SC Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican... everywhere but on FOX
I do my level best to keep my personal politics out of this blog. Republicans and Democrats have both been staunch foes of marijuana legalization, and the ideological bases of both the Republican and Democratic parties tend to favor marijuana legalization (liberals from a “social justice” angle; libertarians from a “personal privacy” angle). (Democrats have been incrementally better on the issue, though, much in the same way drowning someone and calling it “waterboarding” is incrementally more humane than the ancient Greeks burning prisoners alive using “the brazen bull“.)
Former Rep. Mark Foley, Republican... everywhere but on FOX
But when it comes to FOX “News”, their agenda is so transparent and their reporting is so biased that I attack them not from a political perspective, but a journalistic one. This is the network that has repeatedly referred to Republicans as Democrats (e.g. Rep. Mark Foley ["D"-FL] and Gov. Mark Foley ["D"-SC]) in their chyrons when Republicans are caught in a sexual scandal.
So when FOX News is questioning the California Board of Equalization’s $1.4 billion estimate of tax revenue from Assem. Tom Ammiano [D-San Francisco... really!], it’s best that you put on your waders to read through it… talk about your brazen bull!
To reach that amount, the board apparently relied on a source that relied on a source that misquoted a book that misquoted a study, all involving a hazy mix of out-of-date numbers, high margins of error and complete guesswork that could be a mere $700 million off the mark.
The board appears to have based its 16-million-ounce guess on a problematic “study” conducted by the founder of a pot-growing university in Oakland and by the director of California’s branch of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
But after only a quick look, those numbers went up in smoke. The NORML report based some of its figures on a book called “The Science of Marijuana,” which in turn appears to have misquoted an annual study of regular smokers conducted at music festivals and pot rallies in Britain.
The book says the study found that daily marijuana users smoke about 2 ounces a month (56 grams), but the study actually found that they used just over an ounce a month (34.25 grams).
I went straight to the source, California NORML Coordinator and study author Dale Gieringer, who notes:
The weights in the British report are referring to “resin” (i.e. hashish), not marijuana. The report goes on to note that in terms of herbal cannabis, consumption is higher, averaging 57 g (=two ounces) per month. These are the numbers we used in estimating total California consumption at 1 million pounds per year.
For the record, this number is actually on the low side compared to other estimates. For example, using a similar methodology as ourselves, the ONDCP estimated total US consumption at 4,270 metric tons in 2000. Apportioning this by California’s share of the population (12%), this works out to 1.13 million pounds per year in the state.
Using a different methodology, ONDCP calculated that the total amount of marijuana available in the U.S. at 4,777 – 16,731 m.t. of domestic production plus 4,581 to 7,135 m.t. of foreign imports, or 9.358 to 23,866 m.t. total per year . This would work out to 2.5- 6.3 million pounds per year in California!
It is clearly difficult to come up with accurate projections of marijuana consumption. Hard data are difficult to come by due to marijuana’s current illegal status. Nonetheless, the figures cited by NORML and the state Board of Equalization are if anything on the conservative side compared to other government estimates.
So remember, whenever you hear a “fact” on FOX “News”, make sure you apply some common sense and a little Googling. This is the same “news” organization that is trying to convince you that only one out of six guns used in the Mexican drug war come from America, when it is probably closer to six out of ten. Who here really thinks that legalization and taxation of marijuana in California is actually going to cost California money? Now, who here thinks they will be raking in money hand over fist?
FOX “News” job is to convince you of a lie, and failing that, confuse the truth, in matters important to their agenda. FOX “News” viewers ranked among the least knowledgeable about public affairs in Pew Center surveys, and the Program on International Policy Attitudes found in 2003 that 4 out of 5 FOX “News” viewers had one or more demonstrable misconceptions about the Iraq War.
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When I got out they were just starting to get the new A2. That was a looong time ago. HA-HA. Standard fire on those was semi (it fires as fast as you can pull the trigger) and 3 round burst. No auto.
I think that is still the bread and butter issue for our service. I could be wrong.
Full auto was determined to just be a waste of ammo.
And both of your links are from Radley Balko, who is great, who writes for Reason, and represents the libertarian side of the FOX audience.
However, you’re not seeing him on TV much. Lots of O’Reilly, Hannity, and the rest of the clown car, not so much Balko.
However, it’s not important who’s more biased – MSNBC, CNN, FOX – but that we call them all on it in a non-partisan manner. I’ll admit, I am a dyed-in-the-wool leftie and I do my utter best to be as neutral as I can be. But I am biased, too, that’s why I’m a “commentator” and not a “journalist”. (Or, as an Idaho native, a “common tater”.)
You’re right about calling on FOX to live up to true conservative ideals… but doesn’t that require us to assume their conservative bias?
I’m actually getting kind of post-partisan, post-left-right in my thinking. Now I like to think “right/wrong” regardless of party. Locking people up for a plant is wrong. I don’t care who’s doing it. Clinton, Bush, now Obama, three guys who’ve smoked pot who are arresting people for doing what they did. I don’t put a D or an R behind their names, it’s just an H for “hypocrite”.
Fox buries their head in the sand a little more than MSNBC, CNN, etc. If you want “just the facts” try CSPAN. It is the standard in boring, but that’s why you have the other “circus” channels. You can’t tell me that one side of the media is better than the other; they both suck. While I’m willing to admit that Fox reporting is biased, I don’t see how people can make that statement without also admitting that MSNBC and CNN also present biased positions. Any position is biased, even if that position is to be anti-biased. With CSPAN, you get reporting like, “Jo Schmo said something today. Here is a video of him saying it. Now we go live to the floor of Congress where there are people bustling about and talking to each other.”
Riveting.
We really can be flies on the wall. We just have to be willing to pay attention, and it ain’t always fun.
Russ,
I challenge you to find a more piercing indictment than this on CNN or MSNBC. I don’t think you can do it. This ain’t bad, either.
Instead of antagonizing FoxNews, why don’t you challenge them to live up to certain conservative ideals: respect for the Constitution (which allows for regulation of only INTERstate commerce); local control; federalism; reliance on family/faith/community to help out people with real problems, not government programs; and, finally, individual responsibility for actions.
By all means, call FoxNews on their bullshit.
But let’s challenge them to be better. (Frankly, I already think they’re better than CNN and Fox.) Expecting them to live up to some true conservative ideals might win over more people than calmly explaining how stupid they are.
I don’t think the M-16 is the standard anymore (is it?) but when I was in, those M-16′s had both a “semi-” and an “auto” setting.
Well I do think Fox has helped expose corruption and the greatest corruption began in 1937 cannabis sativa being the devil they needed to remove the competition from hemp. By now we would of had our green industry and possibly cancer going the way of polio and some of the best herb growing in the garden Yaaa
Distinguished Guest asked
“The drug cartels in Mexico have billions of dollars. Why in the world would they want our “puny” semi-automatic weapons?”
Answer:
Because they are extremely easy and inexspencive to get. Why by from elsewhere when the superstore is right next door?
I also think it is a bit disengenuous to call extremely deadly weapons “Puny” semi-automatic weapons.
The standard issue for all U.S. soldiers is the M16, which just happpens to be a “Puny” semi automatic weapon. The AR15 is just as deadly.
Thank you for that well thought comment. But FOX news is biased. These aren’t accidents. The bias is well-documented.
But, you’re right, let’s not get lost in that argument. Like the Mexican guns from America, let’s not get lost in a gun control argument; the point isn’t where they came from it’s why they are needed.
Take a step back and look at the bigger picture…
Fox ain’t perfect for sure, but it should be pointed out that when someone on Fox spouts some nonsense, it’s not “Fox” that is doing that, per se, but individual anchors/reporters.
Some on Fox are people that I no longer want to listen to (even though most of the women are hot).
Just yesterday on Fox Business Network during the show Happy Hour, a spokesman from MPP was on. About 90% of the questions and comments from the Fox team was positive. The other 10% was not necessarily negative, but questions that needed to raised in order to be balanced.
When Fox or any other network goes off the deep end then by all means, go after them. Call them out with no mercy. Yet, keep in mind that “Fox” is not a single entity – it is a multitude of people from different political viewpoints. That is why I watch it.
Regarding the Republican labeled on screen as a Democrat, I have noticed that too… from Fox and other networks. Sometimes even the ticker at the bottom of the screen has typos and wrong party identification. Mistakes happen. I don’t see this as a trend.
Recall the guy Gary Condit from 2001. This is the only guy who thanked his lucky stars for 9/11. He was the married politician who committed adultery with someone who ended up murdered. The press was hounding him ever day (until 9/11). Yet, it was reported on Fox that almost always the mainstream press would not report that he was a Democrat. And that was true.
In addition the mainstream media suddenly reported that Condit was a “conservative”. Obviously to try to paint this guy as a non-Democrat and a conservative in order to shield the Democrat party.
Regarding guns smuggled south of the border, there is a lot of info that you have to dig to find. The drug cartels in Mexico have billions of dollars. Why in the world would they want our “puny” semi-automatic weapons?
These murderers have so much money that they do not need *any* guns from America. They can get them from any place in the world. Plus, under Bush 43, our government sent a huge amount of major firepower including full-auto weaponry to the Mexican government to fight the so called “war on drugs”.
Because Mexico is corrupt almost all of these weapons were given to or taken by the drug cartels. The point is, Mexican drug gangsters are not going into sporting goods stores in America and buying [relative] weak weapons in order to conduct their war.
I support Norml and you, Russ. But keep an open mind. The enemy is apathy in the American people. Be glad that at least the media is discussing our cause. The more Americans here our side (even if the media is biased) is a win for our side.
Thanks, phynte.
It’s a damn shame Fox News didn’t allow comments to this article, there’s a great deal of statements made by the writer that I’m sure many people (myself included) would have questioned and argued. The writer seems to allude that the surveys results were overstated or by NORML. While I can agree that no one actually knows how much weed gets smoked in California (or anywhere in the US), I had assumed the opposite of the writer’s take, that the results were understated. There’s more people using cannabis on a daily basis or occasionally, and not talking/lying about it, than is actually known. People do lie and answer conservatively on surveys.
Right here dnL http://tr.im/tZQk
Is there a link to the Fox article? I’d hate to give their website some traffic but I like reading the full article and the comments (especially when the comment tend to turn against prohibitionist writers).
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OMG, typical for FOX NEWS, its not news, its a republican sided TV channel that will say or do anything to sway opinons to republican veiws. When Bush was still in office they had no negitive stories about him, while every single news station was running story after story. Today we see it when they degrade Obama every day while every single other news network is bring the true news and both sides of it.
Bill Maher cant go on FOX anymore because he has called out BS on their reporters many many times. Anytime a news network wont interveiw a guest or Bans a guest, you have to know somthing is off.
I cant even turn to that channel it sickens me they even can be called news, its sad because so many people, my mother in law is one of them, take every single word they say as the truth. There are folks that truly believe these goofs and truly believe their lies and bias reporting is news. They all have been brainwashed and they dont even believe it when you tell them they are. They think CNN is telling lies, thats how deep they get into these folks heads.
FOX can SUCK IT! Any channel that would give Glen Beck a show has to have an “right” agenda.
God I hate all of them!