Comments on: Why are all the L.A. Times columnists using medical marijuana?

By: kurtfawnigat

kurtfawnigat — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:11:46 +0000

A License to Chill

Surgeon General’s Warning: smoking marijuana can be hazardous to your health, unless you live in California and suffer from anorexia, arthritis, cancer, chronic pain or any other illnesses for which pot provides relief.

“chill” and “pot.” The prosecution rests.

By: kurtfawnigat

kurtfawnigat — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:09:55 +0000

Why? Because these articles write themselves. “Citizens beware- high powered medical marijuana easy to get.” In addition, guys at the city desk get to play intrepid undercover journos. The “stuff” was strong? How bout a haldol/oxycontin cocktail? Don’t worry, I have the presciptions.
Did any of the L.A. Times pieces take a states’ rights angle? Or was it all, “Hide the white women, demon weed docs in collusion with jazz musicians and Bill Lee.”?

By: Me, Medical Marijuana and the LA Times « Monday Morning Media Quarterback

Me, Medical Marijuana and the LA Times « Monday Morning Media Quarterback — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:40:25 +0000

[...] Medical Marijuana and the LA Times By encinoman Another media blog recently took the LA Times to task for having “at least three” of its columnists write [...]

By: michaelgoldstein

michaelgoldstein — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:59:22 +0000

Make that four LA Times writers. I wrote this piece for the LA Times Magazine in 2007, before any of the other three. And unlike Sandy Banks (and I’ll bet Steve Lopez) I actually smoked the stuff and commented on its power.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-tm-marijuana06feb11,1,4405013.story
Of course, as a freelancer I didn’t have to pee in a cup.

By: Sara Libby

Sara Libby — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:52:21 +0000

You’re absolutely right about that – one of my friends pointed out to me last night that even if an editor realized that the column was uber-repetitive, there’s probably not a person in that building who can tell Steve Lopez what to do.

By: busterbrown

busterbrown — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:44:39 +0000

But ya see, when Sandy Banks wrote her piece, the folks who were editors then were no longer the editors by the time Stein wrote his. And the staff was different (and much smaller) again, by the time Lopez wrote his. Between forced retirements and resignations, plus layoffs, there are MAYBE a half dozen long-timers at or below the rank of editor at LAT, and NONE of them is responsible for anything like proofing a Lopez column.

Besides, even if Lopez came last, there’s no one in the building day-to-day with the weight to spike or call for a rewrite of a Lopez column. Everybody KNOWS he’s on the brink of his next heart-rending tale to milk to death for the next several years! Don’t get in the way!

By: evangeorge

evangeorge — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:08:45 +0000

With 600 dispensaries in L.A., maybe someone sees some advertising green in all those columns. Or should?

By: Stephen C. Webster

Stephen C. Webster — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:32:28 +0000

One day soon it will become passe.

I’m imagining that once alcohol prohibition ended, there were a thousand and one articles about what it’s like to casually imbibe a mixed drink with a group of friends and not end up blind from the impurities.

Editors must have gotten tired of that in short order. ‘Are you kidding me? Another piece about the virtues of vodka? Why don’t you go cover city hall or something?’

By: Patterico’s Pontifications » L.A. Times Columnists: Duuuuuuuuuuude, I Bought Some Pot, Dude

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:06:11 +0000

[...] catch by Sara Libby, who notes that three separate L.A. Times columnists have purchased medical marijuana over the past 18 months. [...]

By: Sara Libby

Sara Libby — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:03:05 +0000

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with anyone there USING marijuana. I am just tired of them wasting column inches WRITING about it over and over again.