Journalists Near and Far React to the Journalism of ‘Alaska Daily’

What does it take to authentically portray journalism on television? Is it election night pizza? The work of holding power to account? For the new ABC show “Alaska Daily,” it’s drawing from the real-life reporting of local journalists at the Anchorage Daily News. Created by Tom McCarthy, who helmed the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” it stars Bellingham-raised actor Hilary Swank as hard-boiled reporter Eileen Fitzgerald, who moves to Alaska from New York after her previous job fell through. She begins working with intrepid local journalist Rosalind “Roz” Friendly, played by Secwépemc actor Grace Dove, on an investigation into the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the state. It raises the question: How well can television grapple with the day-in and day-out of this important yet tough job?

Playwright and journalist Vera Marlene Starbard, T’set Kwei (Tlingit/Dena’ina) is a co-writer on the show. A former editor of Anchorage Native News and the current editor of First Alaskans Magazine, she said she’s hoping the show will provide a more authentic portrayal of Alaska Natives that pushes back against harmful stereotypes she argues have been perpetuated in both television and journalism in the past, pointing to one scene where Roz expresses why it’s important to add a paragraph to a story so it doesn’t leave a hateful stereotype expressed by a racist sheriff about Native women unchallenged.

“Having the lie repeated and not contested, sometimes even the journalists don’t even know they’re lies. That was a discussion that went on literally for months and ended up in that small but really important scene that was a journalism argument, a TV argument and a national argument that we’re having at the same time,” Starbard said. “Having people of different races, ethnicities, backgrounds and sexual identities in a newsroom isn’t just about checking a box. It’s about how they give a new perspective. They give a perspective that actually has more truth, that has a fuller truth in it.”

For Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo), professor of media communications at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and a journalist for a variety of outlets, she felt like the show made a misstep in who it centered.

“The whole white savior thing with having a person like Hilary Swank having to make sure this issue is brought to mainstream attention is kind of the bad thing about it,” LeValdo said. “I really wish that Hollywood or any type of mainstream media would let us tell that story instead of having to rely on a non-Native to do that for us.” (...)

The importance of engaging with the way these stories are covered was echoed by Jarrette Werk, Indigenous affairs reporter and photographer for the Oregon-based nonprofit publication Underscore. Having watched three episodes, Werk — a member of the Native American Journalists Association and Report for America corps member and a citizen of Aaniiih and Nakoda Tribes of the Fort Belknap Indian Community — felt the show got a lot right in showing the importance of Native journalists.

“Being a Native journalist going into these different communities, a lot of them agree to work with me because I have an understanding of how Native communities work and what goes on,” Werk said. “Having Native characters, Native writers and Native journalists sharing Native stories is super important because we’re shifting the narrative from a stereotypical narrative that has been shared for forever by non-Native media.”

by Chase Hutchinson, Seattle Times |  Read more:

Image: YouTube

[ed. Well this should be interesting, even if I never get to see it (not having a Hulu account); I used to know a few reporters from the old Daily News. At least (from the trailer) it looks like they've included a lot of beautiful local scenery. The last paragraph here seems the most important, racial diversity = different perspectives.]