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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 2014)
Opinion Tobacco Settlement Excludes Black Media “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2014 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The U.S. Justice Department and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund have reached an agreement with the four major tobacco companies that requires them to spend more than $30 million advertising with the three major television net- works and run full-page ads in 35 White and Hispanic newspapers as well as purchasing space on their respective websites but not make a single purchase from a Black print or broadcast media company. The 24-page proposed consent agreement, reached Friday, was scheduled to go before U.S. Dis- trict Judge Gladys Kessler in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, Jan. 15, for final approval. The pro- ceeding has been rescheduled for Jan. 22. “We are shocked and deeply dis- appointed that the Justice Depart- ment, the Tobacco-Free Action Fund and the tobacco industry would all agree to sign off an advertising plan that totally disre- spects the Black community,” said Cloves C. Campbell, chairman of the National Newspaper Publish- ers Association, a federation of nearly 200 Black newspapers. “The industry’s past efforts to tar- get African-American consumers have been thoroughly document- ed. It is sad that an industry that sought to exploit our community with a product that is harmful to our health now seeks to further devalue African-Americans by ignoring the Black media when it is being forced to atone what a federal judge determined was a deliberate effort to deceive the American public.” Page 4 The Portland Skanner January 22, 2014 T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry Peter S. Hamm, director of com- munications for the Tobacco-Free Kids Action, said on Monday that the media outlets were selected by Judge Kessler and disclosed in an order issued Aug. 17, 2006. Hamm said he did not know how she determined what media outlets would be utilized to carry the newspaper ads and television commercials. A telephone call Monday requesting comment from the Jus- tice Department was not returned. The story of the agreement was first disclosed by Target Market News, published by Ken Smikle. The Chicago-based publication said an advertising source placed the value of the total buy at $30 million to $45 million. The advertising campaign, which won’t go into effect until all appeals have been exhausted by the tobacco companies, was agreed to as part of a settlement that found tobacco companies mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. The four defendants are: Altria, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Loril- lard and Philip Morris USA. The U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the cigarette manufacturers on Sept. 22, 1999 charging that they had violated the Racketeer Influ- enced and Corruption Organi- zations Act (RICO). They were found guilty at the conclusion of a trial that lasted from Dec. 21, 2004 to June 9, 2005. Judge Kessler wrote a sting- ing opinion, saying that the case “is about an industry, and in par- ticular these Defendants, that sur- vives, and profits, from selling a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a stag- gering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and economic loss, and a profound burden on our national health care system. Defendants have known these facts for at least 50 years or more. Despite that knowledge, they have consistently, repeatedly, and with enormous skill and sophistication, denied these facts to the public, to the Government, and to the public health community… In short, Defendants have marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, with a single- minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.” The judge prohibited the compa- nies from committing similar acts going forward and ordered them to make “corrective statements” about the lies they had told about the dangers of smoking. Kessler’s ruling was unanimous- ly upheld March 22, 2009 by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On June 28, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept an appeal. Carefully-crafted “corrective statements” that include the word- ing, placement and timing of TV commercials and the content, type and size of fonts to be used in newspaper ads were covered in the agreement reached Friday. The statements will acknowledge that the advertising is being done under court order and that compa- nies had misled the public on the health effects of smoking, the addictiveness of smoking and nicotine and the health effects of secondhand smoke. The companies will also admit that they falsely sold and adver- tised low-tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular ciga- rettes and designed cigarettes to enhance the delivery of nicotine. Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com
