I have analysed a recent debate between Aaron Smith and Calvina Fay for media bias. The post can be found here: http://www.glenstark.net/2010/05/manufacturing-consent-and-the-drug-war

The new trend of holding online votes for policy ideas continues to thrive, and this time it's the republicans who want to hear from us:

America deserves a Congress that respects the priorities of the people. Unfortunately, Washington hasn't been listening. Let's change that. America Speaking Out is your opportunity to change the way Congress works by proposing ideas for a new policy agenda. Republicans have offered solutions, and we have our principles, but this is a new venue for us to listen to you. So Speak Out.

You can vote for ideas you like or create your own, and as you might guess, ideas like legalizing marijuana are getting a lot of support. Please take a few minutes to register and use your up and down votes to help push our issue to the top.

A strong showing for legalization in a right-wing forum will send a powerful message that the drug war is being rejected by Americans across the political spectrum.

Paul Armentano at NORML breaks down the latest research. It really shouldn’t be necessary to keep going over this, but as Paul laments…

The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer madness,’ it generally goes unreported.

Honestly, I don't think the problem is necessarily that the press is fundamentally hostile to marijuana. But there exists a long and tragic history of the media courting readership with scare stories about drugs. Alarming accounts of the potential dangers of anything a lot of people put into their body are irresistible to the press regardless of accuracy or context, and that's just the way it is.

Maybe the problem is that the media hasn't been trained to sell the reverse version of the story. Given that marijuana is a topic of considerable public interest, it really shouldn’t that hard to market a story about the fact that it doesn't appear to cause schizophrenia. Just simplify the headline. Instead of "New Study Casts Doubt on Marijuana-Schizophrenia Link," how about, "New Study Suggests Marijuana is Safer Than We Thought." Yes, I think that headline would do well on the internet.

Of course, we really shouldn’t have to convince the press that reality is marketable in order to get it reported.