Sarah Palin's Caribou-boo?

Sarah Palin's Alaska

As if former Governor of Alaska and failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's life wasn't already like a reality show unfolding before us in the news, she now adds to her repertoire of media showmanship an eight-episode travelogue on TLC that documents what is presented to us as typical Alaskan life.

"Sarah Palin's Alaska" set a network record when it debuted to an audience of five million.  The second episode wasn't so lucky, seeing a whopping forty percent of viewers turn away.  Not only does the show have to compete with Sunday Night Football, but it also competes with the general anti-Palin atmosphere that hangs over a large portion of the American audience.  With their curiosity sated, people just stopped watching, except those in the "over 57" age bracket, who now make up most of the 3 million people who still watch the show.

Admittedly, the show is boring.  There is no real discernible plot, nothing that carries one episode to the next, and the gaping holes left where there should be charm, character and warmth are instead stuffed with dramatically dragged-out family interactions and what look like stock aerial shots of Alaska's unique landscape.  Throw in a political quip here and there, a moment or two of real human emotion and Sarah's constantly impeccable "prom hair" (as Sarah's daughter, Bristol, puts it in one episode) and the show is pretty much what you expect it to be.

PETA

The largest animal rights organization in the world with over two million members, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is a media machine in its own right.  Boasting a sizable repertoire of celebrity supporters and a nearly $35 million dollar budget, they manage to reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of people a year with various campaigns, advertising and through their members' personal outreach.

Ingrid Newkirk, founder and president of PETA, combines mainstream guilt with radical activism nearly seamlessly, preaching that "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment" and aligning with radical terrorist groups like the Animal Liberation Front while simultaneously marketing her ideas to children with wide-eyed cartoons and internet games.

The Clash

Because of Sarah Palin's penchant for putting animals in her sights, PETA has put Palin in theirs.  Referring to her in 2008 as the "moose-hunting, fur-wearing, pro-aerial-wolf-gunning governor of Alaska," PETA pretty much marked her as the enemy and while never really attacking her politics, she has been fair game for ridicule ever since.

Take, for instance, the most recent episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska."  Sarah and her father travel to the arctic circle to hunt caribou, a large game animal used as a food source for many Alaskans.  Despite several fumbling attempts behind the trigger and a few errant bullets, Sarah manages to proudly bag one.

This same scene happens nearly 22,000 times a year in Alaska when families who have limited access to grocery stores, and therefore limited opportunity to partake in the $142 billion-a-year meat market, make the perilous trek to the frigid northernmost reaches of the state to put true free-range, organic food on the table.  You'd think an organization committed to ending the cruel practices involved in factory farming would be able to appreciate, at the very least, that the animals hunted for food aren't treated cruelly at all in their lives until that final day.

However, PETA's Vice President Dan Mathews released this statement yesterday:

"Sarah seems to think that resorting to violence and blood and guts may lure people into watching her boring show, but the ratings remain as dead as the poor animals she shoots."

You could easily rephrase this to read:

"PETA seems to think that resorting to nudity and celebrity endorsement may lure people into joining their ranks, but their membership still consists of less people than those who watch Sarah Palin's Alaska."

Marketing to the carnal side of humanity, whether sexual or violent, isn't new and to attack another for utilizing a similar technique is a textbook example of hypocrisy.

Frankly, PETA is out of touch with the reality that exists between New York City and San Francisco, in spirit if not in geography.  People have hunted to sustain themselves since time immemorial, and while many of us now have access to chewy blocks of tofu at our local Whole Foods Market (many of whom still don't eat it), this just isn't an option for others.  At trying to deny reality and keep its followers in a shadow of idealistic ignorance, PETA excels.

Sarah Palin, of course, has her own faults that could (and have and continue to) fill entire blogs if one was so inclined.  However, in this respect I have to commend her for giving people a glimpse of a life in a harsh land that they might not otherwise see, regardless of what it entails.