Same media 'whirlwind' that came to Janesville hit Wasilla, Alaska, in 2008
JANESVILLE — Wasilla might be in Alaska, but about four years ago, it was in the same place that Janesville is in right now.
“It was like the Wizard of Oz,” said Greg Johnson, who was managing editor of the Wasilla, Alaska, newspaper when Sarah Palin was named John McCain’s running mate.
National media converged on the Alaskan city, which has a population of about 7,800.
“The tornado came, and it picked us all up,” Johnson said. “It didn’t set us down for eight months, and when it did, the house landed on us.
“It was a giant whirlwind.”
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman publishes three times a week and has a staff of five.
“I think we didn’t sleep until the election was over,” said Johnson, who is now a copy editor and reporter for the Frontiersman.
How long will the media attention on Janesville last?
“It’s going to last a while,” Johnson said.
As if to illustrate that, when a Gazette reporter googled “Wasilla news,” the story that popped up was “Levi Johnston gets another chick pregnant.” Johnston dated Palin’s daughter four years ago and fathered her child.
Johnson wanted Gazette readers to know that the Johnston story did not run in his paper.
The difference between Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin is that Ryan’s name was already out there, Johnson said. And Paul Ryan isn’t a former Miss Alaska contestant, he said.
The Wasilla paper had covered her for years, though.
“It was the stuff everybody wanted, but our readers had already read it,” Johnson said.
The media that came to Wasilla wanted access to the paper’s archives. The staff quickly moved the bound volumes from the basement to the newsroom, fearful that others would simply rip pages from the books.
The paper hired a temporary worker to mark relevant pages, he said. It also created a basic folder of stories and photos to send to other media.
“The biggest challenge for the staff were the interviews,” Johnson recalled. “Everybody wanted an interview.”
Meanwhile, the paper had its own deadlines to meet.
The paper decided early on that the only people who would do interviews would be Johnson and the publisher.
Many of the locals weren’t happy about the way the media portrayed Wasilla and its residents—basically as Alaskan hillbillies, he recalled.
“The term used up here is “Wasillibilly,” he said.
“We on the local level, we covered how we were being covered, how we were being portrayed,” he said.
Some publications portrayed Wasilla as a quaint little Alaskan village nestled next to Mount McKinley.
“You practically hear birds chirping when you are reading it,” Johnson said.
Other accounts portrayed residents driving around in monster trucks with babies hanging out and 50 guns in their gun racks and spitting tobacco all over the streets.
Neither image is accurate, Johnson said.
Johnson doesn’t believe the stint in the national spotlight helped or hurt the city in the long run.
Before, most people had never even heard of Wasilla, Johnson said.
“It really opened us up,” he said. “It takes away a little bit of your blissful anonymity.
“More people, when they take their dream trips to Alaska, they come up through Wasilla,” he said.
“But at the same time, there’s only one road from Anchorage to Fairbanks, and it goes through Wasilla.”
Aug 22, 2012 at 7:29 p.m.
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Isaac Poses Potential Problems for RNC Reince Preibus
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Isaac-C...
----------------- This will give Evangelicals heart attacks :)
Issac, SON of SARAH
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/sarah.htm
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The entire base of Evangelicals is not with you 100%, you lost the entire south for a reason that seems to escape you. If you believe that "..oh they'll come around, they have no choice..", NO THEY WON'T, not in the numbers they would for a "genuine conservative", they will stay at home.
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Andrea Saul, Romney campaign spokesman, who shilled against the "you killed my wife ad" with the slap in the Tea Party's face that Romney Care would have solved that problem! PATHETIC
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What part of that "Come to Jesus Moment' did you not understand presumptive nominee, Willard Mitt Romney? Politically tone deaf?
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Time to kiss that Palin ring, YOU BETCHA!
Aug 20, 2012 at 6:16 a.m.
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@westorbust: I ask a legitimate question, and you come back with "No, SuperDave, Obama's past isn't a big mystery. The fringe right wing and their fantastical tall tales that end up being mocked because they have no basis in reality. Maybe log off the right wing/fake libertarian blogs and news sites and look around?"??????
Yes, westorbust, Obama's past has been largely protected and obscured. I am drawing attention to the fact that, same as Palin in 2008, Ryan is being looked at with unrelenting scrutiny (as well he should be), but four years later we are just now starting to learn about "Barry". There is a reason for that of course. And thanks for so predictably trying to shift the subject from the lack of journalistic curiousity about Obama's past, to the news sources I may or may not read, I feel so important (in your mind).
Aug 20, 2012 at 12:02 a.m.
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Biden has been a bumbling idiot for 35 years.
He was forced out of the 1988 Presidential Campaign for plagiarism. He has been a blowhard career politician with little accomplishments.
The level of Gaffes are truly astounding in their lack of situational awareness. He has been the Billy Carter of Vice Presidents and never was CEO of anything.
“..Stand up Chuck, let ‘em see ya. Oh my, what am I saying..”
“..You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking…”
“..Put y’all back in chains?..”
Aug 19, 2012 at 6:25 p.m.
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Experian Credit Reporting was owned and managed by Mitt Romney and may have sent this letter to the President regarding cuts in programs:
"...Upon review of your account, Mr Obama, your line of credit has been reduced...for one of the following reasons:
(1) Too many accounts at or near maximum allowable credit
(2) Has been late one or more times in the last 90 days
(3) No verifiable means of income to pay outstanding balances
Aug 19, 2012 at 5:32 p.m.
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No, SuperDave, Obama's past isn't a big mystery. The fringe right wing and their fantastical tall tales that end up being mocked because they have no basis in reality. Maybe log off the right wing/fake libertarian blogs and news sites and look around?
Aug 19, 2012 at 5 p.m.
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I'm waiting for someone to concoct something that can be a subject of mocking about Ryan then have the media latch onto it like it was real. In much the same way Tina Fey mockingly said "you can see Russia from my back yard" in regard to Palin.
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:59 p.m.
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Palin or lyin ryan.. what's the difference
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:46 p.m.
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"...Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence..." -- John Adams
Fact: William Ayers was on the FBI's most wanted list ....for terrorist activities (68)
http://jmw.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5c35...
Fact: William Ayers held Barrack Obama's first fundraiser from their home
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpu0s6INw...
Fact: Barrack Obama sat on the Woods Fund with Bill Ayers for years (99-02)
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/o...
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On the charge that Bill Ayers "palled around with terrorist" is irrefutable. The only argument to that reality is "to what degree" did he do that and whether or not the "term" palled, applies. Symantecs? You betcha!
Pal, noun
1. friend; a chum
Palled
1. to associate as friends or chums
Aug 19, 2012 at 9:22 a.m.
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I ask again, why do we not see this type of attention/digging for Democratic candidates, in particular Barack Obama? His past is this big mystery, with only sparse information trickling out even four years later. Where are the big media outlets camped out in Hawaii, Chicago and Kenya?
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:57 a.m.
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AMERICA IS BEING WATER BOARDED BY THIS INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT
------------------------------------------------------------
Barrack Hussein Obama Junior - HAS FAILED
"The Divisive President "
Year----Reagan-------Year---------Bush II-------Year------Obumbles
1982_____9.7_____2001______4.7______2009______9.3
1983_____9.6_____2002______5.8______2010______9.6
1984_____7.5_____2003______6.0______2011______9.0
1985_____7.2_____2004______5.5______2012______8.3
1986_____7.0_____2005______5.1
1987_____6.2_____2006______4.6
1988_____5.5_____2007______4.6
1989_____5.3_____2008______5.8
Jimmy Earl Carter Junior - looks like a genius in comparison
"The Malaise President"
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:51 a.m.
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:43 a.m.
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Barrack "The Great One" Obama:
The superlatives just keep on coming...
First Black President of the United States
First Downgrade of America's Credit EVER
Highest Sustained Unemployment Rate in 70 YEARS
Highest Deficit Spending in WORLD HISTORY
Highest Amount of Debt Created by ANY PRESIDENT EVER
Highest Drop in Civilian Workforce in 70 YEARS
Longest FAILURE to produce a Senate Budget IN HISTORY
Greatest LOSSES in Civilian Workforce EVER (5 MILLION)
Greatest DIVISION since civil rights riots
The superlatives just keep on coming, unemployment...
2009 9.3%, 2010 9.6%, 2011 9.2%, 2012, 8.3%
Aug 19, 2012 at 12:17 a.m.
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Too bad those jobs are in China!
Aug 18, 2012 at 9:22 p.m.
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very well said mr johnson, the house landed on the city, but until lands on janesvlle, the RYAN GAZETTE will rave on and on!
Aug 18, 2012 at 7:56 p.m.
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Romney has world class experience at creating, managing, and investing in companies that create jobs.
--- Mitt is a professional job creator
--- Romney created The Golden Goose
Obama has no work experience at creating, managing, or investing in Companies that create jobs.
--- Barrack is an amateur pretender
--- Obama eats The Golden Goose
Aug 18, 2012 at 5:38 p.m.
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Sarah Palin was not unknown to those who "were plugged in"
2004 January 16 - Palin resigns from state oil and gas commission
Decision stems from Ruedrich flap, executive branch confidentiality law
http://juneauempire.com/stories/011804/s...
2006 July 8 - Palin wins gubernatorial election
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicsele...
2007 July 16 – long before her Vice Presidential pick
Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard, wrote “The Most Popular Governor” about the GOP’s rising star.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Pu...
2007 October 12 – nicely done and respectful
Charlie Rose, “A conversation with Governors Janet Napolitano and Governor Sarah Palin
http://www.charlierose.com/view/intervie...
2008 September 6 – another nicely done and respectful
Charlie Rose, “Green room with Governor Sarah Palin”
http://www.charlierose.com/view/intervie...
2008 August 29 – before Vice Presidential pick. EXCELLENT
MarioBartiromo, host of Wall Street Journal Report, about her special, The Hunt for Black Gold. Interview with Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26334704
2008 August 1 – well done and on point
Larry Kudlow, anchor of Money & Politics for CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25970197/My_Inter...
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