It was 1985, Susan Butcher and Rick Swenson had developed a friendly rivalry and after Butcher placed second several years in a row, the eyes of the world were on her going into Iditarod 1985. Butcher had to scratch early on in the race however due to a dramatic incident where a moose attacked her team in the middle of the night. The race continued on and Swenson saw an opportunity to capture a fifth victory with his rival out of the picture. It was a daring move to mush into a blizzard out of Shaktoolik that separated the champion that year from the rest of the pack and it wasn’t Susan Butcher who would become the first female champion of the Iditarod, it was Libby Riddles.

I found a VHS tape at my parents house over the weekend of a CBS News special on Iditarod 1985 hosted by Terry Bradshaw. I’ve posted the last portion of that special here for you to enjoy. This was a moment that helped make the Iditarod what it has become today, and played a big part in thrusting the race onto the world’s stage.

hit “read more” to watch the video

We all remember the “Blair Witch Project” which is now famous for it’s shaky camera antics that produced hundreds of parodies in a pre-YouTube era. What most of us aren’t as quick to remember was the creative way in which the movie helped pioneer viral marketing. The Blair Witch Project was quietly, and slowly sold as a true documentary about a film crew. By the time the movie came out it wasn’t taken with much skepticism when it presented itself as using real footage from the making of the documentary. Eventually we all learned it wasn’t real – none of it….

NBC Universal is hoping to fool Americans into theaters again this fall by releasing another movie that is trying to virally bill itself as being a true story, when really its all made up once again. “The Fourth Kind” starring Milla Jovovich comes out in November and according to the recently released trailer “dramatizes actual events” surrounding disappearances in Nome Alaska….blaming the disappearances on alien abductions. Jovovich even introduces herself at the beginning of the trailer as an actress and tells the camera that “every scene in this movie is supported by archived footage.”

It’s true that there have been a handful of disappearances in Nome, and its true that they were investigated by the FBI a few years back – but the problem with this movie is that tragic stories, often of Inupiat and Siberian Yupik villagers from neighboring communities are used to fool the audience and these true stories are distorted into events that never happened. Melanie Edwards a Vice president of the regional non-profit Kawerak, which helped push for the FBI investigation into 50 years of disappearing Native Alaskans in Nome tells the Anchorage Daily News that “It’s insensitive to family members of people who have gone missing.”

I’d encourage you to read the excellent ADN article by Kyle Hopkins, here are a few highlights:

• Despite an FBI conclusion in 2006 that no serial killer was to blame, emotions over the missing and dead are still raw in the region.
• The movie trailer shows victims as being all caucasian, when most unsolved cases in Nome usually involve Native Alaskans.
• The film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome. But state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can’t find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska. No one by that name lived in Nome in recent years, according to a search of public record databases.

Additionally it appears that NBC Universal is planting evidence on the internet to persuade anyone who is skeptical of the film’s premise and tries to google search for some clarity.

• The websites: http://alaskapsychiatryjournal.org/, http://alaskanewsarchive.com/, and http://www.knomarchive.com were all been registered on Aug 13th (the day the trailer came out) to anonymous organizations and have posted bogus articles pertaining to the plot of the movie.
• One article on alaskanewsarchive.com appears to be an archived “Nome Nugget” piece written by editor Nancy McGuire, however she tells the ADN that it’s baloney and she never wrote it.
• Ron Adler is CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. Denise Dillard is president of the Alaska Psychological Association. They said this week they’ve never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal.

Finally, as Kyle Hopkins points out, the movie which is supposedly full of “archive footage” is clearly not even filmed in Nome, in fact IMDB says it was shot in Bulgaria. Having lived in Nome it was one of the first things I noticed, it didn’t look anything even close – producers probably haven’t even been there! Houses looked way too nice, and trees….. Nome doesn’t have trees!

If Universal was planning on this type of viral marketing for “The Fourth Kind” and posting fake news stories on the internet to begin with, they should made the *entire* thing up not just most of it. Instead they are intentionally exploiting the unsolved mysteries of real people in a real community and are attempting to deceive the rest of the country at the same time.

About an hour before the first musher crosses the finish line, you can get online and listen to “Iditablog live pre-race coverage”.  Live special guests, your listener questions, and a ‘09 trail recap will take us up to the live finish from Nome.

Until the live broadcast begins, you can listen to the “Best-of Iditablog Podcasts” which include archived Iditarod finishes going back to 2005, this year’s prior podcasts, and some other fun surprises.  The “Best-of Segments” will stop airing a half hour before the live broadcast begins.

Listen by clicking “play” in the box below, or (click here) to open in a new window.

For a short summary of tomorrow’s episode, see below – we’ll also be back tomorrow evening with a re-cap, and a preview of next week’s show.  Make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to catch all the inside action of the Iditarod as over the next 3 weeks we see what it took to become 2008’s champion.

Friday, November 7th
With most teams now in their 24-hour break, Lance Mackey and Jeff King make up for time lost. Mackey is the first to Checkpoint: Ruby, leaving King both confused and frustrated. King devises a plan to win the race: He will let the returning champ lead and thus expend precious energy breaking trail. Rookie Darin Nelson becomes the latest musher to withdraw from the race — a sick dog team breaks his will to continue, and he chooses to scratch. Meanwhile the Buser family separates to allow former champion, Martin, a shot at the gold. It’s now a race to the coast along the mighty Yukon.

Looks like there will be no new episode next Tuesday, I can only assume its because most of us will be watching election coverage.  The next episode premiers on Nov. 11th, make sure you tune in.

Here are our “re-blogs” from the section of the trail that was covered in tonight’s show.

Iditarod 2008, Episode 3: McGrath – Cripple

1. Takotna: 24-hours of Confusion – The pack thins out
2. Ophir: 24-hour Check-up
3. Ophir: The 24-hour Choice
4. Cripple: Big Day for DeeDee & Details on the Ruby Award

I’m working on a big blog entry to post after this show finishes up to quickly catch everyone up on what has transpired since last march in Iditarod news… and what we know about Iditarod 2009!

This week we’ve got more “re-post” coverage of the 2008 Iditarod, allowing you to follow along reading our coverage from the period of the race that was shown in tonight’s second episode on the Discovery Channel.

Iditarod 2008, Episode 2: Rainy Pass – Nikolai

1. Rainy Pass: Into Rainy Pass & The GPS Impact

2. Rohn: Backen is Back!

3. Nikolai: The lead pack will change into Nikolai

4. Nikolai: Mackey out of Nikolai, Garnie out of the race

Over the next few weeks as the show airs, I’ll be going back providing links to the posts that I wrote during the period of the race that happened during each episode.  For those of you who didn’t follow along last March, you’ll get to re-live how we saw the race unfold… you’re seeing it on TV, but now you’ll get one more perspective as if it was happening all over again.

Iditarod 2008: Ceremonial Start – Rainy Pass

1. Anchorage: The Race is on!

2. Willow: The 2008 Breakdown

3. Yentna: Goodbye Willow – Hello Alaskan Wilderness

4. Rainy Pass: Into Rainy Pass & The GPS Impact

Let us know what you thought of the Iditarod show on Discovery this week…. post your comment below!

I’ll be back next week with more thoughts and a repost of the next series of blogs! (of course you can always read ahead too!).

I did want to remind everyone one last time though that this evening will be the premier of “Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod” on the Discovery Channel. It will be the most comprehensive look at the Iditarod to date as it seeks to follow not just the leaders of the race (as most coverage has done in the past) but those all through the entire pack of mushers. There were nearly 30 teams that were outfitted with cameras during last years race. The production company that has been working on this show for the last 8 months is the same group that has done the very high quality, and very entertaining “Deadlest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers”.

The video below is 2-time consecutive Iditarod Champion Lance Mackey appearing recently on Conan O’Brian to promo the Discovery show.

UPDATE 10/18 – I just updated the post to include the actual video of Lance on Conan….

TOUGHEST RACE ON EARTH: IDITAROD

World Premiere Series Begins Tuesday, October 14 at 10PM ET/PT

Discovery Channel continues its exploration into and chronicling of the fascinating world around us with the groundbreaking six-part series TOUGHEST RACE ON EARTH: IDITAROD.  Defining adventure programming, the world premiere series provides a rare look into one of the harshest races in one of the most beautiful and challenging places on the planet – The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  Across frozen rivers, barren tundra, mountains and thick forest in freezing temperatures, this grueling 1,150 mile race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska puts mushers and their dog teams through the ultimate test of human and animal teamwork and endurance.  Filmed in March 2008, this series tells stories through the eyes of the men and women who dared to take on the ultimate test of human and animal teamwork and endurance.  The intense preparation and training of race veterans and rookies alike show what it takes to compete not only against each other, but also Mother Nature.