#247 It’s Time To Thank Our Media Outlets – DrugSense Drug Policy Reform Blog

Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001
Subject: #247 It’s Time To Thank Our Media Outlets

DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 247 Saturday, December 29, 2001

IT’S TIME TO THANK OUR MEDIA OUTLETS

AS WE reach the end of our most successful year ever at The Media
Awareness Project, it would be a great time to thank our various media
outlets for their coverage of drug policy related news and opinion.

Since our inception in February, 1996, MAP has grown from an email
list which collected news clippings from the major national
newspapers, to the world’s most accessed website for drug policy news
and opinion.

See our history at http://www.drugsense.org/history.htm

Thanks to the tremendous support from literally hundreds of volunteers
both in the USA and around the world, we have passed the 70,000 mark
for clippings. More importantly, our primary mission of using this
archive as a tool for letter writers to respond directly to the target
media outlets has bloomed to a level we could only dream of in 1996.

In 1997, we archived 105 published Letters to the Editor (LTEs) that
met our general criteria of “Moving the Discourse on Drugs from
Hysteria to Sanity and Humanity” These letters, which averaged two per
week, carried an equivalent advertising value of $104,895.

Five years later, we reach the end of 2001 with over 2,772 PUB LTEs
for the year, averaging 53 per week. This past year’s equivalent
advertising value was in excess of $2,769,228.

See http://www.mapinc.org/lte/

WHILE this success can be primarily credited to our huge base of
volunteers: newshawks, LTE writers, editors at MAP and others; NONE of
it would have happened were it not for the many hundreds of media
outlets, mostly newspapers and magazines, who have elected to not only
publish our letters, but also to greatly increase their overall
coverage of drug policy news and opinion.

In 1996, the general stance of most media was about 90% in favor of
national drug law policies, or at best, they were silent.

As we close the year 2001, this stance has moved strongly towards
mirroring the attitudes of the public at large. Now about 75% of
editorials, columns, and opinion are either overtly critical of the
Drug War, or at least strongly calling for re-examination of various
aspects of traditional government and law enforcement approaches to
drug policy.

See http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm

For this special year-end FOCUS ALERT, we invite you to please contact
the newspaper outlets in your home area – and those you read regularly
or have contacted in the past – and THANK them for whatever level of
coverage they are providing.

You can find the email addresses of most papers at:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm

The more LTEs you send, the larger the potential impact – but please
send your LTEs to each newspaper one at a time – newspaper editors
tend not to be impressed if they think you are sending the same
message to others.

Regardless of where a newspaper may stand, please consider a short
note of some kind which thanks them for coverage and asks them to
please consider increasing coverage.

It should be noted that the primary intent of this ALERT is to thank
the media outlets. Thus it is less likely these letters will actually
be used for publication. Of course if they are, we have accomplished
our goal two-fold!

Thanks for ALL your effort and your support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list (sentlte@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to MGreer@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so
others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte@mapinc.org) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm

and/or

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.

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CONTACT INFO

If you are not aware of newspaper contact info, you can use this link
to easily see not only CONTACT INFO, but also the number of clippings
we have archived from every outlet. Clicking on the clippings line
will bring up a list of up to 200 of the latest clippings. You can use
the ‘List by Area’ dropdown to focus on specific countries or states.

http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm

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Below are two samples of letters which you might use as a framework
for your own letter. If you choose to utilize the Sample, please
modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive
numerous copies of the same letter.

SAMPLE LETTER 1 (to media with good drug policy reform
coverage):

To the editorial board

This note is to thank you for your coverage of drug policy related
news and opinion.

In the past year you have carried a number of opinion items discussing
very important subjects, including (INSERT whatever is appropriate
based on your newspaper’s coverage like: zero tolerance policies,
mandatory drug sentencing, prison reform issues, police corruption,
medical marijuana, changes in drug laws — or perhaps a specific
example of special coverage — for example in St Petersburg, FL —
the 3 part series this past summer on the Drug War…..or in some
states — local ballot initiatives, etc.).

With the high value of column inches, the selection of topics and
priority of subject matter is often challenging. Thus I appreciate
your choosing to allot coverage on the very important issues relating
to the Drug War and our national policies regarding substance use and
abuse. Drug War spending currently accounts for almost half the money
expended by our criminal justice system, as well as the related prison
industrial complex. There is no one who is not affected by the
decisions related to how we educate ourselves and how we treat those
in our communities who have drug-abuse problems.

Thanks again and have a great 2002.

Sincerely,

SAMPLE LETTER 2 (for outlets less favorable)

To the editorial board

This note is to thank you for your coverage of drug policy related
news and opinion.

(In the case that your newspaper(s) are pro drug war you may wish to
add: I would appreciate your consideration in printing alternative
ideas to our current drug-war and zero tolerance policies. A balanced
viewpoints page increases the value of any newspaper.)

Thank you again and have a great 2002.

Sincerely,

IMPORTANT Always include your address and telephone
number

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ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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Prepared by Steve Heath with editing by Richard Lake, DrugSense FOCUS
Alert Specialists

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TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

Please utilize the following URLs

http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, Newshawks and letter
writing activists.

REMINDER

Please help us help reform. Send any news items you find on any drug