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