Backlash to Palin’s Nature TV Series Takes Shape as Haiku
WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2010 (ENS) – Discovery Communications has acquired the global rights to “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” a new eight-part documentary series about the controversial former Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate and the natural resources of her home state.
Slated to run on the cable TV network TLC, according to the March 25 announcement, the series will be executive produced by Emmy-award winner Mark Burnett, who produced the programs “Survivor” and “Eco-Challenge.”
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Sarah Palin December 2009 (Photo credit unknown) |
“Compelling” is the buzzword being used to promote the Palin shows.
“We are confident “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” will be another compelling television event,” said TLC’s president and general manager, Eileen O’Neill.
Burnett said, “With a dynamic personality that has captivated millions, I can’t think of anyone more compelling than Sarah Palin to tell the story of Alaska.”
But before a single episode is aired, there has been a negative backlash from environmental groups.
Many are outraged that Palin would do a “nature” documentary about the state of Alaska when as governor she supported Alaska’s policy of allowing people to shoot wolves from airplanes and sued the federal government for listing polar bears as threatened by climate change.
Palin has said she is concerned that the 2008 listing will block oil and gas development in environmentally fragile areas. She supports oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and calls concerns over global warming “doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood.”
The U.S. branch of the international nonprofit Friends of the Earth felt compelled to respond to the announcement of the series “by sending a message to Discovery – that it is alienating much of its potential audience by giving Palin a show – and to send that message in an unconventional way, through haiku poetry.”
Haiku is a Japanese form of brief and simple poetry expressing a new view of situations through natural and seasonal images.
Friends of the Earth members and supporters from around the world submitted more than 1,600 haiku in the past week. Friends of the Earth staff selected 10 of those haiku and asked members and website visitors to vote for the best one.
The winning author will be recognized and the winning haiku will top the pile of all the haiku submissions that Friends of the Earth will deliver to Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Here are the top 10 haiku as selected by Friends of the Earth staff. Voting is still open, click here.
Honor Alaska Let the wolf in sheep’s clothing Represent it not
Oil road to nowhere Striking down wolves from the sky Dark Discovery
Sarah Palin’s mud Discovery, clear water Why blacken good things?
Red drops on white snow A thousand howling deaths reaps A million dollars
Unholy marriage Discovery and Palin Perhaps annulment?
See the pretty bear? Alaska’s precious wildlife! Now kids, lock and load
Her fiery voice Melts the Earth’s icy glaciers Sugar-dipped poison
I can see Russia A nice view from my Hummer! What global warming?
Oh, Sarah Palin No environmentalist Get off my TV
Palin’s Alaska: Oil spills, animal corpses Naught to Discover
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