NBC News Instructs Us: Just How Small is Wassila?

By Jane

Or, how do people get the idea that the MSM is condescending to small town America? Here is my transcript of some of a report on NBC news tonight. Here’s the link (which plays a commercial first) - scroll to pick the story on Wasilla. (Excerpts here are my transcript).

So anchor Brian Williams says: “NBC’s John Larson is there tonight. John, I’m guessing there could be a local brownout with all the televisions tuning in to see her national television debut this evening.” Because, it’s a really small town and what with everyone gathering around the TV sets, the primitive electrical grid there will be strained… the grid must be primitive… it’s out there in Alaska someplace…

So reporter John Larson says: “Just how small is Wasilla? Just 7,000 people, 10 downtown traffic lights, and a city hall one Democratic pundit said looks like a bait shop in Louisiana. With just one high school, 21 police officers, Wassila is half the population of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, half the size of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. How big was Palin’s job as mayor? Well, Palin herself said ‘It’s not rocket science. It’s 6 million dollars and 53 employees.’”

Translation: Do you people understand that this is a tiny tiny town? Here’s an aerial shot of DFW to give you an idea. [Yes, NBC news cut in a shot of DFW from the air, so we could picture that teeny town snuggled down in the middle of those runways]. That’s just how absurdly dwarf-like that Sarah Palin’s domain is - you have to see it to believe it, which is why we put that shot in. Just keep that in mind. Ignore the deal about Alaska being our largest state - we’re talking about how SMALL Wasilla is.

[skipping the middle...]

Larson finishes thus, “Now everybody here very proud of her - well, most people here are very proud of her, but no one expected that the road to the White House might start right here on what’s known locally as just “the road to Fairbanks.” Translation: Because she’s a small, SMALL-TOWN mayor. That’s the takeaway. Kindly ignore that whole ‘governor of our largest state’ thing. It’s hardly even a state. Really. Like, nobody who’s anybody lives there. If they were anybody, they wouldn’t be living there. SMALL TOWN MAYOR. Just keep repeating that.