Isn’t viral video fun?
Yesterday, I included an item about the much-watched and talked about video interview of Sarah Palin at a turkey farm in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
While I blamed Palin’s “people” in my post for being too stupid to know that the farmer wasn’t gonna stop his slaughterin’ behind her, I also inferred that the photographer should have known better than to keep shootin’ video, and should have suggested a new backdrop for the interview. (I’m droppin’ the g’s for Palin’s sake).
Well… There’s always more to the story isn’t there?
The blog “Mudflats” from Alaska outlines “Turkey Gate – The Fiasco That Wouldn’t Die,” and includes some context from KTUU-TV photographer Scott Jensen who shot the interview with Palin. (Sidenote: Jensen was named the national TV Photographer of the Year while at KARE-TV here in the Twin Cities).
Mudflats says Jensen told KUDO radio that Palin, who was standing next to her personal assistant throughout the entire interview, chose the spot on which she stood for the “turkey slaughter interview” and the turkey slaughter was already underway when the governor chose the spot. The photographer pointed out what was going on and asked her if she wanted to move.
She said, “No worries.”
But a Palin spokesman now denies Jensen’s take, in a statement to “Entertainment Tonight” of all places:
She “did not know it was going on behind her” and that the bird butchering wasn’t going on when the shot was set up, and a cameraman “ignored” the governor’s staff’s request to remove the graphic sight once cameras were rolling.
“We’re unhappy about it and the station is not happy either,” Palin’s rep tells ET, adding, “this was an attempt to lighten up and do something non-controversial.”
So, is KTUU actually unhappy about how Jensen shot the interview? Not according to Jensen, in his radio interview.
But Jensen’s boss, news director Steve MacDonald, surprisingly appears to be siding with Palin in this report in the Anchorage Daily News.
MacDonald says Jensen denies that Palin’s director of her Anchorage office was nudging him while he was shooting the interview, to get his attention about the slaughter behind her. MacDonald said Jensen and the reporter “thought Palin knew what was going on behind her” but believes that Palin’s spokesman “was correct that the slaughter didn’t start until after the interview began.” Even though Jensen says it was.
KTUU’s MacDonald said he’s not aware of Palin’s “No worries” comment. Really? Jensen didn’t tell you she said that? C’mon. If Palin’s lying, let us know. What’s she going to do, stop doing one-on-one interviews with your station? Oh no, not that.
I wonder if Jensen was rolling when he asked Palin if she wanted to move. That’s the tape KTUU should post to YouTube, if it has it.
So, this seemingly stupid slow-news week story and insignificant piece of video involving a woman many Republicans loved and than loathed, is now proof of how she isn’t aware of how things can look – even when people nearby who want to protect her point it out to her.
If Palin’s people wanted something non-controversial they should have opened their eyes. And ears. They seriously couldn’t see and hear the guy’s struggle with the turkey behind her?
And why not stop the interview if Jensen wasn’t responding to your alleged nudging? Just start the interview over with a different backdrop.
Look, no one but vegetarians care about what was actually happening in the video. The rest of us care because it shows her rookie league status as a clueless wanna-be bigtime politician.
As Palin says in the video, she “certainly will probably invite criticism for even doin’ this too but at least this was fun.”
The criticism you’ve invited with the video, Sarah, is because you – and your “people” – didn’t recognize the potential for criticism that would come from positioning yourself in front of a guy killing a turkey. It was your call to stay in that position even when urged to move somewhere else, apparently. And, once you got the criticism for it, you blamed the photographer.
Nice.
That’s not leadership, no matter what political party you’re affiliated with.
And wake up to 2008… the video wasn’t just going to air on the KTUU 5pm news. Have you heard of YouTube?
The video is now up to 2.5 million hits as I write this, after my first view of it last Friday when it was at 141,000 views. (KTUU-TV took the video clip that they posted to YouTube down, but this link takes you to it, via YouTube user “ArkansasTVarchives.”
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