Pro-pot TV spot censored by stationsBy Steven T. Jones
The Marijuana Policy Project has produced a great new 30-second television ad calling for the legalization and taxation of marijuana and presenting that as a partial solution to California’s financial collapse, but many television stations – including KGO-TV and KNTV in the Bay Area -- have refused to air it.
“Instead of being treated like criminals for consuming a substance that is safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share,” says a middle-aged female pot smoker in the ad. Assembly member Tom Ammiano’s AB 390 – which is expected to have its first hearings in October – would raise billions of dollars by decriminalizing and taxing pot, making it all the more troubling that stations would refuse to run an ad on this relevant political issue.
MPP’s Bruce Mirken said most Los Angeles area stations – including KABC, KTTV, KTLA, and KCOP – have refused to run the spot (just one, KCBS, will start running it on Saturday) and offered little explanation why. Guardian calls to the KGO and KNTV station managers have not been returned, but we’ll run their responses in the comments section if and when we hear back.
But the ensuing censorship controversy has made news, including a segment featuring the ad on this morning’s Today Show, which ran on KNTV.
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Comments (1)
Screw those stations. TV is the old medium, internet is the new one. Poeple can find the ad on youtube.
Posted by Stryqwills | July 9, 2009 09:01 PM