(New York Daily News) ALBANY – Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Sen. Thomas Duane, both Manhattan Democrats, would make it legal for people with serious medical conditions to score limited amounts of marijuana from state-certified distributors or grow it themselves.
The bill has passed the Assembly but gone up in smoke in the Senate, where it is unlikely to win approval anytime soon.
[Marijuana Policy Project] is running the ads on WNBC-TV and local cable stations, hoping to woo key senators. The ads are also running upstate.
[New York City's] ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates harshed the group’s buzz by declining to run the ads, [MPP communication's director Bruce] Mirken added.
Well, these must have been some pretty controversial ads, right? Were there pot leaves flying all around as a cartoon dog and cartoon infant sing the praises of a “Bag of Weed”, as the New York City Fox affiliate showed when they aired the “Family Guy 420″ episode? Did it feature a teenager smoking pot as the New York City ABC affiliate showed when they aired an episode of Desperate Housewives? Was there an island dedicated to growing huge fields of marijuana as the New York City CBS affiliate showed when they aired an episode of Numb3rs?
Let’s take a look at these crazy hippie pothead dope smokin’ counterculture offensive advertisements, shall we?
Loading ...
Uh, does that mean WABC doesn’t accept political ads? You know, where one side might have $10,000,000 to spend on “Swift Boat” ads? Or like twisted hateful lies and deceit that come from the ONDCP?…
Cop out.
I wrote to all three affiliates and received the following from WABC:
WABC refuses all issue oriented advertising.
It doesn’t matter whether the ads are from the pro-side or the anti-side
of an issue.
WABC refuses issue oriented ads supporting OR opposing medical
marijuana.
WABC refuses issue oriented ads supporting OR opposing same sex
marriage.
WABC refuses issue oriented ads supporting OR opposing abortion.
And so on.
The reason has nothing to do with support or opposition of a particular
issue.
The reason is that issue oriented ads are not required to be honest or
truthful. While the hope is that such advertising be honest and above
board, the fact is that there is no law that requires issue oriented ads
to tell the truth. A cereal company or juice company cannot lie about
their product. The law forbids that. But the law does not prohibit issue
organizations from twisting truths. You have probably seen enough
evidence of this on certain cable channels.
As a broadcaster licensed by the government, if we accept advertising
from one side of an issue, we are required to accept advertising from
the opposing side, EVEN IF THAT ADVERTISING IS FALSE, HATE FILLED OR
KNOWINGLY DISHONEST. We cannot refuse the ad because the law does not
require it to be truthful.
The ONLY way ABC can prevent putting misleading issue oriented
advertising on the air is to refuse to air any of it. Please note: In
doing so, WABC loses the potential revenue from both sides of these
issues, so in refusing the ads, WABC loses money. But the only option
ABC has is to air all ads including the misleading and deceitful ones,
or air none of them.
You might not like that. However, if your side of the issue has $10,000
to spend and the other side has $10,000,000 to spend, and their ads were
full of lies, deceit and hate, you would be screaming at us to yank them
off the air. We would not be able to. Once ads from one side are taken,
all ads must be taken.
Yours is not the first e-mail we have received on this subject. It is
regrettable that whatever blog, newsletter or website you and others
have been reading, urging you to write your e-mails, did not bother to
fully research the reason behind the station’s decision before making an
uninformed recommendation.
Thank you for writing.
It’s silly to expect rational behavior from Fox and it’s shameful that none of those stations would air these commercials that are completely inoffensive (except maybe to their other sponsors).
Great ads. Why were these ads rejected ? Under what basis ? Im sure they can find some stations and independent channels who would air it.
Great point Russ. NY Fox didnt seem to have a problem airing Family Guy 420 episode with a cartoon baby and dog singing about how weed should be legalized, but they reject a real sick person who is trying to use legal cannabis medically ?
Does that mean us here in New York will AGAIN get to see medical marijuana legislation introduced just to see it not acted upon? Albany is a partisan football field and with marijuana we have one of the finest political footballs around. I’m not optimistic, I’m sad to say.
In what sane world can the people in these ads be considered criminals?!