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F*ck it!!! I quit

'F*ck it, I quit': TV reporter Charlo Greene quits live on air in spectacular fashion

Reporter to dedicate herself to legalising marijuana

Christopher Hooton Author Biography

Monday 22 September 2014

KTVA reporter Charlo Greene quit her job on live TV last night, outing herself as the owner of an Alaskan cannabis club and declaring "f*ck it".

Having grown weary of reporting the news, Greene told viewers she would instead be putting all her energy into the fight to legalise marijuana in the state, having previously reported on the Alaska Cannabis Club without mentioning her connection to it.

In a jaw-dropping twist to the end of a segment she was presenting, she said: "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.

"And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, f**k it, I quit."

Blurrier but longer version:

The Alaska Cannabis Club, which connects medical marijuana cardholders with local growers, urged its Facebook followers to tune into KTVA earlier in the evening.

Following Greene's mic drop, the main anchor could only stutter: "Alright we apologise for that….we'll, we'll be right back."

Green has since started an Indiegogo campaign for cannabis reform, explaining in its summary: "I'm Charlo Greene, the president and CEO of the Alaska Cannabis Club - Alaska's only legal medical marijuana resource.

"I just quit my news reporting job on live TV to announce that I am redirecting all of my energy toward helping to end a failed drug policy that has ruined the lives of far too many Americans."

KTVA could only apologise on Twitter, saying rather worryingly (and hopefully erroneously) that Charlo had been "terminated".

"Viewers, we sincerely apologize for the inappropriate language used by a KTVA reporter on the air tonight," it wrote. "The employee has been terminated."

TV reporter quits on air to promote marijuana

TV reporter quits on air to promote marijuana

Associated Press 9:07 a.m. MST September 22, 2014

KTVA reporter Charlo Greene decided to go against the grain and quit while cameras were rolling.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A reporter for an Alaska TV station revealed on the air that she owns a medical marijuana business and was quitting her job to advocate for the drug.

After reporting on the Alaska Cannabis Club on Sunday night's broadcast, KTVA's Charlo Greene identified herself as the business's owner and said she would be devoting all her energy to fighting for "freedom and fairness." She then used an expletive to quit her job, and walked off-camera.

In a statement on KTVA's website, news director Bert Rudman apologized for Greene's "inappropriate language" and said she was terminated.

Alaska voters decide Nov. 4 whether to legalize recreational pot. Measure 2 would be similar to Washington and Colorado's legalization laws.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Alaska reporter quits on live TV after a segment about the medical marijuana club she runs

Source

Alaska reporter quits on live TV after a segment about the medical marijuana club she runs

By Abby Ohlheiser September 22 at 9:39 AM

Charlo Green quit her TV job rather abruptly during a nightly newscast. (KTVA/YouTube)

Viewers of KTVA's Sunday night newscast learned all about the Alaska Cannabis Club, a medical marijuana group. And then, they learned something else: The reporter who presented the story to the station's viewers is also the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club.

Charlo Greene then quit her TV job on live television after promising to dedicate "all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska."

She added: "And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice, but, [expletive] it, I quit."

You can watch the full video, which contains Greene's explicit sign-off, here.

Although Greene told Alaska Dispatch News that her (former) employers had no idea she was going to quit on air, or that she ran the club she reported on, the Alaska Cannibis Club's Facebook page encouraged its followers to tune in for the Sunday broadcast.

"I wanted to draw attention to this issue. And the issue is medical marijuana," Greene told the Dispatch News after the broadcast. "If I offended anyone, I apologize. But I’m not sorry for the choice that I made."

Although it seems a bit redundant to fire an employee who already quit, KTVA, a CBS affiliate, wanted to make it crystal clear that it did not condone Greene's unexpected remarks on Sunday. Especially the swearing.

As NBC-affilaited KTUU noted, Sunday's broadcast wasn't the first time Greene had reported on cannabis for the station, apparently even after the Alaska Cannibis Club's founding earlier this year.

In at least one earlier segment, Greene did not disclose her connection to the group:

KTUU reported that Greene's legal name is Charlene Egbe, which is listed as the name of the Alaska Cannabis Club's owner in the state's corporation records database. The group was founded on April 20.

Although search results point to a five-part KTVA series on cannabis that aired on the station starting on April 29, those pages are no longer available on the station's Web site. A cached, text-only version of the URLs still show the pieces, authored by Charlo Greene; some of the segments, like the one above, are still available on YouTube.

Alaska allows for legal, medical marijuana use, thanks to a 1998 ballot measure. Under the measure, patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, MS and other ailments are able to obtain approval to possess, use and grow small amounts of the substance as part of their treatment, with a doctor's certification.

But cannabis advocates in the state -- including Greene's club -- argue that the laws are too vague to safely and legally allow patients to access the substance, even with that approval. Under the current law, cardholders may possess a small amount of marijuana and grow a small number of plants for personal use or for other cardholders in the state.

That's where it gets trickier, advocates argue, because the law is quiet on how cardholders can actually buy what they need to grow the plant or otherwise obtain marijuana for medical use if they're unable to grow it themselves. In other words, a cardholder can grow marijuana for his or her own use (and give away the plant to other approved cardholders), but it's still not really legal to sell marijuana in Alaska.

Greene's club was the subject of an August Alaska Dispatch News story, which noted that the club's founder spoke to the paper "on the condition of anonymity, citing concern over potential repercussions from her employer." In the story, the founder (presumably Greene) explained how her club has set up something of a stop-gap, work-around to help get patients access to cannabis.

Instead of buying marijuana from a grower, club members agree to give "donations" covering the cost of growing the substance to the person growing the plants. Patient and supplier are then paired up, and the club steps out of the picture. Understandably, the Dispatch referred to this system as operating within a "legal gray area" in the state. Which is why Greene's club is trying to change Alaska's laws.

The state will vote on another marijuana measure in November: Ballot Measure 2 asks voters to approve a proposal that would "allow a person to possess, use, show, buy, transport, or grow set amounts of marijuana, with the growing subject to certain restrictions." If approved, the measure would implement a similar regulation process for marijuana to the one currently in place for the use and sale of alcohol.

Greene has set up an IndieGoGo page to collect donations for her group's marijuana advocacy work. Although she is clearly hoping that her high-profile resignation will draw positive attention to her campaign to support a measure that she believes will clarify and improve state laws on cannabis use, the measure's opponents see something else in the broadcast:

Washington and Colorado both have recreational marijuana laws on the books; in addition to Alaska, voters in the District of Columbia and Oregon will consider a recreational marijuana proposal in November.