Censorship in California:

MARIJUANA AD CAMPAIGN REJECTED BY TV STATIONS

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) kicked off a TV ad campaign aimed
at gaining support for a California marijuana legalization bill in the
legislature on Wednesday, but ran into problems with several TV
stations around the state, which either rejected the ad outright or
just ignored MPP efforts to place it. Still, the spots are up and
running on other Golden State stations.

Playing on California's budget crisis -- the state is $26 billion in
the hole and currently issuing IOUs to vendors and laying off state
workers -- the 30-second spots feature middle-aged suburban Sacramento
housewife Nadene Herndon, who tells the camera:

"Sacramento says huge cuts to schools, health care, and police are
inevitable due to the state's budget crisis. Even the state's parks
could be closed. But the governor and the legislature are ignoring
millions of Californians who want to pay taxes. We're marijuana
consumers. Instead of being treated like criminals for using a
substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share. Taxes
from California's marijuana industry could pay the salaries of 20,000
teachers. Isn't it time?"

As Herndon finishes speaking, the words "Tax and regulate marijuana"
appear on the screen, as well as a link to Controlmarijuana.org.
Clicking on that link actually takes you to MPP's "MPP of California"
web page.

"I'm a medical marijuana user," Herndon told the Chronicle. "I was at
Oaksterdam University with my husband looking at some classes, and the
chancellor [Richard Lee] came out and said I would be perfect for an
ad they were thinking about. I talked to my husband, and he said maybe
I should do it. It is a cause near and dear to my heart, so I did,"
she said.

The response from acquaintances has been very positive, she said.
"I've gotten lots of positive messages, and a few who are worried for
my safety or that my house might be vandalized," said Herndon. "I have
gotten a couple of odd phone calls, though, so I've changed my number."

The spots are aimed at creating public support for AB 390, a bill
introduced in February by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).
That bill would legalize the adult possession of marijuana and set up
a system of taxed and regulated cultivation and sales.

The bill and the ad campaign come as support for marijuana
legalization is on the rise in California. A recent Field poll showed
support at 56%. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone on the record
saying that legalization needs to be discussed. And, thanks to the
state's medical marijuana laws, millions of Californians can see with
their own eyes what a regime of legal marijuana sales might look like.

It would appear that marijuana legalization is a legitimate political
topic in California, but that's not what a number of the state's major
market TV stations think. At least six stations have rejected or
ignored the ads. Oakland NBC affiliate KTVU and San Francisco ABC
affiliate KGO declined to air the ad, as did San Jose NBC affiliate
KNTV. Three Los Angeles stations, KABC, Fox affiliate KTTV, and KTLA
also refused to air the ad.

KGO told MPP that they "weren't comfortable" with the spot, while KNTV
said only that "standards rejected the spot." KABC claimed the ad
"promotes marijuana use."

But while some local stations have balked, the ad is running on
stations in Oakland, Sacramento, and San Francisco, as well as on
MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN, via California cable operators.

"We are astonished that major California TV stations chose to censor a
discussion that Governor Schwarzenegger has said our state should have
on an issue supported by 56% of voters, according to the Field poll,"
said Aaron Smith, MPP California policy director. "The two million
Californians who use marijuana in a given month deserve to have their
voices heard -- and their tax dollars should help solve the fiscal
emergency that threatens our schools, police and parks."

"That those stations would refuse to run the ad is appalling," said
MPP communications director Bruce Mirken. "This wasn't something we
expected; this wasn't a stunt to get press coverage. This was
intentionally a very innocuous ad."

Mirken took special umbrage at KABC's suggestion that the ad "promotes
marijuana use." "It's a really tortured reading of that ad to claim
that," he said. "The ad is simply recognizing the reality that there
are lots of marijuana consumers out there unable to pay taxes on their
purchases because we have consigned marijuana to a criminal
underground," he said.

Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington, told
the Huffington
Post that while the refusals don't "implicate the First Amendment from a legal
standpoint," she believes the practice "undermines a core principle
underlying the First
Amendment: that the strength of a democracy flows from the exchange of ideas."

As Holcomb noted, the various stations' refusal to accept the ad is
not a First amendment violation in the strict sense -- no governmental
entity is suppressing MPP's right to seek air time to run its ad, and
the stations are within their legal rights to refuse it. But the
effect is to suppress MPP's ability to compete in the marketplace of
ideas, and MPP smells a double standard.

"When the governor of the state has said we ought to have this debate,
it would seem to mean letting all sides air their views," said Mirken.
"Pretty much all of these stations that rejected our ad have aired
ONDCP anti-marijuana ads, which are often blatantly dishonest, so they
are effectively taking sides in the argument. That feels fundamentally
unfair."

The battle continues. As of Thursday, MPP was effectively shut out of
the Los Angeles market, except for the cable news networks. But Mirken
said he hoped to have the ad on the air there by the weekend.