06.08.18

Sullivan Honors Alaskan of the Week: Ed Schoenfeld

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) this week spoke on the Senate floor in recognition of Juneau resident Ed Schoenfeld, a 37-year veteran of the Southeast press corps who has recently retired. For decades – in both print and public broadcasting – Ed has been known for fairness, accuracy, and curiosity and for his steadfast commitment to local reporting. Ed was honored as part of Senator Sullivan’s “Alaskan of the Week” series.

6.7.18 Alaskan of the Week

Senator Sullivan Honoring Ed Schoenfeld as Alaskan of the Week (click image or here to watch, click here to download video).

TRIBUTE TO ED SCHOENFELD (U.S. Senate – June 7, 2018):

Mr. President, it is Thursday, and that means it is the afternoon when I get to talk about someone in my State who is doing a great job for the State, and oftentimes for the country--someone who is really making a difference. As the Presiding Officer and the pages know, I like to refer to this person as the ``Alaskan of the Week.'' It is one of my favorite parts of the week in the Senate, being able to talk about someone who has made a real difference.

When I give this speech every week, I like to talk about what is going on in Alaska. It is a beautiful State. It is the biggest State--we all know that--in the country. The State is fully in bloom. Its tourists are flocking north by the tens of thousands to view the wildlife, glaciers, mountains, to eat our delicious seafood, take in amazing views through hikes, and have an adventure.

I want to make sure that everyone who is watching in the Galleries or on TV on C-SPAN--you have to come to Alaska. You will have the trip of a lifetime, guaranteed. Come on up.

What is truly impressive about my State is the people who live there and the sense of community we have there. Alaska isn't always the easiest place to live. It is far from the lower 48 States. The weather can be extreme, but, as a result, the people in the communities bond, and they work together, particularly in some of our most remote communities. We are one big community in Alaska, even though our State is so big.

Every community in Alaska and America needs to be able to share reliable, credible information. On that topic, there has been quite a lot of negative attention paid to the national media, in particular, these past few years. Some of it is merited; nobody is perfect, right?

But the vital role of local journalism and how that plays in different communities across our country haven't been talked about nearly enough.

We all know this, and in many ways we all benefit from the thousands of local reporters who are working in our country, day in and day out, reporting great fact-finding stories and working hard. I believe we should all be saluting them for doing this important work, and that is what we are doing here today.

I would like to introduce Ed Schoenfeld, a reporter in Alaska who is our Alaskan of the Week and who has been reliably reporting the news from Southeast Alaska for 37 years. He recently took a well-earned retirement. Well done, Ed. You are our Alaskan of the Week.

Let me talk a little bit about him. He hitchhiked to Fairbanks when he was 20 years old for a little trip, and as so many do, he promised himself that when he had the opportunity, he would go back to Alaska.

That opportunity came in 1979 when the program director position opened up in the public broadcasting station KTOO in Juneau, AK.

Now, Alaska public radio was and still is, in many ways, renowned across the country for its local reporting and for its crucial link to rural communities who need that reporting throughout our State--and need it badly. Interestingly, I think, because of the challenges it presents to reporters, some of National Public Radio's most famous reporters nationally--NPR's most famous reporters--have all cut their teeth in Alaska. So some of the people listening probably heard of Peter Kenyon, Corey Flintoff, Elizabeth Arnold. These are kind of the big dogs at NPR right now. Well, they all got their start in Alaska.

So public radio is where Alaskans throughout my State get their news about the weather, about whale hunts, about bear attacks, about births, deaths, crimes, baptism, good works, bad deeds, and you name it; that is where we get our information. In smaller communities, this information could be critical. Because public radio stations across

Alaska work cooperatively, they always pretty much keep it local. So, from KTOO, Ed went to the newsroom of the Juneau Empire, where he stayed for 18 years. That is the big paper in Juneau. For the last 15 years, he has been one of the voices of Southeast Alaska on Coast Alaska, a public broadcasting consortium of five local communities. His nickname is ``dean of the Douglas press corps.'' Now, this is a bit of a joke, not toward him but just what ``Douglas'' means. Douglas is an island of about 3,000 people.

As the Juneau Empire put it, Ed has earned the professorial status of the dean of the press corps. That status came about because of the dozens and dozens of reporters he has trained and mentored throughout the years, and that is a great legacy.

Of course, he also takes his work very seriously. He has done plenty of lighthearted features about equestrians in Wrangell, exploring caves in the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest national forest in the country.

There are also deeper dives, as you would expect from a serious journalist. He has won an investigative journalism award about allegations of corruption related to a State contract. He has covered our important businesses extensively. There is nobody who has done more digging into an issue that I and my fellow Alaskans care deeply about--particularly in Southeast--and that is what we call the transboundary mining issue--mining waste that comes from mines in Canada into Alaska's waters. Ed has focused on that more than any other reporter, and it is an issue that, as I mentioned, many of us take very seriously. Transboundary mining is complex. Ed has traveled both in Canada and Alaska to the communities that are impacted by this pollution. He has spoken to everyone--community leaders, fishermen, government officials, environmentalists, mining companies, tourism businesses--and what he ultimately came to on this subject is that our concerns about this pollution are legitimate, but unlike some are saying, not all mines are bad--certainly not in Alaska. We have a number of mines, and certainly some are trying to do the right thing.

It is more complicated than what the critics often say, says Ed. That is the way it is on most stories, and that is why we need good reporters.

So many issues are complicated. We can get so frustrated with the kind of simplistic ``he said, she said'' reporting that gets in the papers or on TV today, but good reporters, as we all know, dig much deeper. They cut through the propaganda. They lay out all the facts and facets of an issue and, in many ways, they let us decide. They recognize the people who are listening are intelligent, and they try and help us figure out the importance of some of these big issues.

These are the kind of reporters we need in every community. These are the kind of reporters who I think are critical for our democracy.

So now Ed will spend more time with his wife--also a former reporter--Betsy and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Maggie. I am sorry to see him, as I am sure most Alaskans are, hang up his dean's robe. I know his colleagues are sad, but there will be others who follow in his footsteps, others he has mentored--young, eager reporters who want to inform their community, reliably report the news and facts, and of course there is no better place to do that than in Alaska.

So, Ed, thanks for all of your 37 years of hard work for our great State, and congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week. Your voice will be missed.

 

###