As Kos diaried was likely on March 23, Sarah Palin signed a deal with Discovery Communications for a nature program on The Learning Channel about the "wonder and majesty of Alaska."
As a long-time fan of TLC, I am appalled by this decision. Having Sarah Palin, with her history of aerial wolf hunting, host a nature show about Alaska is like having Michael Vick host the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
Of course, I also disapprove strongly of her recent "targeting" of Democrats.
Based on some initial research I have done, I believe a polite but pointed and well-organized letter/email campaign objecting to Sarah Palin serving as the host of this series could be effective.
As I did some research about Discovery Communications to prepare for writing a letter to the CEO, I was surprised to find how many liberal-friendly brands they own - including Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, Planet Green (and its website, Treehugger.com), and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
I also researched the political donations of the CEO, David Zaslav, on OpenSecrets.org, as well as of other officers of Discovery Communications, and learned that the preponderance of their donations have gone to Democrats.
I ask you to join me in contacting Discovery Communications to express displeasure with their newest name brand. Here is the letter I have drafted, in case anyone is interested in helping with this effort. I also plan to write to Oprah, to ask her to put pressure on the network.
Mr. David Zaslav
President and CEO
Discovery Communications
One Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Dear Mr. Zaslav,
As a longtime fan of The Learning Channel and many of Discovery Communications’ other businesses and brands, I am writing to express my displeasure about today’s announcement that Discovery Communications has signed a contract with Sarah Palin for a nature show about Alaska on The Learning Channel.
As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin instituted a bounty for any hunter who killed a wolf from an aircraft. She also introduced legislation to ease restrictions on the inhumane practice of aerial wolf hunting, and approved a $400,000 state-funded campaign to undermine a ballot initiative to ban this barbaric practice. This alone disqualifies her from hosting a program about "wonder and majesty of Alaska." It would be equivalent to having Michael Vick host the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
However, what I find most troubling about Ms. Palin is that she promotes and provokes a most dangerous element of the radical right through her public speeches, tweets, and Facebook postings. The most recent example occurred just this week, when Ms. Palin posted on her Facebook page a graphic of the United States with images of gun sights overlaid on Congressional districts of Democratic representatives who voted for the Health Insurance Reform act. During a time of unprecedented national hostility and anger towards elected officials, this was a provocative and irresponsible action on her part.
I encourage you to reconsider the wisdom of underwriting and airing this program. I can assure you that if Discovery Communications continues to fund this series with Ms. Palin as its star, my family and I will no longer watch any of Discovery Communications’ television channels. In addition, I will encourage my friends to boycott the channel and its advertisers.
Sincerely yours,
TxTiger
I know this isn't the most fun way to spend a Friday night, but I am really disappointed in TLC and Discovery, and hope that as a community, we can persuade them to reconsider this terrible idea.