ONLINE JOURNALIST TANGLES WITH FEDS OVER ANTIDRUG AD POLICY

There's a new battlefront in the White House war on drugs. Daniel Forbes.

Forbes, 44, is the freelancer who recently authored two big stories for the
online magazine Salon ( http://www.salon.com ) that revealed a controversial
financial link between the media and the government's antidrug campaign.

Now he's the focus of a heated dispute between the Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP) - which is asking Salon to disclose Forbes's
"bias" against the drug war - and Salon, whose editor accuses the ONDCP
of "coming close to Nixonian behavior in trying to nail the messenger ..."

In January, Forbes reported that six TV networks earned millions by airing
prime-time programs with antidrug themes deemed appropriate by the ONDCP.
Media outlets taking ONDCP antidrug ads must provide additional space or
time of equal value or other forms of public service, and those prime-time
programs allowed the networks to reclaim some discounted ad time.

Last week, Forbes named six magazines - US News & World Report, The
Sporting News, Family Circle, Seventeen, Parade, and USA Weekend - that
hoped to reap similar rewards by submitting content with antidrug messages
to the ONDCP. This week, the antidrug office told the Globe that several
other publications - including Family Life, Ladies' Home Journal, Hispanic
magazine, and NEA Today - also submitted content that is currently being
evaluated under the ONDCP program.

The ONDCP says it's properly enlisting the media in the drug war. But
Forbes's stories have ignited a debate about whether the media should be
part of what he calls a "government campaign to influence the control of
popular culture."

In a March 30 letter to Salon, ONDCP assistant director for strategic
planning Robert Housman, said "it is clear that Dan Forbes ... is more
than just a disinterested reporter in search of a story. Mr. Forbes has
been a regular contributor to the Media Awareness Project's Website, an
organization that essentially advocates for the legalization of drugs."

The MAP ( http://www.mapinc.org ) is part of the DrugSense organization whose
"primary objective is to get a national dialogue so we can start getting
sensible alternatives ... to our failed policy," says DrugSense executive
director Mark Greer.

The MAP postings include a lengthy 1998 piece Forbes (using the pen name
Daniel Hill) wrote for Brandweek magazine casting doubts on the research
behind the government's antidrug ad campaign. Greer says the MAP will
"archive virtually any article we can find that is drug-policy-related,"
and that Forbes received no money from the organization. Greer says the MAP
became aware of Forbes's work when he mentioned the Brandweek piece to one
of the group's editors at a seminar.

Forbes says "I had no great interest in the drug issue" until he began
examining the antidrug ad campaign for Brandweek at an editor's request.
"There's been no editorializing in the Salon pieces," he adds. "I am not
an advocate for any policy situation or drug policy organization. They [the
ONDCP] descend to ad hominem attacks on me, but they don't seem to want to
discuss the substance of the articles."

"I'm not accusing him of anything," says Housman. "I'm trying to make
them [Salon] play honest journalism. I'm not asking the guy not to write
... I don't care what his view is. But I think the readers should know."

When asked if Salon should disclose Forbes's views, editor David Talbot
says, "whatever biases Dan Forbes has about US drug policy ... I think the
biases were not the driving factor in the stories he did for us ... What's
really going on here is the White House is coming close to launching a
preemptive strike on the reputation of a journalist."

Meanwhile, even as magazine editors say they did not know that editorial
content was being submitted to the ONDCP, the journalistic debate over that
practice rages. NEA Today publisher Sam Pizzigatti says his publication
submitted material on student health that referenced an antidrug Web site,
noting that we "do that anyway, regardless of advertising."

Family Life editor in chief Peter Herbst says his magazine submitted a
story that wasn't actually about drugs, but contained "positive stuff
about raising kids."

"In general, this kind of [content for credit] swap is a bad idea,"
Herbst says. "It contaminates the process." But he adds that "no editors
have created material to satisfy this demand and no editors have ever been
aware of this."

Thanks to Forbes, they're aware now.

The following is by Richard Lake, MAP's Sr. Editor:

It comes as no surprise that ONDCP's Robert Housman would try to distort
the relationship between Dan Forbes and MAP. We know that ONDCP follows the
MAP effort to collect news and opinion about the War on Drugs worldwide and
provide the results in an educational research archives. Apparently this
makes some ONDCP folks unhappy as just last summer they had the Drug Czar
Barry McCaffrey attack MAP in testimony to Congress for having links to
sites that had links to sites that our Czar did not like - as if we were
guilty of something. I guess they don't know that we are not responsible
for the content of the sites of others, twice removed - no more than we are
responsible for the content of the writings of any author who's work may be
found in our archives.

Unlike our ONDCP, MAP has never paid anyone for what they wrote.

Yes, Dan Forbes did ask me to add the Brandweek article Drug Money to our
archives at a seminar. At the time I doubt he even knew about the MAP
efforts other than that we gathered drug policy related items and placed
them on the web. I took a copy, OCRed it, and added it to the archives.
This is not unusual at all. Editors, reporters and authors frequently send
their published writings from their newspapers and magazines to
editor@mapinc.org - just as they use our archives for research for their
writing. However, of the six articles in our archives by Dan Forbes, only
that one was provided by him. Our newshawks found the others. Mr. Forbes is
hardly a "regular contributor."

Maybe ONDCP thinks this is somehow unfair? We note that there are over two
dozen items by the Czar himself in our archives. We have no idea if any were
newshawked by someone from ONDCP to us - but they are welcome to contribute.
We promise not to ask for any of the ONDCP payola funds in exchange!

It is interesting that ONDCP's Robert Housman would say Dan Forbes, or
Michael Massing, or anyone is biased. Their ad hominem attacks don't
represent a bias? Well, I guess it would be too much to ask our taxpayer
supported point team for 'approved' drug war media content to adopt MAP's
motto of "Moving the Discourse on Drugs from Hysteria to Sanity and Humanity."

Links to Dan Forbes articles:

US: Web: The Drug War Gravy Train
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n428/a04.html

US: Propaganda For Dollars - A Salon special report (Part 2)
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n046/a04.html

US: Drug Money - A Salon special report.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n043/a09.html

US: This is your Ad Campaign on Tax Money. Any Questions?
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n000/a01.html

US: The Partnership's Protest
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n000/a02.html

Drug Money - Part 2 of 2
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n000/a04.html

Drug Money - Part 1 of 2
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n000/a03.html

Links to items by Barry McCaffrey:

US MD: OPED: Prevention, Treatment Go Together
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n461/a11.html

US RI: OPED: Drug Treatment: A Strategy That Saves Taxes And Cuts Crime
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n374/a08.html

US MA: OPED: 'Rescuing Colombia'
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n304/a08.html

US WI: LTE: Anti-Drugs TV Campaign Plays Important Role
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n197/a02.html

US CA: LTE: Drug Czar Backs TV Effort
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n154/a11.html

US: LTE: Drug Dealings With Network TV
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n078/a02.html

US WA: An Epidemic In Our Midst: Methamphetamine - Part 7 of 7
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n022/a03.html

US: OPED: Guidelines Will Help Make It Possible for Athletes
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1180/a04.html

US DC: OPED: Dangerous Drug Smokescreen
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1121/a09.html

US: Drug Office Offers Parents Safe Online Sites For Teens
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n993/a06.html

US DC: OPED: Don't Legalize Those Drugs
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n680/a05.html

Testimony: Part Four of 'The Drug Legalization Movement In
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n638/a01.html

Footnotes for 'The Drug Legalization Movement In America'
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n638/a02.html

Testimony: Part Three of 'The Drug Legalization Movement In
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n637/a02.html

Testimony: Part Two of 'The Drug Legalization Movement In America'
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n637/a01.html

Testimony: Part One of 'The Drug Legalization Movement In America'
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n636/a03.html

US WA: Column: Mentoring a classic way to help children avoid
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n441/a01.html

US: USA Today OPED: MMJ: Ballot-Box Prescriptions Risky
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n977/a07.html

US WA: MMJ: We Should Use Science, Not The Ballot Box, To
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n967/a06.html

US NV: McCaffrey OPED: Seeing Through The Haze Of Medical
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n928/a06.html

US WP: A Clean And Sober NBA
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n851/a08.html

US: WA: LTE: Barry McCaffrey's LTE
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n766/a02.html

OPED: Cooperation With Mexico, Flaws and All, Still Is Best
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97/n471/a04.html

US: Teen drug use rising
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97/n191/a03.html