A local television station claims an infomercial hosted by
travel writer Rick Steves promotes the use of marijuana and is
consequently refusing to air it. But Fisher Communications, which owns
KOMO television, collected thousands of dollars without airing the
show.
“It supported that people smoke marijuana,” says Jim Clayton, KOMO’s
vice president and general manager, about the drug-policy-reform
infomercial. “Smoking marijuana is illegal and we don’t promote things
that are illegal on our television station,” he says. “We don’t tell
people to go rob banks, either.”
Clayton went on to claim that he rejected the program, Marijuana:
It’s Time for a Conversation, because the station is “federally
licensed, and we have to protect the license at all costs.” Under
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, he says, the station
can’t air shows that advise breaking the law. But when repeatedly
pressed for an example of how the show advocated marijuana use, Clayton
said, “I don’t know. I watched it a few weeks ago, and I don’t remember
anything specific.” (You can watch it online at MarijuanaConversation.org.
)
Rick Steves, well-known PBS travel guide and the host of the
talk-show-formatted program, says, “There is no way anybody can watch
that show and think it advocates smoking marijuana. Nobody on the panel
even hinted that they enjoyed marijuana.” The script does not advise
viewers to smoke marijuana, nor does the screen ever flash an image of
pot. “They were talking about the legal, social, economic, and civil
rights ramifications of a misguided law,” says Steves.
In addition to KOMO (the local ABC affiliate), KIRO (CBS) rejected
the 30-minute show outright and refused to explain its decision to the
show’s producers. KING (along with its sister station KONG, both with
NBC) would only allow the program to air after 1:00 a.m.
KOMO’s decision not to air the program came as a shock to the ACLU
of Washington, which spent more than $100,000 producing the program,
including thousands of dollars that went to KOMO to use its staff and
studios at Fisher Plaza.
“We’re trying to provide information that’s not tainted by either
the hysteria of reefer madness, nor by the giggle factor of Cheech and
Chong,” says Alison Holcomb, director of the ACLU of Washington’s
Marijuana Education Project, who adds that she provided advance copies
of the script to KOMO executives before the program was shot. The
script was provided to KOMO in advance, Holcomb says, because she
wanted to be sure that the program would air before spending thousands
of dollars to rent KOMO’s studios and pay KOMO’s crews.
“We never heard any objection,” says Holcomb. “But once we filmed it
and handed it to them, they wouldn’t sell us any time slots.”
Clayton says he had initially supported airing the program on KOMO
because he thought it was about medical marijuana. But he changed his
mind after viewing the tape and meeting with ACLU of Washington
director Kathleen Taylor on August 4.
The distinction KOMO is trying to make between recreational and
medical marijuana use—again, the program advocates for
neither—is without merit. If KOMO were actually afraid of losing
its federal license because “smoking marijuana is illegal,” it would be
irrelevant if the show focused on medical marijuana; the federal
government doesn’t distinguish between recreational and medical pot.
All marijuana use is equally illegal in the eyes of the federal
government.
“If it is constitutionally protected speech then they can put it on
the air,” says FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin, indicating the program’s
content—even as submitted—was permissible by federal
standards.
Nonetheless, Clayton suggests that if the ACLU wants his station to
discuss marijuana laws, the group should run a ballot initiative, which
would spark a public debate. But KOMO and the other local stations
already run commercials that take one side of the public debate on
marijuana use: hysterical antidrug campaigns run by the White House’s
Office of National Drug Control Policy.
And KOMO runs programs that depict—even
celebrate—recreational pot use.
For example, YouTube clips show that ABC’s nationally syndicated
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which broadcasts locally via KOMO, has aired
segments about a stoned cop, a stoned firefighter, and a dramatization
of an entire office’s staff smoking pot, laughing, and having a good
time at work.
“The two shows aren’t comparable in the least,” Clayton said, when I
called back to ask about the double standard. There have been no
complaints from KOMO viewers about Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but
Clayton points out that he doesn’t control what the network airs.
“I have to make determinations based on what is best for KOMO,” he
says. “For 35 years I have run TV stations across the country. I
consider myself an enormously experienced broadcast executive and I can
make the best decisions for television stations.”
Rick Steves would disagree. “We have a law on the books that is as
stupid as the prohibition of alcohol, and we can’t even talk about it
on television because people are afraid,” he says. “It is symptomatic
of a very serious problem.” 
the film can be seen at http://www.marijuanaconversation.org/interviews/
it leaves out alot, but there is alot of good information on it that every parent, cop, teacher, and well, pretty much everyone should know. It doesn’t advertise smoking pot, it just tells us some things we should know about the history of marijuana in America.