Caught with their britches down: the Wall Street Journal and The Economist.(From the Publisher)

When there's a slow news day, these two publications rejoice at dredging up some cutesy blurbs about the state they love to hate, Alaska. Recently, both journalistic icons have permitted editorial creative writers to slam Alaska with their usual bluster and lack of research.

They are still lambasting us for bridges to nowhere, highways through uninhabited wastelands, federal funding assistance and condemning us for having money in a savings account that pays interest. It really is rather hilarious to read their rantings. Trouble is: their readers believe what they write, right or wrong. And when it comes to Alaska, they are often more wrong that right.

FROM THEIR FORMAL MISSION STATEMENTS

The Wall Street Journal: Our Mission: to publish the world's most vital business and financial news ... and ... to create the greatest value for our ... shareholders. "Since 1882, The Dow Jones name has been synonymous with accuracy, integrity and trust, and, the benchmark by which other business--and financial--news organizations measure themselves."

The Economist: First published in September 1843 to take part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress."

First off, it can be seen that part of the Journal's mission is to create value for its shareholders. From that, one might infer interest dividends for an investment in the paper. No problem with interest on an investment being paid to shareholders--unless it happens to be Alaska's Permanent Fund and the dividends it pays to Alaskan shareholders. The fund is, after all, an investment account, something Messrs. Edward Davis Jones and Charles Henry Dow ought to espouse, one might reasonably think. Their successors don't see it that way at all. Never mind that most of those dividends wind up paying to sustain and or educate Alaskans.

ROADS TO WILDERNESS, BRIDGES TO NOWHERE

The earliest record of a publicly funded road to nowhere came in 1639 when the first postal road wound though Massachusetts to Boston and Richard Fairbanks's tavern, an official mail drop, as taverns and coffee houses were in those days. By 1673, the Old Boston Post Road became what is U.S. Route 1.

Then the Second Continental Congress, in 1775, established the Post Office and under the 1778 Articles of Confederation regulated postal affairs, later adopting the Ordinance of Oct. 18, 1782, that allowed by 1789 the construction of a system of Post Roads (!) to the frontier lands. Next came Military Roads and eventually the Overland Trails System. All of these roads were built through "uninhabited waste lands" going to places where nobody resided at the time, but to where people eventually migrated. The main Overland road carried 20,000 settlers a year between 1862 to 1868.

Recall the Forbes Road of 1759 engineered by one Colonel George Washington from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt and the Ohio River where settlers caught barges down the Ohio to the Western Frontier. (Pittsburgh was "west" in those times!)

There were dozens of publicly funded roads that helped to open up the Western U.S. One amusing such road was the U.S. Camel Corps expedition where 77 camels were used to build and supply a road from Texas to California.

Alaska needs a few more frontier roads and a few more bridges, particularly in the Far Bush as well as population impacted places like Greater Anchorage and Ketchikan. Friends from the liberal eastern press should come see Alaska. We'll take you to dinner and on a tour. You are always welcome to come, even if you don't quite have it right, yet.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates