Search for Medical-Marijuana Critic Garners International Attention
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When the Tucson Weekly announced that it was looking for a freelancer to review Southern Arizona’s medical-marijuana-related businesses—following voter approval of a ballot initiative legalizing medical weed—the newspaper expected perhaps a bit of local attention.
Sure enough, a local TV station came calling, and did a silly but accurate piece.
Weekly staffers did not expect what came next.
The local TV-news story was picked up all across the country. Then CNN Headline News came along and incorporated the local TV footage into a short piece of its own. CNN.com took the CNN Headline News piece and reworked it into a story that was on the CNN.com front page for the better part of a day.
In the middle of all of this, international media started calling. A reporter with London’s Daily Mail interviewed Weekly editor Jimmy Boegle and produced a story that, in a word, was ridiculous.
“As jobs adverts go, it is one of the more controversial. Which might explain why the response has been stone cold,” the piece begins. “Southern Arizona local newspaper the Tuscon Weekly has come under fire after advertising for a medical marijuana critic.”
Several problems there: First, the advertisement was not controversial; the Weekly received one true complaint. Therefore, second, there was no fire to come under.
Third, well, it’s Tucson, not Tuscon.
Aside from the Daily Mail interview, the most interesting bit of media attention came when Boegle was interviewed on The Playboy Radio Morning Show on SiriusXM’s Playboy Radio Channel.
How did Boegle describe the Playboy Radio interview? “I’ll just say that it was one heck of an experience, and leave it at that,” he said.
The Weekly expects to start running medical-marijuana reviews later this year.