Media Blathers Follow-Up: Mayor Palin and Wasilla's Earmarks

I felt I needed to address something I neglected to mention in my last Media Blathers post regarding the Federal earmarks Wasilla acquired during Sarah Palin's tenure as Mayor.

The most commonly cited claim is that Mayor Palin hired a lobbyist to secure $27 million in Federal earmarks for Wasilla, a lie that Media Matters was all too eager to parrot, with assistance from equally inaccurate mainstream media sources:

Example one:

Washington Post staff writer Paul Kane reported on September 2 that "Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town [Wasilla, Alaska] of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group"

Example two:

Yet, contrary to Novak's assertion that Palin has a "loathing for earmarks," Palin has repeatedly sought and requested hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks as governor of Alaska, and, according to The Washington Post, which publishes Novak's column, hired a D.C. lobbying firm to acquire tens of millions of dollars in earmarks while serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Example three (note that MMFA attacks Charles Gibson for being too easy on Governor Palin's record):

According to the transcript, Gibson said in the interview, "Earmarks...[Palin] got $27 million in earmarks for her small town. You have talked about them in pernicious terms that you campaign. So why are they OK for them?"

Example four:

...according to The Washington Post, she hired a Washington lobbying firm to acquire tens of millions of dollars in earmarks while serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Example five:

...And as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

[...]

As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

[...]

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (host, This Week): Governor Palin put her own record front and center last night on that "Bridge to Nowhere." The story is a little more complicated. When she was campaigning for governor in -- in 2006, she was actually for the bridge. She opposed it when she got elected, after Congress had already taken away the earmark for the "Bridge to Nowhere." And as we've reported before, when she was mayor of Wasilla, she did seek $27 million in earmarks --

Example six:

Going back even further, we find that while still mayor of Wasilla, Palin successfully obtained a total of $27 million dollars for her town of about 8,000.

Actually, Wasilla did not receive $27 million worth of Federal earmarks during Mayor Palin's six years in office - not even half that. In fact, it was less than $8 million.

Indeed, as ABC News reported, that oft-cited "27 million" figure refers not to the Wasilla's earmarks but rather, to the earmarks the entire Matanuska-Susitna Borough received as a result of the lobbying firm that multiple borough communities, including Wasilla, used to acquire Federal funds, and of the three earmarks from this total which Senator John McCain attacked, Palin was only involved in one. That earmark was for a $1-million regional emergency dispatch centre, which was requested following a major 1996 fire that burnt down 300 homes in the borough.

To sum up: Wasilla received $7.95 million in Federal earmarks between 2000 and 2003, not the $27 million figure MMFA - along with multiple media sources - cites. Last time, Media Matters' earmark figures were off by 400%, now they're off by just under 300%. If there were a contest for failing upwards, Media Matters would win first prize.