Drugs Letter of the Day
posted by on August 22 at 17:08 PM
I live in a pretty conservative city, and I enjoy reading Slog every day. I have found your posts on the drug war and the way it is reported to be very enlightening. Recently, I talked to my boyfriend about it; he’s a news producer for one of the local tv stations here. I asked if he would be “allowed” to produce a story which questioned the effictiveness of drug raids. (All of his stories have to be approved by the news director.) Without pause, he said no. Apparently, one of the major considerations in what is considered newsworthy is whether something could be considered “offensive,” and to suggest that drugs are not evil and that the DEA is not doing God’s Work would definitely be offensive. (Murder and child rape, however, are not offensive; they’re usually the lead stories.)Not to lose focus of what this e-mail is about, but he’s also rarely allowed to run stories about gay rights issues. My boyfriend said that anytime he has included such a story in his newscast, the station receives “record numbers” of angry phone calls.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked. “Doesn’t that mean you’re provoking discussion?”
My boyfriend agrees. His news director does not.
So, unfortunately, real journalism ain’t easy, especially in a conservative city. After a lot of prodding from me every time I read one of your “stupid fucking credulous hack” posts, my boyfriend finally agreed to pitch a story about the (lack of) effectiveness of the drug war to run during sweeps; apparently sweeps months are the only time that it may be okay to be controversial. Who knows? Maybe it’ll get on the air.
Oh, and by the way: more than half of the people working in the newsroom regularly smoke pot. At the station, even.
Thanks for the thought-provoking blogging, Dan. Have a great weekend.
Ah, hypocrisy.
But you realize that local TV news isn't news at all, but carefully calibrated scare propaganda aimed at a small portion of the population that gets off on scare propaganda, and that that segment is insane, stupid, right-wing beyond imagining, and scared to go out of their houses? Those are the people who call. They're not real Americans, but try telling them that.
Don't watch local news.
Newspapers, on the other hand, are supposed to be for grownups.
I always suspected that you wrote your own letters, like "Ann Landers"...
Nope, too lazy.
But I can see why you would think that, since I am a bad, bad man, and no one likes me, and no one should read my blog.
Ah, the perils of a for-profit model of informing the public. One might almost speculate that such a model is incompatible with the need for citizens in a representative democracy to be well informed.
That doesn't make any sense. An accurate analogy would be if the news report included a story on whether current law enforcement procedures are effective at stopping child rape or murder. There might actually be a good case that they don't, but it would be at least as controversial to say that on a local news program.
It's amazing that the same people who think that the oil companies and Dick Cheney run America also believe that illegal drugs are grown by beneficient hippies and not by gangland mercenaries.
Every puff is another child possibly hurt by gunfire on Rainier Avenue, yet these Web 2.0 Liberals are happily insulated by their blogs, white skin and social status.
What a bunch of puffed up idiotic crime causing hypocrites.
It's good to know that people in Omaha smoke pot.....
I'm a prosecuting attorney for low-level misdeameanors (like possession of marijuana) in a major west coast city, and I regularly smoke pot. In the courthouse. Sometimes with the public defenders. Yes, the hypocrisy astounds me too.
#6: This is known as circular logic. Put simply, you are citing an effect as a cause.
Back in the day when alcohol was the illegal product made in hidden mountain distilleries, smuggled into population centers by gun-toting rum-runners and distributed by gangsters, pot was perfectly legal to grow in a field right out in the open. How many people got killed as a result of the pot trade then? Approximately zero. By contrast, many people died as a result of the crime associated with the illegal alcohol trade (and many people people died or went blind from consuming improperly-distilled whiskey.)
By your "reasoning," the day the law changed the morality of these two substances flipped positions, and evil became the new good.
Dan, when are you going to start targeting the Times and PI's religion reporters with SFCH posts? After all, their "god" doesn't exist, and these journalists are reporting on religious events with impunity, never questioning the existence of this "god", or procuring quotes from atheists that show an alternate view. Surely they deserve the same treatment?
#9: "By your "reasoning," the day the law changed the morality of these two substances flipped positions, and evil became the new good."
Point taken! Yes, I am loathe to prosecute the use of a substance, by adults, in their own home, when it can be grown or produced in their own home.
However, I would say that the typical lazy bones Slog writer, wanting to "ride out the weekend" would pursue the drug with the same amount of effort as he would a bag of potato chips or a pizza...that is he would call the "Dope Man...the Dope Man...da-dope da-dope man" who is tied into these large scale operations.
And, as I have written in the past, those who have to share working quarters or friendships with pot users, on the morning after, are in for bouts of paranoia and tragic down moments, which, for person in a position of power or influence, could have negative impacts on others.
Completely fake letter. But thanks for playing!
Fantastic insight from a non-Seattleite. Except, this thought is totally unneeded:
"Oh, and by the way: more than half of the people working in the newsroom regularly smoke pot. At the station, even."
Uh, whatever. But totally unneeded. He's not in Seattle, so pot is easy to find. Everyone knows that, but no Seattleite acknowledges it. Perhaps if we admit it, then we can start to make pot as accessible here as it is everywhere else in America.
Old ladies have their T.V. stations on speed dial.
John Bailo @6, anyone who uses "Liberals" as derogatory slang is instantly a Republican hack and loses all respect with me as well as many people on this blog. Also, I love how you worked in the whole "think of the children!" angle. Seriously, go fuck yourself.
those who have to share working quarters or friendships with pot users, on the morning after, are in for bouts of paranoia and tragic down moments, which, for person in a position of power or influence, could have negative impacts on others
Dude, WTF? Tragic down moments? Seriously?
I second Brandon J. Really go fuck yourself...
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