KOPEL: POST GETS MEDICAL POT STORY RIGHT

Dispute Over Hayden Man's Possession Of Marijuana Is Not Yet In Federal Court

The Denver Post excelled and the Rocky Mountain News did not in reporting
the latest legal development in the Hayden medical marijuana case. Last
year, a group of federal and state agents raided the home of a 57-year-old
man in Hayden who possessed marijuana in accordance with Colorado's medical
marijuana law. A Routt County judge threw out the case and ordered the
agents to return the man's marijuana. When the agents refused, the judge
threatened to find them in contempt of court.

On Jan. 23, as accurately reported in the Post on Jan. 25, the U.S.
attorney's office filed papers in federal court, asking that the state case
be "removed" from state to federal court. Removal is a procedure by which a
federal court can take jurisdiction over a state court case. The Post
article explained the legal procedures, and made it clear that the federal
court has not yet ruled on the U.S. attorney's effort to remove the case.

In contrast, the News article on Jan. 24 began, "U.S. authorities moved a
conflict between federal and Colorado marijuana laws to federal court
Friday, snatching it from a Colorado judge . . ." The News incorrectly
claimed that the case had already been "moved."

The News vaguely referred to "U.S. authorities," while the Post specified
that the office of the U.S. attorney had filed the motion.

The News never explained the procedure for moving a case from state to
federal court, while the Post accurately explained "removal" and quoted
from the U.S. attorney's motion arguing why removal should be granted in
the Hayden case.

Part of the problem with the News article, I learned, was that editors cut
too much from the reporter's orignal story. Also, the reporter reasonably
relied on mistaken information from a U.S. attorney's spokesman; the
spokesman thought that removal is self-executing. Instead, removal is
automatically self-executing in civil cases, but not in criminal cases. At
the time the reporter talked with the spokesman, the federal court clerk
had not yet decided to classify the case as a criminal case.

According to the Post, there has been a decline in the most lucrative
contracts for baseball players. The Post reported on Jan. 20 that "the
number of four- and five-year deals has tumbled 800 percent since the
signing period of 2000-01." Actually, it's impossible for anything to
decline "800 percent." Once something declines by 100 percent, it's
completely gone.

The News reported on Jan. 28 that Gary Hart's victory in the 1984 New
Hampshire primary was a "last gasp," and that after winning New Hampshire,
Hart's campaign "faded."

In fact, Hart followed up the New Hampshire win with crushing victories in
Maine and Vermont, and followed those wins by capturing seven of nine
states on Super Tuesday. Hart ended up winning 26 states, and seriously
contesting the nomination until the last day of primaries, when Walter
Mondale won a majority of delegates by winning the New Jersey primary.

Appearing on Page 6A of the Jan. 25 Post was an article about Mel Gibson's
controversial new film, The Passion of the Christ. The article was written
by Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times. Rutten pens an opinion column
called "Regarding the Media" for the arts and entertainment section of the
Times.

When I spoke with Rutten, he was shocked that the Post had taken his
opinion column and run it in the national news section.

Rutten said, and I agree, that opinion columns should be clearly labeled as
such, and it is inappropriate to repackage an opinion column as if it were
news.

Post sports columnist Adam Schefter knows more about professional football
than almost anyone in the state of Colorado. So how did he do in his Jan. 2
predictions for the NFL playoffs?

Schefter foresaw that tomorrow's Super Bowl would feature Philadelphia
versus Denver. But what actually happened was that Denver was crushed in
the first round of the playoffs, and Philadelphia lost the NFC conference
title game. Of the four teams that advanced to the conference finals,
Schefter only forecast one (Philadelphia).

Schefter is not a lazy or ill-informed columnist; he's just the opposite.
My point is that it's very difficult for even the best-informed pundits to
forecast sports - and it's at least as difficult for pundits for forecast
politics or the economy. So during the 2004 political season, don't let
pundit forecasts influence your behavior too much.

According to the punditocracy, George Bush has gone from being unbeatable
(as of late 2003) to being in desperate trouble (these days); pundit
opinion will probably shift a few more times during the election season.
Among the Democrats, the conventional wisdom of late 2003 pronounced John
Kerry dead, and now the c.w. says that Kerry is unstoppable.