* Forwarded (from: NETMAIL) by L P using timEd 1.10.
* Originally from carl@commonlink.net (1:323/140.3).
* Original dated: Thu Nov 06, 20:52
Mark Greer  wrote:
It appears I-685 has lost by a 20 point margin.
I get Primestar and was able to monitor the Portland poll results which
also announce on Washington. In my view this loss can be chalked up to a
very simple cause (considering the limited amount I was able to monitor
coverage). We blew it on marketing and media activism. The news (KOIN TV)
all night long referred to I-685 as "The Drug Legalization Initiative."
Every mention described it as "legalizing" (geez I hate that word) not only
MJ but heroin, LSD, and other drugs. Little or no mention of the fact that
this would be made to relieve pain or require a doctors approval.
Prop 51 the "right to die" initiative, OTOH not only won but won in a
landslide. Why? The media covered it from a balanced perspective. Dr.
Kavorkians attorney an ACE spokesperson was on TV all night debating an
inept opponent and making a fool out of him. If this was any indication of
how the pre election coverage went, loosing badly on I-685 was a foregone
conclusion (and Prop 51 winning was a slam dunk). Think about it. The
public has said that  It's ok to give a suffering person a lethal dose of
drugs to kill them (prop 51) but not to relieve their pain (prop I-685).
The only possible reason for such a dichotomy must be in presentation of
the product to the public.
I would like to hear some of the media strategies that I-685 backers
engaged in because we better learn from our mistakes or our great grand
kids will be fighting to end this war. If this was a repeat of the "stealth
strategy" used in CA and AZ the jig is up and it no longer works. This
wasn't a loss it was an embarassment. 
Being right is not enough. The public must be SOLD on the benefits of
passage and the media must be convinced to at least engage in balanced
coverage. 
I know that this initiative was pushing the envelope in its wording but we
can't evaluate much if the people vote on news coverage instead of the
initiative and the news coverage is biased. DrugSense has proven that media
activism works and can make a major difference with a minimum investment
but to my unending frustration we still are too small and under funded to
really make a difference in this type of situation
Finally we should find out why KOIN gave such massive coverage to 51 and so
little to I-685. Our media activism is a toddler at best but we need to
grow and emphasize it if we are going to make any headway.
We should have and could have won this one but we blew it on our 
esentation.
Just my opinion.
P.S. In fairness the Prop 51 landslide was likely a backlash due to outrage
that politicians would try to overturn a previously passed initiative (prop
16), This bodes well for Arizona. 
Mark Greer
Media Awareness Project (MAP) inc.
d/b/a DrugSense 
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
***********************************************************************
*  Carl E. Olsen                *  carl@commonlink.net                *
*  Post Office Box 4091         *  NORML News archived at:            *
*  Des Moines, Iowa 50333       *  http://www.calyx.com/~olsen/       *
*  (515) 262-6957 voice & fax   *  http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/  *
***********************************************************************
--- 
---------------