[grc] Standing Rock story

[Ann Garrison]

In response to KGUA General Manager Peggy Berryhill's objection to my
Standing Rock story posted to the Pacifica Audioport last night:

!)  I'm sorry that Peggy has chosen to use the "fake news" meme in her
objection to my report.  I am always open to feedback and criticism, but
the "fake news" meme was created by the Washington Post in its scurrilous,
unsupported publication of the "PropOrNot" list, which was generated by an
unnamed source.  It has since been picked up and thrown all over the place
by many people but most notably by Donald Trump, who accuses anyone
criticizing him of reporting "fake news." Sometimes Trump has been right
about that, as in regard to the unsupported story alleging bad behaviour by
Trump in Russia. CNN reported that story but the rest of the media rejected
it as unsupported until BuzzFeed finally published the intelligence report
in question - not because they affirmed its veracity, but because they
thought the public should at least have a chance to read the primary source
document that all the media were abuzz about.

I write for three publications that were on the "PropOrNot" fake news list
published by the Washington Post: Black Agenda Report, Counterpunch, and
Global Research, and I'm proud of it.  They were all proud to be included
on the silly list because it was a recognition of their influence.  The
Wash Po's silly fake news about fake news suggested that writers for all
the publications on their list were on Vladimir Putin's payroll.

I could go on about the "fake news" meme, but the only other thing I really
want to say is that I don't think it's helpful to accuse other community
radio reporters of producing "fake news."  Feel free to criticize me or
question the accuracy of specific statements in any of my reporting, but
please don't accuse me of willfully generating "fake news."  Like most
community radio reporters. hosts and producers, I do my best to report the
truth and contextualize the news with scant resources.  I certainly don't
claim that I never make mistakes.

Here are my responses to Peggy's complaints about the specific story, which
I also posted here to KPFA's Soundcloud page: STANDING ROCK: VOLUNTEERS
URGENTLY NEEDED, https://soundcloud.com/kpfa-fm-94-1-berkeley:

Peggy's primary complaint seems to be that I have trivialized the need to
clean up the Oceti Sakowin camp, but I certainly have not mean to do so. In
the past two weeks, I have spoken to two supporters who have traveled to
Standing Rock about the clean up.  They are:

1)  Penobscot Native Dawn Neptune Adams, who arrived on her third trip to
Standing Rock two weeks ago and remains there now. The 30 seconds of her
own voice that I aired on KPFA was not as clear as it should have been. so
I did not share it to NewsUp! but I did publish the text interview here in
Counterpunch: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/15/
standing-rock-come-help-come-prepared-an-interview-with-dawn-neptune-adams/.
I don't believe it trivializes the need to clean up in the floodplain.

2) San Franciscan, Buddhist practitioner, and activist Hanson Lee, who just
returned from his third trip to Standing Rock.

Both of these people emphasized the need to clean up Oceti Sakowin, the
camp on the floodplain which is also contested land.  The Standing Rock
Sioux claim that it belongs to them according to Fort Laramie Treaties of
1851 and 1868.  If I understand this properly - and i don't claim to
understand this situation perfectly - this is also land that the DAPL
pipeline will cross.  Both Dawn Neptune Adams and Hanson Lee said that
those remaining at the camp were working long hours and in many cases
exhausting themselves to clean up Oceti Sakowin and retrieve their
belongings - tee pees, yurts, and the like - before officials confiscated,
destroyed or discarded them.

I said that North Dakota Governor Doug Burun accused the Water Protectors
of creating a garbage and human waste problem that would pollute the Cannon
Ball and Missouri Rivers, which converge at the site.  I also reported that
Hanson Lee said that the technology adapted for disposing of human waste at
the camp was very successful; I later learned it's a technology developed
for use in the refugee camps burgeoning around the world.  This human waste
disposal system is, as I said yesterday, worth a story in itself.  I did
not mean to say that the waste collected with this technology does not have
to be removed from Oceti Sakowin.

I also said that Water Protectors claimed that garbage had been dumped at
Oceti Sakowin and blamed on them.  This was a he said/she said, not an
assertion of fact.

The most controversial statement I reported was Hanson Lee's. He said that
he believed the Feb 22nd deadline was artificial because he believed that
the state's flood control systems could contain rising water levels beyond
that date and that he believed that officials might open floodgates before
it was necessary to intentionally flood the site of the Oceti Sakowin
camp.  Perhaps I should not have reported his opinion about this; I haven't
been able to find anyone who could either confirm or deny that officials
have the power to do this, but again, I did not report it as fact.  This
week's KPFA story was primarily a report of the observations of someone who
has been on the ground, which is, again, sometimes the best one can do from
a distance.  It is not a claim that everything the speaker said was a
matter of fact.

Other people who have been to Standing Rock agreed that the experience of
the self-organizing, collective effort inspired them, which is what Hanson
Lee said about his experience. That is a report of subjective experience,
not a matter of fact.

In part of the interview that I did not have time to include on the air,
Hanson Lee said that people had donated huge amounts of food and camping
gear last fall, and that much of it had been left behind by supporters who
intended to return.  He said that much of this now needed to be removed by
the far fewer numbers of people still there. He was fairly positive about
this, emphasizing the generosity of donors, but my impression is that Peggy
thinks people who were camped at Oceti Sakowin irresponsibly left a lot of
trash behind and that may be true; it's another viewpoint, but again, I
didn't have time to include anything about this in my 4-minute news piece.

The temperature in Bismarck and Cannonball as I write this is an
unseasonably warm 51 degrees, but weather services predict that it will
drop to 30 degrees tonight (freezing), and to 36 degrees day, 24 degrees
night by Wednesday.  Night time temperature predictions are from 14 degrees
and 18 degrees between Thursday and next Wednesday and freezing daytime
temperatures are predicted on at least three of those days.  That would
seem to support what Hanson Lee said about the weather and the imminent
danger of flooding, but I'm certainly no expert on the weather, the
snowpack melt. and the flood control systems in North Dakota.  How long
does it take to refreeze ice and snowpack that could become floodwaters?  I
don't know, but I don't feel that's a level of expertise that I have to
have to produce a 4-minute radio news story.

I reported that many the Water Protectors are working well into the night,
that they're exhausted, and that they need help.  Both of my source said
that.  Dawn Neptune Adams warned anyone on their way to come prepared.

Here are some of the evacuation orders:

November 28, 2016, Army Corps of Engineers: http://
rabbitsliketrumpets.typepad.com/EVICTION.pdf
February 15, 2017, North Dakota Governor Doug Burun, https://www.governor.
nd.gov/sites/governor/files/documents/Executive%20Order%202017-01.pdf

There are also recent evacuation orders from the Army Corps and the BIA,
but I wasn't readily able to find them.  I did read the Army Corps
evacuation order earlier and will share it if I turn it up again later.

I don't think anyone knows all of this story; when I talk to people at
Standing Rock, they often say that they know what is happening where they
are now, but not necessarily in a different camp within the networked camps
or elsewhere in North Dakota.  Dawn Adams said that she had only cell phone
access and very limited internet access, so I would have better access to
the evacuation orders.

I certainly can't claim to rival reporters Charon Asetoyer
<https://www.facebook.com/charon.asetoyer?hc_ref=SEARCH> and Jenni Monet
<https://www.facebook.com/jenni.monet.journalist>, who have been on the
ground at Standing Rock for months.  I recommend following them on
Facebook, as Peggy suggested.  This was Jenni Monet's last post to her
Facebook page, 19 hours ago:

*"The Prairie Knights Casino and Resort is swarming with rangers with the
National Park Service; their vehicles are everywhere in the parking lot.
Tonight, I observed them checking in to their hotel rooms. To witness a
tribally-owned resort become the essential staging ground to remove its
disowned water protectors -- some of whom stood by and observed the rangers
with me -- is in a word, surreal. Today, the two groups shared eating
schedules inside the casino buffet but held their own private meetings in
separate conference rooms. The one I attended was called "Honoring the
Grandmothers" where women came together for strength. Tears were shared.
But in the other room, just steps away, the rangers were likely unpacking
their plans of how to use force, if needed, to drive away these Lakota
women and others from their ancestral homelands. #StandingRock
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/standingrock?source=feed_text&story_id=1633845033295820>"*

For real,
Ann Garrison <http://www.anngarrison.com/>
Independent Journalist,
SKYPE: Ann Garrison, Oakland
415-503-7487 <(415)%20503-7487>