Anchorage Press Has a Slow Week

Obviously, the Anchorage Press is getting desperate* for stories based on this one in this week's edition. 

There comes a time in every reporter’s career when some jackass threatens to sue. For Steven Aufrecht, a retired university of Alaska professor who blogs about “this and that, as things come up” under the banner What do I know?, the threatening letter arrived in the mail in March. It’s from an attorney and threatens to pursue “all available legal and equitable remedies” on behalf of a client the letter identifies as the proprietor of something called the Alaska International Film Festival. 

Here's a link to the rest of the story, though regular readers have seen most of it here already.

The original post.
Their attorney's letter.
My attorney's letter. 

I have to say that Scott Christianson - someone I don't recall ever having talked to until he called earlier this week - treated me decently in the story.  I think it's probably good for people who write about other people to be subjects themselves now and then.  It reminds us how it feels and maybe makes most of us a little more careful when we write about others. 

*And all joking aside, I think this is a story that deserves more attention - the film festival with the exact same ACRONYM as the Anchorage International Film Festival that is, not me.

I'm sure that a lot of people have sent them films thinking they were sending it to a festival that actually shows movies.  Their site does say that it doesn't show movies.   Film makers do need to read the whole website of festivals they send money to.  But there doesn't seem to be any sort of accountability for film festivals other than word of mouth.  It's very easy for someone who's never been to Alaska to confuse the Alaska and the Anchorage International Film Festivals.  I mistyped it myself and was confused for a while, and I'd been blogging the Anchorage International Film Festival.  Think what a film maker in New Jersey knows about Alaska, let alone one in Holland or Japan.  How many people send films and money to the Alaska festival thinking the films will be shown to audiences like the Anchorage festival has?  I'm guessing quite a few.