Fixing media stories

Sometimes even major media outlets let a few silly typos slip by now and then, and you have to correct them. Take this New York Daily News article, which needed some fixing. I’m pretty sure they must have heard the feds wrong – maybe a garbled phone connection – so I’ve taken the liberty of fixing…

U.S. cocaine habit failed drug policy funding Mideast terror via Mexican drug gangs: Feds

WASHINGTON — America’s cocaine habit destructive drug war not only funds drug violence in the West, it also supports Iranian-backed terror and wars waged against Israel, prosecutors charge. […] Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who filed the suit, said it “puts into stark relief the nexus between narcotics trafficking bad government policy and terrorism.”

Joking aside, this is an ugly and scary thing, as the U.S. continues to suspend human rights and Constitutional rights merely upon the arbitrary invoking of the “terror” word, for the duration of a by-definition infinite “war.”

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Regarding media mistakes, Washington Post writer Courtland Milloy had an interesting article about the benefits of pot for athletes: For pro athletes, the risks of smoking pot are high — but so are the benefits.

One downside of the article was the casual mention: “The health risks cited are already pretty well known, including an increased risk of lung cancer and accidents and the potential for abuse and addiction.”

I wrote Mr. Milloy and pointed out the Washington Post’s own coverage of the study proving no lung cancer from marijuana use.

He was nice enough to write back:

Thanks for sharing this, Pete. I have recieved quite a few emails to that effect and may write another column exploring how a substance that chemists say has all of these carcinogens gets such a clean bill of heath regarding lung cancer. Courtland

I hope he does.

This does, of course, point out the perniciousness of the lies from the Drug Czar and NIDA. They know that they can’t say that marijuana causes lung cancer, so they regularly point out that marijuana smoke contains carcinogens (so do many commonly used substances including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Talcum Powder, Tide Laundry Detergent, Lysol, Oscar Meyer beef hot dogs, and whole milk). Then they let other people make the non-existent marijuana-lung cancer link for them.

And yes, they are deliberate lies by the Drug Czar and NIDA as they are intended to deceive.