You edit: CNN reporter sees Russia from Alaska

Posted on October 2, 2008
Filed Under digital media, journalism, networked society, politics |

It did not take much for this story to happen: maybe just some imagination from the AC360 crew at CNN and a healthy budget to send Gary Tuchman all the way to the part of Alaska from when one can actually see Russia. Yeap, he went that far–geographically and journalistically speaking–with the joke about Sarah Palin’s foreign policy credentials.  But how do those check out?

According to Tuchman, you can actually see Russia from Little Diomede, Sarah Palin has never been there or spoken with local authorities, and the islanders are, well… not current with the news. Aren’t we stating the obvious? The story sounds so slanted that it invites some copy-editing. Let’s be the editors even if it is after publication. When it becomes digital stucco, the media product is never finished. It can be re-contextualized, analyzed, changed.

The editor:  hey, Gary, about this line…

This is the island, a piece of Alaska that Governor Sarah Palin cites as evidence of her foreign policy experience.

…is that really what she said? We may want to rephrase that.  And about this part…

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She’s making a comment that she shouldn’t have made in the first place about seeing Russia. She should have come out here beforehand and then made the comment.

TUCHMAN: While some here feel Sarah Palin is doing a good job as Alaska governor, others are nowhere near getting swept up in her new national fame.

…don’t we have a soundbite for the “good job” thing?

Below is the video and here is the rough transcript from CNN.com.  Feel free to add your own edits in the comments section of this post.

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