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WRITERS: StoptheDrugWar.org is carrying out an ambitious
week-long writing-based campaign dealing with the mainstream
media's coverage of drug issues -- preparatory work is now
underway with the help of volunteers -- and we are seeking to
expand our team of volunteer writers who want to be part of it.
Along with writing skills, volunteers for this project should
have a fairly good understanding of the effects of drug
prohibition -- visit our Site Map page at
stopthedrugwar.org/sitemap and scroll down to the
"Consequences of Prohibition" section to get an idea of what we
mean by that. Contact David Borden at borden@drcnet.org or by
replying to a Chronicle email, or by phone at (202) 293-8340
ext. 301, for further information about this very exciting
effort.
For a seven-day period, hopefully in January, we intend to post rewritten versions of every English-language news story about drugs that appears on Google News. The rewriting will not be massive for any given article; in fact in many cases we will only be making slight changes to each sentence. The idea is to make the point about the drug laws being an example of prohibition, like Alcohol Prohibition, and that many of the types of circumstances that are commonly reported on as "drug-related" are really consequences of drug prohibition. "Drug-related shooting" may change to "prohibition-related shooting," for example, "police officers" to "prohibition agents" and so forth. In some cases we will add extra paragraphs to explain things that a simple word change can't fully relate, and we may add in quotes from allies as well.
There will also be types of stories for which we'll have to think how to address prohibition -- e.g., claims that may be inaccurate about the effects of marijuana, for example -- though we do intend to keep the effort focused pretty tightly on prohibition itself, as opposed to the many other ills and injustices and errors in the drug war. (Those many other ills and injustices are extremely important too, but any given campaign needs to have a specific focus to be effective -- perhaps we will do something similar for other aspects of the drug war in future efforts.)
The rationale behind rewriting every drug story during this timeframe, as opposed to merely choosing a representative sample, is three-fold. First, it's a more interesting hook. I believe that more people will take the time to look at what we are doing this way -- a "stunt" sort of. The second reason is that it is a framework for contacting large numbers of reporters, editors, newspaper ombudsmen and others around the country (around the world, really), to let them know that we rewrote their articles, or articles in their papers. This in turn points back to the first reason -- telling a reporter we have rewritten his or her own story is more likely to get their attention than merely saying go look at our web site where we've rewritten a similar story by someone else. Third, we should be able to get our own rewritten copies of articles picked up on Google News itself, which could be seen by a lot of people and further get the attention of reporters when they their own names come up in their Google news alerts.
So, this project is an effort to get the attention of large numbers of reporters who cover drug stories, get them thinking about prohibition and whether they should be talking about prohibition in their own reporting, and making them aware of our web site, newsletter and availability as sources. (Secondarily, we hope to get some media coverage of the campaign itself, though getting very much of it has probably an outside chance.)
Let me know if you are interested in being part of this, and if I so I will put you on the volunteers list. Thanks for expressing interest in volunteering; we are looking forward to working with you.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org
Washington, DC
stopthedrugwar.org
week-long writing-based campaign dealing with the mainstream
media's coverage of drug issues -- preparatory work is now
underway with the help of volunteers -- and we are seeking to
expand our team of volunteer writers who want to be part of it.
Along with writing skills, volunteers for this project should
have a fairly good understanding of the effects of drug
prohibition -- visit our Site Map page at
stopthedrugwar.org/sitemap and scroll down to the
"Consequences of Prohibition" section to get an idea of what we
mean by that. Contact David Borden at borden@drcnet.org or by
replying to a Chronicle email, or by phone at (202) 293-8340
ext. 301, for further information about this very exciting
effort.
For a seven-day period, hopefully in January, we intend to post rewritten versions of every English-language news story about drugs that appears on Google News. The rewriting will not be massive for any given article; in fact in many cases we will only be making slight changes to each sentence. The idea is to make the point about the drug laws being an example of prohibition, like Alcohol Prohibition, and that many of the types of circumstances that are commonly reported on as "drug-related" are really consequences of drug prohibition. "Drug-related shooting" may change to "prohibition-related shooting," for example, "police officers" to "prohibition agents" and so forth. In some cases we will add extra paragraphs to explain things that a simple word change can't fully relate, and we may add in quotes from allies as well.
There will also be types of stories for which we'll have to think how to address prohibition -- e.g., claims that may be inaccurate about the effects of marijuana, for example -- though we do intend to keep the effort focused pretty tightly on prohibition itself, as opposed to the many other ills and injustices and errors in the drug war. (Those many other ills and injustices are extremely important too, but any given campaign needs to have a specific focus to be effective -- perhaps we will do something similar for other aspects of the drug war in future efforts.)
The rationale behind rewriting every drug story during this timeframe, as opposed to merely choosing a representative sample, is three-fold. First, it's a more interesting hook. I believe that more people will take the time to look at what we are doing this way -- a "stunt" sort of. The second reason is that it is a framework for contacting large numbers of reporters, editors, newspaper ombudsmen and others around the country (around the world, really), to let them know that we rewrote their articles, or articles in their papers. This in turn points back to the first reason -- telling a reporter we have rewritten his or her own story is more likely to get their attention than merely saying go look at our web site where we've rewritten a similar story by someone else. Third, we should be able to get our own rewritten copies of articles picked up on Google News itself, which could be seen by a lot of people and further get the attention of reporters when they their own names come up in their Google news alerts.
So, this project is an effort to get the attention of large numbers of reporters who cover drug stories, get them thinking about prohibition and whether they should be talking about prohibition in their own reporting, and making them aware of our web site, newsletter and availability as sources. (Secondarily, we hope to get some media coverage of the campaign itself, though getting very much of it has probably an outside chance.)
Let me know if you are interested in being part of this, and if I so I will put you on the volunteers list. Thanks for expressing interest in volunteering; we are looking forward to working with you.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org
Washington, DC
stopthedrugwar.org
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