I made a mental note of seeing it, because I knew my wife had flown to there on a work trip not long before, but I didn’t give the little town much more thought. Until this week.
Ouzinkie caught my eye in a news story that surfaced Monday—a report in which the village appeared to be well on its way to becoming the state’s latest icon to Outsiders of what wasteful government spending looks like.
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And that’s a scandal. Or at least that’s the impression you might take away from a CBS report on stimulus spending.
“Tiny Airports Get Big Cut of Stimulus Cash,” the headline blared. “Small, Rural Airports Get Big Payouts While Safety Violations at Major National Airports Get Little Attention.”
Let’s leave aside for a moment the question of whether “big” is an appropriate adjective for a $15 million grant in the context of a stimulus package that runs close to a trillion dollars. The CBS report suggests that airports like Ouzinkie’s are undeserving of the federal money simply because of their small size. At one point, the story calculates that with a population of 165, Ouzinkie is getting $90,000 per person, a type of statistic that might sound familiar to residents of Ketchikan. That’s the sort of misleading factoid that lends a patina of certitude to a story that otherwise lacks it.
Likewise, the CBS report suggests that airports like Ouzinkie’s are soaking up funds that by rights ought to go to relieve major problems at major airports: “More than $350 million of federal stimulus money is being spent on hundreds [of] little-used airports or ones catering to recreational flyers, corporate jets and remote communities around the country, even as the nation's largest commercial airports are denied safety upgrades,” it reads. This despite the fact that the rest of the more than $1 billion in airport funds from the stimulus did go to larger commercial airports. The report also questioned the job creation value of these grants—based solely on their inability to track down a job creation figure at one small airport the report covered.
Although CBS is the big media heavy with the reach to get the story out, an outfit called ProPublica did most of the journalistic heavy lifting. The non-profit was founded a few years ago to fund investigative journalism—“journalism in the public interest” reads a banner on their homepage—free from the financial restraints dogging many traditional news outlets, then disseminate their work through traditional outlets (Alaska Dispatch was the only Alaska outlet I could find that picked up this particular story).
The ProPublica version of the story is better and fairer; it goes into greater depth and lacks the sensationalizing language of the CBS piece. It asks and answers the question of why bigger airports didn’t get more money (most of their major safety projects were already funded through other sources when the stimulus plans were announced). And it explains why airports in Alaska are a more important part of the basic transportation system than they are elsewhere.
Of Ouzinkie’s airport it reads: “The existing gravel runway is too short, subject to 60-mph crosswinds and built near a landfill frequented by seagulls,” [Ouzinkie utility manager and Vice Mayor Tom] Quick said. “A new airport might attract a fish-drying facility or a tourist lodge, he said, leading to a rare commodity—stable jobs.”
Pretty much exactly what the stimulus plan was meant to do, right? But you’d have to read all the way to the end of the piece to discover this information. And you wouldn’t have learned that general aviation accounts for over a million jobs nationwide or that it’s one of the few remaining manufacturing sectors where the United States dominates.
The point here isn’t so much that government spending ought to be free from scrutiny (it ought to be scrutinized, and ProPublica mostly does a good job with that) or that general aviation is a wonderful, too-maligned industry, or even that Alaska should fight for the federal spending the benefits us.
The point is that we should think carefully about what’s really involved before criticizing something. Good reporting is important and there’s not enough of it; but so is critical, creative thinking about one’s subject. There’s not enough of that either. We need more people involved in our public dialogue willing to imagine what facts really mean from multiple perspectives. Otherwise thing such as Ouzinkie’s lifeline will continue to be someone else’s taxpayer waste, and important systems will keep being derided sarcastically as “something called ’volcano monitoring.’”
That won’t stimulate the economy, and it especially won’t stimulate a sense of shared community or destiny in a nation already deeply divided over who we are and where we’re headed.
krestia.degeorge@anchoragepress.com
Comments
Michael S. Copley wrote on Aug 8, 2009 8:04 AM:
What kind of unbiased reporting is this?
I am deeply offended! "
D.B. Roberts wrote on Jul 18, 2009 12:16 PM:
bob wrote on Jul 18, 2009 8:04 AM:
Bernhard Reimer wrote on Jul 18, 2009 7:45 AM:
Gary wrote on Jul 17, 2009 8:08 PM:
J Davey wrote on Jul 17, 2009 2:49 PM:
Reinhard R. Weth wrote on Jul 16, 2009 11:27 PM:
" It's all very simple. This is just another attempt by the left-wing media to destroy what's left of Sarah Palin. Their hatred for her and everything she stands for knows no bounds and they'll go to any lengths. If this airport had not been in Alaska it would never have made the news. "
CARL: Be smart and keep this subject - which is so very important to all of us GA participants - out of GP ("General Politics")! YOU are SIMPLIFYING things - problems are much more complicated! "
Jeff wrote on Jul 16, 2009 1:51 PM:
1) Media bias against general aviation
2) Media sensationalism instead of good journalism
3) Severe media twisting of facts (spin)
4) Dearth of intellegent/informed journalists
5) Katie Couric liberal stupidity "
Jim Huff wrote on Jul 16, 2009 1:44 PM:
Carl S wrote on Jul 16, 2009 1:30 PM:
Raymond J Klein wrote on Jul 16, 2009 12:04 PM:
Cy Hetherington wrote on Jul 16, 2009 11:36 AM:
plans $7million plus airport here.they have taken valuable private property by
eminente domain for very low unfair prices.Our present 2700 ft gravel strip in town.is perfectly usable with a bit of
competent maintenance. clearing the approach's etc.. Our traffic is single engine Cessna mail plane three times a week.I have seen DC-# and C46 lant here in the past. What a waste $ would be better spent upgraging and paving the
road from here to Livengood. "
Georgia John wrote on Jul 16, 2009 11:26 AM:
Harry Thomas wrote on Jul 16, 2009 11:02 AM:
Del wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:46 AM:
Shane Stolarik wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:42 AM:
They did exactly what they set out to do - get a sensational piece of garbage out on the airwaves. They don't care about accuracy unless it's going hurt their bottom line (read lawsuit). They're nothing but rabble-rousers stirring up viewership to sell commercial time. Nothing more.
They will ride a good thing straight into the grave and then broadcast the funeral and cry into the camera wailing what an injustice the early demise was.
Got it wrong? When have they or any of the other news outlets got it right? "
Drew Steketee wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:38 AM:
Drew Steketee
Former president, BE A PILOT
Former executive director:
The Partnership for Improved Air Travel
Ashburn, Virginia "
Douglas Manuel wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:27 AM:
Ted wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:15 AM:
Paul Weintraub wrote on Jul 16, 2009 10:14 AM:
PW "