Surprisingly, Russia-1 Broadcaster Olga Skabeyeva called the 49th American State "our Alaska."
Those Russians, always the provocateurs.
But more surprisingly, when fact checking the story, Newsweek stated "Alaska and Russia are positioned about 53 miles apart at their closest point."
Umm, that's not right at all. We have talked about this before.
Big Diomede Island is in Russian Territory. The Russians claim it as uninhabited, but there's, a minimum, of 3 buildings on the Island's North Coast.
About 2 miles to the East of Big Diomede Island is Little Diomede Island.
Little Diomede Island has a permanent population of around 80 and has an American settlement on the West side of the Island. The island is part of Alaska and is positioned in the middle of the Bering Strait.
Why am I nitpicking? In the year 2008, Sarah Palin said "(Alaska is) our next-door neighbor, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Sarah Palin was factually correct. If you stand in front of the Diomede School, and face West, Russia is visible, as clear as day.
But people remember Tina Fey, impersonating Sarah Palin, saying "I can see Russia from my house." That line gave the perception that Russia isn't really that close to America, and for some reason the mockery of Palin continued. I am unclear why writers continue to use Saturday Night Live as a geographical reference point instead of Google Maps.
"Fred, why can't you give the Newsweek writer a break?"
Listen, not only are the Diomedes only a hop, skip, and a jump apart, but if you go to Gambell, Alaska, Novoye Chaplino in Russia is only 45 miles away.
Now me, I have a crappy fact-checker (myself). Sometimes my part-time editor catches my mistakes, sometimes helpful readers catch my mistakes in the Comments Section.
But Newsweek? Don't they have high priced editors?
Editor's Note: We're going to pull the plug on this article right now, the average Newsweek Editor only makes $77,000 a year, about the same as a high-end Arby's Manager....
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