Patriots group disputes article

I am writing this letter in response to the article “Vocal crowd belabors beluga” that appeared in the Feb. 16 Frontiersman and that contains numerous intentional misrepresentations and distortions.

The article was authored by Andrew Wellner, who reported on the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Critical Habitat Designation town hall meeting hosted by Conservative Patriots Group. The town hall was hosted to better inform the public on this important issue.

The article begins by stating, and I quote, “To a crowd of nodding heads that offered up period interjections of ‘Amen.’” The only ”Amen” offered up by the crowd was at the end of the invocation about four minutes into the meeting. I find it interesting that Wellner found it necessary to misrepresent the truth by attempting to imply the crowd was a frenzied group of right-wing fanatics that threw up their arms and shouted “amen” at each utterance from Rep. Don Young.

Also at the beginning of the article, Wellner states that about 100 people attended the meeting hosted by CPG. In actuality the attendance at the meeting was between 175 and 185 people. CPG handed out 165 door prize tickets to individuals entering the meeting and there were several people in attendance who did not take a ticket. So either Wellner cannot count or he intentionally misrepresented the number of people in attendance. It is worth noting that at least five times more people attended the CPG-sponsored town hall meeting as attended the Wasilla NMFS public meeting conducted on Feb. 11.

The article correctly points out that Jennie Bettine, president of CPG, in her opening remarks stated CPG believes that NOAA’s effort to classify Cook Inlet as critical habitat for belugas is based on bad science, just as climate change has been proven to be bad science.

What Wellner fails to report in his article is that Rep. Don Young, Sen. Lisa Murkowski aide, Mr. Arne Fuglvog, and yes even Sen. Mark Begich’s aide, Ms. Susanne Fleek, all echoed Mrs. Bettine’s remarks that the attempt by NOAA to designate Cook Inlet as critical habitat was based on incomplete and inaccurate data and bad science. In fact, Ms. Fleek went one step further and stated that Sen. Begich asserts the listing of Cook Inlet belugas as endangered was premature and that designating Cook Inlet as critical habitat is certainly premature.

Channel 11 News aired a segment covering the CPG town hall meeting on its Feb. 15 10 p.m. news report, in which Sen. Mark Begich stated that he opposed the endangered species listing and that it is premature to seek critical habitat designation. There you have it folks, even the liberal’s revered son, Mark Begich, opposes critical habitat designation for Cook Inlet.

Finally the article fails to fully detail what we as Alaskans should do to help combat this designation. First we should send in our written comments to NMFS opposing the designation prior the March 3 deadline. Secondly and more important we should contact our governor and state representatives and senators and demand they commit whatever resources are necessary to combat the endangered species listing and this critical habitat designation. This would include hiring top scientists to gather the necessary data and information that would then be used to disprove and rebut the inaccurate and incomplete data being used by the federal government.

When I was a young lad, I was told there are three ways to lie. You can tell an outright lie, you can tell the truth so ineffectually that people believe it is a lie, or you can only tell half the truth. Wellner has employed all three techniques in his article to distort the truth and mislead the public.

Wellner’s article is a blemish to the journalistic integrity of the Frontiersman.

Frank Bettine works in the public relations office for the Conservative Patriots Group.