A Phoenix television anchor is claiming that the #RedForEd movement of striking teachers is actually an underhanded maneuver to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona.
On Tuesday, Fox 10 Phoenix (KSAZ-TV) host Kari Lake tweeted an image of a T-shirt to back up her idea. The shirt showed a marijuana leaf overlaid on the state of Arizona and the words #GREENforED. A version of the design that Lake tweeted is for sale on the independent T-shirt marketplace Teepublic.
Fox News, which has a history of portraying Colorado pot smokers as apathetic morons, recently ran a piece suggesting that the Western Slope community of Durango has been overtaken by panhandlers in the wake of recreational cannabis legalization. The head of a business organization that created a Facebook video ripping the article as false says the Fox News reporter with whom he spoke seemed disinterested in any information that contradicted his conclusion that weed had put the town on the fast road to hell even though the supposed link between homelessness and cannabis has been widely discredited.
Berkeley California is arguably one of the most progressive cities in the country. With that in mind, it’s not shocking at all that the city now requires medical marijuana dispensaries to donate up to two percent of their products to low-income patients in the city. The plan goes into effect in August 2015.
Of course, mainstream media like Fox News have picked up on this and are running with it, implying that the city is just handing out weed.
Given Fox News’ conservative slant, it’s no surprise that most of the network’s coverage about Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana sales has been largely or wholly negative. Take Bill O’Reilly correspondent Jesse Watters’s report about 4/20 in Denver, which sought laughs by characterizing attendees as clueless burdens on society.
It’s surprising, then, to see Fox News essentially hyping marijuana tourism to Colorado in a new post with an unexpectedly positive tone. Denver Westword has more.
| What Fox News would have you believe a dab will do. |
Hide yo kids, hide yo wife and hide yo husband. Hash oil is coming to town and it’s dangerous!
Well, it isn’t really dangerous, and Fox News never explains why they seem to think it is – they merely claim it’s “dangerous to handle”. But whatever, it looks good and scary in their headline.
You know the scales are tipping in favor of reasonable cannabis laws when Fox News polls agree with cannabis supporters.
That’s the case this week with a survey showing 85 percent of Americans would approve of people legally using medical marijuana with a physicians recommendation.
Fox News, for whatever reason, just can’t be trusted to report accurately on marijuana issues.
| Photo: KTXL |
| This is claimed to be the first time an ad for medical marijuana has ever aired on mainstream television. |
As Colorado’s cannabis industry opens up to more investment opportunities and public funding through a new law that takes effect November 1, expect powerful players to enter the fray. A private company is already beating some of those public corporations to the punch, however, purchasing five well-known dispensaries in the metro area this year alone.
Most of my Denver friends are too good for a hot dog unless it’s made of something like African wild boar or organically grown plants. I’m not afraid to stick my nose up at a tube of mystery meat, though, and will gladly shave off a few minutes of my life span for a convenient $1 dog downtown. But even I have limits, and will never touch hot dogs served at gas stations or the Fox Creek Junior High cafeteria.
