Chapter One: Dan Fagan.
On January 5th, I asked Alaska Standard editor Dan Fagan to voluntarily provide information to Progressive Alaska and to the public about how his Dittman poll was conducted on a Sarah Palin-Lisa Murkowski 2010 U.S. Senate Matchup:
Dear Editor,
In The Alaska Standard you have published a poll, comparing Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Lisa Murkowski. In the undated article accompanying the poll, the Standard states:
"According to a poll commissioned by The Alaska Standard and conducted by Dittman Research, Governor Sarah Palin is no longer Alaska's most popular politician."
Could you describe how the poll was financed? Other than revenues from normal operation of the Alaska Standard, or from funds provided by the editor or staff, was there any financial help on the poll? Could you detail this?
On January 7th, Dan courteously wrote back:
Proceeds from my crack selling business paid for the poll. Any more questions?
Sent from my iPhone
The same day, I replied to Dan:
Maybe you should pull your pants up far enough so people don't have to pay you not to see the crack.
Dan the plumber, eh...?
Chapter Two: Pat Dougherty.Yesterday evening PA posted another open letter to Pat Dougherty, wondering why they were keeping their Sarah Palin shrine up, after Bob Poe had filed for the 2010 Governor's race. I followed the open letter up with one to his ADN email early this morning. In large part, it reads:
Sarah Palin the star is also Sarah Palin the governor with no intention of leaving politics in the near future. Indeed, it appears that almost her every move is coldly calculated to enhance that career. Even when her political mentors, her friends, her family, her donors and - yes, YOU - do everything she could expect, she still has that coldly calculated bottom line - Sarah Palin. That's part of how and why she can bait you into your weird email exchange on a subject you've handled far better than many subjects covered by the ADN, at the same time you cultivate her online shrine at the ADN.
By suggesting you erect a similar shrine at your electronic edition for Bill Poe, a Democratic Party member who has filed to run for the elected position Palin now occupies, I'm not endorsing Mr. Poe. I have a hunch other Democrats will be filing for this race, as will Republicans. And perhaps Palin will file for another race in 2010, rather than seek a second term as our governor.
The shrine appears to constitute something akin to free advertising, though.
Unless you can justify its continued presence in a way that puts Gov. Palin on an entirely different public image footing than rivals and potential rivals ---
TEAR DOWN THAT SHRINE, MR. DOUGHERTY!
Pat Dougherty replied this afternoon. In part his reply reads:
I don't have time to read your entire email, but if I understand the gist, I think we agree. We had planned to move or eliminate some of the Gov. Palin content on adn.com as soon as we can.
Thanks for writing.
The front page ADN link to the Sarah Palin shrine was removed late this afternoon.
The html link remains active, though.