Governor Walker's op-adgate

Publisher's Note:

Effective July 17, the Frontiersman will charge $10 per 25 words. Please e-mail submissions to news@frontiersman.com or publisher@frontiersman.com.

This past week, the Walker-Mallott campaign submitted an opinion editorial to newspapers across the state entitled ‘Why I reduced the Permanent Fund dividend’. In the piece, Governor Walker defends his actions in 2016 of cutting the peoples dividend check in order to help cover a massive budgetary shortfall. The piece itself was a pretty typical submission from a political candidate, except for one part. Embedded in the piece was a link to candidate Walker’s campaign video.

We receive op-eds from various sitting politicians running for re-election and opposing candidates, and generally we will run them as they are. The Walker op-ed also ran unedited, except when we placed the op-ed on a word document, the video link did not transfer over. The link was never placed on the Frontiersman website. In the op-ed, the reader is encouraged to click the link that takes them to a video that would supposedly explain the Governor’s position further. The video is, in reality, a campaign advertisement using the Governors State of The State address from earlier this year. Replete with dramatic background music, it states clearly at the end that it is a political advertisement. We have since removed any reference to the video in the op-ed.

Our friends at the Anchorage Daily News ran the op-ed piece online with the video still linked. Then realizing the campaign video was linked pulled the piece. They have since placed it back online without the video link and any reference to the video is removed. Other newspapers have also published the op-ed.

Really, it was no big deal. Like I stated earlier, unedited political op-eds from candidates is nothing new.

Then enter stage-right, political rhetoric from the self-appointed people’s conscience and right wing blogger from Must Read Alaska, Suzanne Downing. Opportunistically offended that the ADN ran the piece at all, she wrote a blog entry titled “Smoking Gun: Bill Walker broke campaign rules or broke state law.” In the blog entry Downing notes the op-ed published on the ADN website. She claims that the Governor wrote the blog in his official capacity as the highest elected state official but directed people to watch the campaign video.

“Must Read Alaska finds it unprecedented to allow a sitting governor to publish an official op-ed that is a plea for support for his re-election during a campaign season, and then link it to an actual campaign video.”

Maybe it is unprecedented, but in this day and age of newspapers placing op-eds in print and then on their website things like this have likely fallen through the cracks. Newsrooms are shrinking and it’s not uncommon for an op-ed to be placed online without being scrutinized. In the hustle of getting content placed it will happen. There is no conspiracy to support a certain candidate over another as Downing insinuates the ADN was doing by publishing the piece. Downing referred to the 2014 election for Governor and the then Alaska Dispatch News’ alleged bias in favor of then-candidate Walker. The ADN now has different owners and a new publisher. Comparing the Alaska Dispatch News to the Anchorage Daily News is apples and oranges.

I doubt Downing bothered picking up the phone and calling the ADN for an explanation. Why let facts get in the way of drummed up accusations and innuendo?

Downing also claims it is illegal to use both his official capacity and his campaign capacity in one opinion piece. I can’t find such a rule or law stating this. She then uses the always convenient conjunction ‘if’ to explain her position. “If the Governor is using his official office and state employees for campaign purposes, then he is breaking the law.”

OK, although she has no proof that he did. She notes at the end of the blog that the Frontiersman ran the same piece but did not link the video.

Now enter onto the stage of political rhetoric the Governor’s wonder boy John-Henry Heckendorn. Heckendorn submitted the op-ed for the Governor via his walkermallotforalaska.com email address under his official title as campaign manager. After the Downing piece was released and Downing pointed out that the Frontierman unlinked the video — again, we never linked the video in the first place — Heckendorn sent an email to us surmising that we unlinked the video because of Downing’s rant. He went on to justify his position as to why we should relink the video.

We told him Downing can shout at the top of her lungs about ethics and media bias, but we won’t kowtow to any habitual troublemaker. Downing is unabashedly biased in her writings and therefore has zero credibility as far as I am concerned. Heckendorn justified linking the video to the op-ed online by giving examples of television broadcasts and radio talk shows doing the same. Again, apples and oranges. What Heckendorn attempted to do by submitting an op-ed and linking it to a campaign video may not be illegal but it is borderline unethical and at best it’s very tacky. The video is an over-produced piece meant to tug at the voter’s conscience rather than educate as indicated in the op-ed. But Heckendorn is another one who’s credibility is lacking with me.

Heckendorn who co-founded the political campaign strategy group Ship Creek Group accepted a highly paid State Paid position in the Governor’s administration as ‘special assistant,’ and now he is sending emails as the Governor’s campaign manager. And though, publicly, he and the Ship Creek Group that he founded say Heckendorn is no longer associated with the group, it sure appears his former company is producing a lot of campaign materials for the Governor. Is this all legal?

Well, as one political insider put it, “Sure.” But is it ethical? As the same political insider put it, “Eh.”

In fairness, we have published op-eds for candidates Mike Dunleavy and Mead Treadwell, too. Those op-eds really amount to unpaid campaign advertorials, just like the Governor’s. So where does this leave the Frontiersman and political editorials submitted by candidates. It leads us to a couple of conclusions. One conclusion is the spin of this campaign season is already extremely dizzying. It makes you want to be the adult in the room and send everyone to bed without supper. The other conclusion is that these op-eds as I stated earlier are nothing more than unpaid advertorials. So, for the remainder of the campaign season, these op-eds will be treated by the Frontiersman as what they really are — a paid advertorial. We will publish an official policy in the printed and digital versions of the Frontiersman and from that date forward anybody running for political office whether they are an incumbent or an opponent will have to pay to have their op-ed advertorial published. It will not be placed on our opinion page and it will be clearly marked as “paid for by”.

Now my only hope is for other Alaskan newspapers to follow suit. If not, we will stand alone. We reserve the right to revisit this policy after the November 2018 elections.