Sarah Palin's (Bloody) Alaska

[Saint_]

I came across this and was astounded! Sarah Palin? On Discovery? To me that's nonsensical and possibly even blasphemous!

This is a "lady" (read that as "whack-job") who enjoys killing wildlife from helicopters, for Pete's Sake!!:-5

Here's the blog I saw:

This week, I discovered Sarah Palin in a strange place. She showed up as the star of a planned new reality show on The Learning Channel, a unit of Discovery Communications. The show is called “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”

“It’s surprising that Discovery Communications, parent company of such cable television channels as Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel and TLC — and known for their stunning wildlife-focused shows — would chose to embrace such a controversial and anti-wildlife persona as Sarah Palin.”

-Rodger Schlickeisen, President, Defenders of Wildlife

That sound you hear? That would be the huge vacuum forming between Discovery and its viewers. Discovery seems to care about nature and Sarah Palin wants to drill oil everywhere and kill all animals. Exaggeration?

As Jimmy Kimmel put it, “Her baby seal risotto is really fantastic.”

She’ll be able to buy lots of baby seal steaks with the reported $1 million per episode paycheck she’ll receive. Discovery wants to put a lot of money in Palin’s pocket.

Ok, I’m going to put a little Valium in my herbal tea, try to keep the politics out of this and just look at the message Discovery is sending.

Your brand is what you stand for. What does Discovery stand for? Ratings? Even though Sarah Palin is popular with nutcases, are there really enough nutcases to merit putting her on Discovery for the ratings? I thought CNN was the only really desperate network. (Still working to keep the politics out of this, sorry.)

According to Defenders of Wildlife, Sarah Palin fought against protections for whales and polar bears. She continues to support hunters who fly in small planes to gun down wolves from the air. I wish I was present at the network meeting when somebody said, “Sarah Palin is the perfect person to tell me about animals.” As in we want unstable, trigger-happy Glenn Beck to talk to us about terrorism.

Putting a controversial person on TV is an old game. It comes about when smart programming executives sit in a conference room, drink vodka straight from the bottle and say “let’s make some noise and hope somebody pays attention.”

We expect brands to be true to themselves. From Fox we expect overheated pseudo-patriotic gumbo. From the broadcast networks we expect some Bachelors and Survivors and other diversions. Television is a numbers game steered by advertisers. Ratings – good. Breaking your brand – bad.

Breaking the brand would never happen to good old psychotic uncle Fox. Fox is never going to break its brand because we don’t expect Fox to stand for anything, except maybe scaring people. They don’t worry about facts or truth over at Fox. They just need to find the next big mouth. They just need to make some noise.

Different deal with Discovery. Discovery stands for something: Curiosity, knowledge, exploration and compassion. Go ahead, Discovery, make noise but also examine your motives. You have to, because you stand for something. We want to depend on you for that.

Note: There's a petition that you can sign to stop the show, google it.

[hoppy]

I bet you eat meat, wear leather shoes and drive/ride in cars too, huh?

[LarsMac]

Sarah LOVES wildlife.

Moose for dinner, Salmon for breakfast, and Elk for lunch.

Come to think of it, if I lived in Alaska, ...

[hoppy]

LarsMac;1305501 wrote: Sarah LOVES wildlife.

Moose for dinner, Salmon for breakfast, and Elk for lunch.

Come to think of it, if I lived in Alaska, ...


Yep. A person with a good rifle shouldn't go hungry.

[Saint_]

hoppy;1305411 wrote: I bet you eat meat, wear leather shoes and drive/ride in cars too, huh?


Sure thing! But I don't hunt the cows by helicopter.:-3

[hoppy]

In my bad old days I was on the kill floor of a slaughter house. Those poor animals were unloaded from trucks into pens. From there, men with electric cattle prods drove them up chutes to the "executioner" who electrocuted them and slit their throats. The critters shot in the wild at least died free.

[albertpollard]

While Discovery Channel does do a lot to educate it's primary purpose is to indocrinate. Like the current administation they are never one to let a good crisis, even a manufactured one, go to waste.

Due to the overpopulation of wolves in Alaska steps had to be taken to reduce their numbers, the most effective method is hunting from the air.

That being said, it is being done solely for the purpose of increasing the caribou population to bring in more hunters and more money. The same thing is taking place in Idaho to 'rescue' the Elk population for the hunters. Seems to me it would be easier to not issue any hunting permits for a few years and see how the Elk population is then.

[Nomad]

hoppy;1305411 wrote: I bet you eat meat, wear leather shoes and drive/ride in cars too, huh?


I took his point to mean Discovery has been to date exceptionally pure in its programming, no contradictions. Kind of one of the last bastions of wholesome accurate educational television. Bringing in Miss golly gee whiz noting her stance on not giving a rats ass about preserving nature is if not odd a real disappointment in one of the few great stations left on tv. Discovery has relied on natural sensationalism, bringing in a halfwit with no apparent meaningful purpose in regards to the type of programming Discovery is known for is a retarded managerial decision.

I must admit I do enjoy watching her in short doses mainly for the WTF? experience but the repulsion sends me quickly fumbling for the remote to the tv.

[LarsMac]

Good points.