The poison pen of the L.A. Weekly has struck again, and again at L.A. JEMM and it’s publisher Ruben MacBlue. The most recent article entitled “WEED MAGS SPROUT ACROSS LOS ANGELES” follows years of relentless slights against Ruben and his publications, while at the same time, vying for the same advertisers.

One may ask themselves “why is the L.A. Weekly dissing Ruben? This is not something new, but has been going on for over 20 years of trying to shame and degrade Rock City News, and now, L.A. JEMM.

Previous L.A. Weekly stories published this year have treated marijuana with what we call a “reefer madness” attitude. Odd, since they are also trying to get the advertising from the same marijuana dispensaries. Maybe they should decide which side of the fence they’re on.

Their recent slurring of Don Duncan, a brilliant activist and president of ASA group, was tasteless and disgraceful. But there appears to be no remorse from the L.A. Weekly, a giant corporation that tries to come across as a people’s publication but appears to be more of a soul-less corporation that resorts to bashing locals. We see the L.A. Weekly as nothing but a rotten decaying corpse of it’s former self, and the wanna-be-policemen of publishing. We also think the L.A. Weekly is single handedly responsible for killing the once great L.A. music scene.

This recent story looks like what’s called a “hit piece,” this time against medical marijuana and JEMM magazine. We don’t know if the writer was contracted or maybe had his own personal agenda, but we wanted absolutely nothing to do with the L.A. Weekly. What were they thinking? They attack me for 25 years and now they expect me to be a part of their stupid story on medical marijuana magazines? Excuse the expression, but what are THEY smoking?

Steve then complains about business being bad for newspapers with staggering drops in revenue, (cry cry) and that they have layoffs (cry cry cry) and then goes on to mention “an untapped well of advertising dollars” and that the “pot press is one of print’s few growth industries.” Is this the motive? To get the advertising dollars?

The article talks about a magazine called “420 Times” which we’d never even heard of, but he glorifies them with their “cannabis recipes, and tips on how to roll joints, and interviews with Cheech & Chong,” and then mentions a pocket size magazine called “Patient’s Guide to Los Angeles”. Then comes JEMM, . . . and first, it’s a “pot” publication, then Ruben is a “fanatic” . . . Then he says that Rock City News targeted the “less celebrated corners of the underground music scene,” completely glossing over the fact that Ruben discovered almost every great L.A. band from the 80’s and 90’s.

He then tries to ridicule Rock City News’ anti-Bush articles calling them “enraged anti-George W. Bush screeds.” Perhaps this is the motive. And then Steve follows with “as revenue poured in, Rock City News evolved from a thin publication into a full color newspaper.” Another untruth. Rock City News did not grow, JEMM did, and JEMM is a completely separate from Rock City News.

Steve says “Blue refused to comment for this article in protest of L.A. Weekly’s critical coverage of failures by the ‘city Council and the mayor to regulate the local marijuana industry.” Ridiculous! This looks like a clumsy way for Steve to promote his own agenda. We didn’t speak to them because we despise the L.A. Weekly.

Steve Appleford then goes on to suggest that we’re criminals for printing marijuana articles from across the country, though these same articles can be found on tons of websites all over the internet. He falsely talks about cease and desist letters. Sounds like he’s trying to be the policeman of publishing. In four years we have not had any complaints whatsoever until this guy started stirring things up. He then uses the Daily News editor Catalina Garcia to take a jab with the quote “it seems like they lack standards and ethics.” It looks to me like the L.A. Weekly is the one that lacks standards and ethics.

Steve then goes on to glorify KUSH LA, talking wondrously about their “flagship edition,” and how their website is the “the facebook of marijuana” and the “guru of Universal PIctures,” and WOW, look at that big color KUSH LA cover with a giant bud with Christmas ornaments and the slogan “the premier cannabis lifestyle magazine.”

Lifestyle magazine? LA JEMM is not a “lifestyle” magazine but rather L.A.’s “medical marijuana” magazine, but I guess that’s not worth mentioning? or the fact that we worked our asses off for four years to get where we are. So they do a story about us, only to ridicule us, and then gloss completely over our entire mission. I think it’s time people took another look at the L.A. Weekly.

Ruben MacBlue
LA JEMM
Rock City News

Visit page 52 of the current issue for this article

http://www.virtualonlineeditions.com/display_article.php?id=315661