around HIPAA for attribution in a story) from someone from that hospital?
3. Any pics? What? No photog sent to that hospital, if you knew which one it was?
4. If you didn't know which one it was, why not?

Couple of other things:

First, if McAllister refused to answer follow-up questions, why was that not noted in the initial press release story?

Second, did ADN editorial staff think of running a list of those follow-up questions on which he stiffed you?

Given the background of Trig's birth, I can't believe inquiring minds aren't getting more out of you.

Write them something similar yourself!

Also ask the triumvirate of editorial brass hats this:

Why is rural affairs reporter Kyle Hopkins, rather than Sean Cockerham, your state politics reporter, covering Tripp's birth, anyway?

Update, Jan. 3: None of the four ADN folks above have responded to my e-mails. Please, take up the cudgels!

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