Propaganda vs. Journalism

Jacob Sullum | January 7, 2005

My favorite part of the ONDCP fake-news story is the office's complaint that the GAO is "making a mountain out of a molehill" because "it would be difficult for 'a reasonable broadcaster' to mistake the videos for independent news reports." The claim is dubious, or at least irrelevant. In the case of the Medicaid drug benefit, several TV stations, knowingly or not, did pass off the government's video press releases as real news stories. The important question is whether viewers are given enough clues to distinguish between government propaganda and independent journalism. And when the topic is the war on drugs, even people who follow the issue closely have trouble telling the difference.

Comments

|1.7.05 @ 11:02AM|#

Were they telling the truth when they said my testes would shrink and my tits would grow huge if I smoked a little reefer? I can't remember what else they said. My memory is shot to hell these days.

|1.7.05 @ 11:07AM|#

Were they telling the truth when they said my testes would shrink and my tits would grow huge if I smoked a little reefer? I can't remember what else they said. My memory is shot to hell these days.

Baylen|1.7.05 @ 11:27AM|#

The GAO decision is here.

|1.7.05 @ 11:44AM|#

In the category of Best Use Of A Double Post the winner is...........Twba.

(please try not to ramble for more than 2 minutes during your acceptance speach.)

|1.7.05 @ 12:13PM|#

Calling back the last organization that sent you a press release for a sound bite is hard-hitting investigative journalism. Listen to the radio news once in a while.

|1.7.05 @ 12:38PM|#

Sorry about the double post. I forgot I sent the first one. Don't follow my example. Stay away from the demon weed.

|1.7.05 @ 1:58PM|#

I can't tell if this is discouraging or encouraging. It's discouraging because our tax dollars are being used to defraud and lie to the public. But it's encouraging, because it shows that the war on drugs is beyond lost, and they have become so desperate, they're willing to go to such extremes.

Sometimes the death rattle of your enemy stings a little bit, but take solace in the fact that he will be dead soon...

|1.7.05 @ 2:56PM|#

I doubt the war on drugs is near death. I thought reefer would be legal when the baby boomers assumed power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

|1.8.05 @ 3:12AM|#

if it's decriminalized in my lifetime (another 50 years or so, give or take) i'll be shocked.

SteveinClearwater|1.8.05 @ 4:08PM|#

DHEX, I hope you aren't standing out in the rain with fork in the toaster (see the frivolous lawsuit Topic) when you typed that last statement.

We're way past decrim already and have been for 25 years. egalization is the next logical and inevitable step.

Cannabis has already been decriminalized in 12 U.S. states - notably Ohio where possession of up to 99grams (that's enough for something like 4-800 doobies according to the National Families In Action website...heh) merits only a $250 fine.

And of course in eleven states now (some states are in both groups) use is effectively decriminalized for qualified medical patients.

Texas is one state that will have a decrim bill in the Legislature this year and though it may not yet pass, it should see support from at least a third of the representatives.

The voting demographics for supporting criminal cannabis probibition laws is inverse by age.

With each passing day we lose literally several thousand of the Age 65+ voting bracket, where approval for decrim/legalization is about 15% and replace them with several thousand 18 year olds who approve of same in about 70-75% range.

Current national polling says that the overall American electorate polls out at about 38-44% in favor of Legalization for adults. (say 40%)

That's about 125million NO votes versus about 85 million.

At a swing of 10,000 eligible voters a day we should be able to cut the national polling down to 51/49 Legalize within about 7-8 years. And that doesn't include further progress made by increased accurate education to better counter government lies. And of course we must succeed at increasing Actual Voter Turnout within our 18-35 year old brackets to see the full translation into actual laws being changed.

So look for the first legalized state to pop up within next 1-3 election cycles, with a couple more after that in each cycle over the following couple of decades. It will happen even faster of course if we can succeed at getting the feds to reschedule cannabis off of the current Schedule 1.