Petition drive calls for Discovery Communications to drop Sarah Palin show
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A phone company that donates to left-leaning nonprofit groups has launched a petition drive calling for Discovery Communications to cancel a show featuring former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, citing her stances on the environment.
Last month, Palin signed a deal with Discovery’s TLC channel to star in an eight-part series about Alaska that is expected to premiere later this year.
Working Assets, a company that donates to groups such as Greenpeace, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, published the petition on its CREDO Action website, saying Palin’s upcoming show provides her with “the opportunity to greenwash her environmental record on a mainstream, eco-friendly channel.”
The petition states:
The media conglomerate Discovery Communications used to be known for their earth-friendly offerings. But they’ve just paid millions to Sarah Palin to host a “nature” show, despite her decidedly anti-environmental stance: She vocally advocates for habitat-destroying oil drilling, she denies global warming is a human-caused threat, and she spearheaded a brutal wolf-slaughter program as governor of Alaska. It’s one thing if Fox News gives Sarah Palin a platform. But when Discovery Communications – home to the Discovery Channel, the ‘Planet Earth’ series, the Science Channel, Animal Planet, and TreeHugger.com – gives a show to Sarah Palin, it undercuts everything the Discovery brand has come to represent.
The campaign was inspired in part by a similar effort by a wildlife organization that tangled with Palin over her policies as governor. That organization has launched its own petition drive to get her show dropped. Almost 200,000 people have signed the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund petition, according to its website. Working Assets sent out its petition to members this week and has so far gathered about 20,000 signatures, according to a staffer working on the project.
A spokeswoman for TLC had no comment. In the announcement about the show, which is tentatively titled “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” the former governor said she looked forward to bringing “the wonder and majesty of Alaska to all Americans.”
-- Matea Gold (Follow me on Twitter.)