Murkowski Will Press Newspaper Chains To Support Refuge Drilling - ADN

JUNEAU -- Gov. Frank Murkowski wants to enlist the help of large newspaper chains with state ties to spread the word that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge can be safely opened to oil and gas drilling. Newspapers and broadcasters have a role "to be advocates for what's good for the communities they represent and the communities that support them," Murkowski said Thursday. "Just because they are part of a chain I don't think relieves them of the local responsibilities they have to represent the local communities in the state."

The Republican governor is not asking the chains to slant the news, he said, but to help tell Alaska's story throughout the country. He compared it to his proposal to hold a public relations campaign to polish that image with the aim of swaying public opinion toward opening ANWR.

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The governor's comments come a day after U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, lamented that the newspapers of today are more critics than advocates of the state's position on opening ANWR, and it is unfortunate there are not more publishers willing to make Alaska's case heard.

Bob Steele, senior ethics professor at the Poynter Institute, a think tank for journalism in St. Petersburg, Fla., said Murkowski is not the first politician to try to influence newspaper owners to buy into his arguments, although others are usually less overt. "What's unclear to me is whether he's calling on the newspapers to take an advocacy role in their editorial positions or whether he's calling on them to change their news coverage on this issue," Steele said. "I certainly hope that he's not arguing the news coverage move into the advocacy of a particular position rather than independent, fair and accurate coverage on this important public policy matter."

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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anwr/story/7560712p-7471999c.html

...(Knight Ridder) mass acquisitions. Ethically troubling? Nothing that a big advertising buy by Exxon could not clear up.