A TV reporter in Alaska quit her job Sunday during a live newscast after making a surprising revelation.
While reporting on a medical marijuana club, called the Alaska Cannabis Club, KTVA’s Charlo Greene revealed to viewers — and, her employer — that she owns the organization.
“Now everything you heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska,” she said during the broadcast. “And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, f— it, I quit.”
“Viewers, we sincerely apologize for the inappropriate language used by a KTVA reporter on the air tonight,” the station’s news director, Bert Rudman, said in a statement posted on Facebook. “The employee has been terminated.”
Alaska legalized medical marijuana in 1998, and voters will decide in November on whether to legalize recreational use.
Public opinion on marijuana has shifted in recent years.
Recreational marijuana use is legal in Colorado and Washington, and medicinal use is legal in more than a dozen states. A number of states have also decriminalized possession of the drug.
The New York Times editorial board in July called for an end to marijuana “prohibition.” A Gallup poll from October 2013 found a majority of Americans support legalizing pot. It was the first time Gallup recorded a majority in the four decades the firm has asked the question.
Correction: This post originally reported that recreational marijuana use is legal in Oregon. It is legal in Colorado and Washington.
David Taintor