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Today the New York Times published a respectable article looking at the future of the marijuana movement, and what’s next for 2012. The Times used a meeting in Denver of marijuana advocates last week as the basis for its story. Overall, I have no complaints about the article. It’s the photo and accompanying caption that are just embarrassing for the times.
The photo for this story on the future of marijuana legalization is two dudes smoking a bowl in a car, with the caption, “Marijuana advocates gathered in Denver recently for an event that was partly a review of the California campaign for legalization.” Screen capture:
No. It’s a photo of two random guys getting high, not of marijuana advocates planning legalization.
More than most issues, marijuana tends to bring out the giggles among copywriters in print and online media coverage. E.g.: “Will California go to pot?” or “Politics may blunt medical marijuana support.” I tried to keep track at first, but it was just too much to handle.
It’s this kind of embarrassing, fifth-grade level jokes that are pervasive throughout media coverage of marijuana; that it reaches as high as the Times isn’t surprising as much as it’s a sign there’s a long way to go before legalization is treated on equal footing with other political issues. But with each vote for legalization, it’s another step forward.
In the mean time, send some email to the good folks at the New York Times to let them know what you think about their photo selection.
36 Comments
The New York Times, drunk on power!
message sent
gotta push back
How strange. I don’t see any photos of scruffy men drinking out of little brown jugs
in the NY Times’ coverage of the repeal of prohibition of liquor.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1205.html
The Times might want to be careful they hired judy miller and Jason Blair never mind they are almost broke just who are they to cast stones?
Getting stoned just might help them see out of the box.
Bobo and Friedman both still have jobs at the Times given their economic and war track record 6 more weeks comes to mind you have to wonder if the Times hates Pot because the Times is on Crack? Heroin? their on sense of self importance?
and yet it’s the same damn publication that published a highly informative piece on Prohibition as Jim Crow just a few months back – which makes this puerile shit all the more frustrating
Ben Stein still writing for the Times telling everyone the economy is going to be just fine?
What’s the image on the actor on the left’s t-shirt? It looks sorta like a skull motif. My., the subliminals have gotten so sophisticated…
O/T, but are we aware of the Geraldo about-face last evening? Hard to figure this one out too. This was on Fox!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP0Hs-v-uJ0
Prohibition? Its been decades and the Times thinks its safe to do articles on Prohibition now? Maybe in 50 years the Times can write about Pot honestly.
Given how many young people support Pot you have to wonder just why the Times can’t figure out why young people are not reading newspapers?
I’m not asking them to lie just present both sides fairly. They don’t do this on Pot, Social Security, the wars, the economy and they wonder why nobody reads them.
Krugman is the only reason to read the Times assuming Modo is not having a good day.
That is also clearly a FAKED photo – notice how well-lit the interior of the car is – there’s a strobe in there somewhere.
good one, Margot
Interestingly, they’ve changed the caption on the photo. It now reads, “Attendees at an event in Denver that was partly a review of the California campaign for legalization smoked marijuana in the parking lot.”
It still might be a stock or faked photo, though.
Well, I’m sure their first pictorial impulse was the Dude sparking one up in the bathtub. Or some vintage Cheech and Chong still.
So, maybe this is progress. /disgusted snark
Not sure that’s a strobe. It might simply be the car’s interior lights turned on.
Very disappointed in my home state for not voting to “legalize it.” Hopefully next time.
Yes, I remember ALWAYS making sure I had maximum interior lighting whenever I toked up in a parking lot at night. ;)
Either that or a very good photo Shop!! But it sure looks like interior remote flash.
Yeah, there’s that. But it really does look like that overhead interior light, plus parking lot lights. But I’m no expert.
Maybe if the marijuana advocates didn’t all appear as so many hippie throw-backs and wannabees, maybe the small-minded mainstream media would have other images in their little minds.
Like most issues the progressive movement pushes (and that I support), there’s a pathetic tendency to sing to the choir.
Hold your friends close… and all that.
Just sayin’, maybe it’s time to grow up…
C.
Oh, and Prez Bush 44 (Now With More Fascism) is about to give us this new gift at the DEA.
Among a million other awfulnesses, she seems to think all the dead Mexicans only show how awesome our drug war is.
We the People need the Audacity of HEMP. No joke.
I realize that the famous aphorism by Gandhi has been used to the point where it could be considered a Godwin-level faux-pas, but it seems as if the establishment media has now officially moved from ignoring legalization to laughing at it.
Skull with pot leaves, Deadhead. His hair is also kinda long, Hippie.
The thing is, the prohibition is all about religion. Notice the other guy is wearing leather, a sure sign he is an Indian. They are smoking a pipe, what more do you need to know?
I agree it is over lit, I bet it was a stock photo. I was trying to figure out what movie it was from.
How lazy of the paper! I bet people at the event would have been happy, no thrilled, to send a real photo if they had only been asked for it. I guess that lack of $$ is showing. They don’t even have a dime to make a phone call for an emailed photo.
One of the things that really bugs me about my Native American culture being disappeared the way it is, is how when it is expressed, it is in such a manner as to send subliminal messages to the ‘christians’ that we are a sign of the devil. Personally, I call it ethnic cleansing. The lifetime effect is incredibly debilitating.
The other thing that drives me right up the wall is how the word Indian has meant American Indian in this country for well over four hundred years, but now it suddenly means Asian.
Not that I have anything against Asian Indians, it is just I don’t want my culture to be disappeared like that.
In American literature, the word Indian refers to our natives. I don’t want it to be *magically* changed to mean the very nice people from Asia who wear Saris, we already have enough trouble with people saying we all died out and disappeared. We don’t need to have our names appropriated.
We are still here.
Maybe if the people running the event had included nice studio photos of their own mugs in an emailed press notice to the paper, or some pictures from the event, their own faces would have appeared instead of this fool stock photo.
Just a thought.
Hippie throwbacks and wannabees?
Dude, you are talking about my people. I think you can be more polite, we never did anything to you.
I supported the Just Say Now campaign as i have supported almost all of the FDL sponsored campaigns. I support legalization of Marijuana. I am not a Marijuana smoker though, and my support is based on total opposition to US drug war “policy”. There are some good arguments being made that prop 19 was a badly conceived and badly written bill (it may have continued to criminalize actually using cannabis in most circumstances). One of the biggest weaknesses of the Prop 19 effort was that many supporters and activists came across as special pleaders, such that: Marijuana is safer and better than all other legal drugs, and so marijuana, and marijuana users should be included in the list of sanctioned substances, within the context of US drug war prohibition. This came across as callous, self absorbed, nihilstic,completely wrong headed and off point. Marijuana legalization advocates should be mainly concerned with the hideous failure that is the “War on Drugs”, which is upholding US millitarism abroad, the American Police state at home, and the systematic disenfranchisement of millions of American citizens, caught in the net of the Drug war – driven American prison system. While legalization is an important issue within the context of resisting the Drug War, is it really so much more important than millions of Poor Americans being turned into serfs by having rights (like the right to vote, or apply for a government job, or recieve tuition assistance) taken away from them forever? Is legalization more important in the big picture than American special forces groups and pentagon dollars being used to support dictators and murder people around the world in the name of keeping Americans “safe” from taking (uapproved) drugs?? US drug warrior Prohibition policies are the problem, and Marijuana legalization is only a small part of any solution.
There’s a strobe behind the pot smoker’s seat.
Dude,
Who do you think makes the rules in this country right now? Not many who wear tie-die, dude. Most are white, and male, and an increasing number are radically right wing. How is it you’re connecting with them, exactly?
Those of us who’ve moved on and have families, and interact daily with the less tolerant in society have to maintain a progressive mindset in the face of mounting insanity. What will move us forward will be demonstrating tolerance and acknowledgment of the other side and their issues, as bizarre as we may see them.
Not bong hits.
Dude.
“as high as the New York Times”? Methinks you’re hoist by your own petard!
Actually I thought that things got a lot better this election cycle.
Which just goes to show how bad they’ve been in the media. Now it’s just the headline and a couple of zingers in the text, instead of the whole perspective of the article.
Soon, hopefully, those will drop out too.
When they realize no one’s laughing.
Touché.
Also, the ignorance and hypocrisy have to be addressed in a personalized way. For instance, a friend of an acquaintance was teaching in Japan when diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer. The Japanese government simply treated the American who is now in complete remission. There was no medical bankruptcy or death sentence. Here’s another one– how many Americans know they now have a 1-in-4 chance of cancer and that only cannabis-derived constituents can help ease their suffering as they die of it (or the chemotherapy, pick one) or even cure them– if they can get it?
From my perspective Hippies are a distinct cultural group, they are also MY group. Insulting my people by calling them those derogatory names is very offensive to me.
Your ‘hide yourself’ message is also the same message I have been hearing from the legalization people all along. Like if it wasn’t for our Hippie taste in hair and clothes, pot would have been legalized a long time ago.
I think the word for that is racism.
To deal with it I decided to lead a political movement based on constitutional law our Native American religious freedom, so if you are into that you may join our church, the THC Ministry. Donations to support our legal fight for our constitutional rights, or media attention, or both, are much appreciated. Here is the web site,
http://www.thc-ministry.org/?page_id=453
Our minister is in jail without bail, like I said, it is unconstitutional discrimination. Prohibiting our sacrament is also terrorism. I’ve been blogging about it in AlterNet for years. Over there I am Sister Lauren. The Tea Party was also my idea. It was part of my big plan to end the drug war, part of my plan to end ALL war. You might want to ask me about that.
The Rapture is scheduled for May 21, 2011. I didn’t pick the date, I seconded it. That will be a perfect lead in to 2012. So, Bong Hits For Jesus! and be sure to read about that holy anointing oil.
We are a real church, what we need is some respect. I expect to get it too. Just watch me.
Sincerely,
Reverend Lauren Unruh
THC Ministry, Pleasant Hill, Ca
A Native American Church
PS, I have helpers and a master plan, read “Black Elk Speaks.”
Wanna hear a song some guys wrote about me?
I smoked pot once with the base player so I know he has seen me dance. We chatted about zionism. Their song is soooooooo me. Warren also came to my house and read the bumper stickers off of the back of my car, inspiring my husband to say I was delusional. I saw him out the window. Then they wrote some songs about me. I liked this one.
And no, I never kissed him. I ONLY kiss my husband, but I talk to everybody. That is why I’m such a great reporter.
Slackjaw Jezebel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGBDsTPq9SQ
I was a girl scout leader for ten years before I decided to legalize pot, it is my religion and having our sacrament illegal was unconstitutional, so I figured I’d fix that.
After the Patriot Act passed, I knew it was intended to catch more of us.
Warren is cynically referring to all that in the song about the babies crying. We had some sort of conversation on line, I was going on and on about how great he was and becoming a Deadhead after he joined the band. I had a religious experience and talked about it and starting a church.
Bong Hits For Jesus!
Jingle Bell Rock Marijuana Christmas Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laY67grUmNU
Jesus Smoking Marijuana In Ottawa – video
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/581230/jesus_smoking_marijuana_in_ottawa/
In June 2010, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy reclassified marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug. News reports noted that this reclassification makes Oregon the “first state in the nation to make marijuana anything less serious than a Schedule I drug.”
21 U.S.C. 903 reads: Title 21 United States Code (USC)Controlled Substances Act Section 903.
Application of State law
No provision of this subchapter shall be construed as indicating an intent on the part of the Congress to occupy the field in which that provision operates, including criminal penalties, to the exclusion of any State law on the same subject matter which would otherwise be within the authority of the State, unless there is a positive conflict between that provision of this subchapter and that State law so that the two cannot consistently stand together.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis
Each State has the right to reclassify any drug, as evident by Oregon’s actions and the relevant language in the accompanying 21 U.S.C. 903 reads: Application of State law
Why should America IMPORT Industrial-grade Hemp from Canada, China and Europe?
Our farmers could be growing this commodity and our manufacturing base could be innovative in finding new and improved ways of using this most industrious plant.
If the President will not direct the DEA to remove Hemp from the Schedule One designation, I say the people should petition their respective State Governments to force this change, as has Oregon.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978700818