Influencing The Media

Like any other industry whose products are the subject of public debate, the tobacco industry has always attempted to curry favor with the media. As discussed in chapter 5, during the "safe" cigarette era of the 1960s, the industry enjoyed some strong support in the media. However, by the 1980s much of that support had eroded, and the industry often had to struggle to find a sympathetic media voice. As several memos from the early 1980s indicate, the industry attempted to influence media coverage of proposed legislation on cigarette labeling and advertising by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Robert Packwood (R-OR).

On February 8, 1983, Horace Kornegay, chairman of the Tobacco Institute, wrote to Ernest Pepples at B&W stating:

First, the project to determine in each company who is personally acquainted with the publisher, editor or business manager of any of the newspapers on the list which was distributed at the meeting of the Executive Committee and to set up a meeting with the publisher, editor or business manager for the purpose of informing him of the great dangers contained in the Waxman-Hatch-Packwood bills. I would urge you to move as soon as possible on this undertaking inasmuch as the Congressional committees could begin action on these bills within the next few weeks. {2131.02, p. 1}

This project appears to have been part of an industry-wide effort to approach all major media. Thus, a letter dated February 8, 1983, from C.H. Judge, who was in the office of the president of Lorillard Tobacco, to Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr., president of the Tobacco Institute, states:

Have met with Dick Monroe, Chief Executive and Cliff Grum, Executive V. P. of Time, Inc. Agreement reached for presentation to Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. and Managing Editors of all Time, Inc. Magazines. Presentation to be mainly rebuttal of upcoming Surgeon General's Report and a plea for fairness and objectivity.

...

cc: TIEC [Tobacco Institute Executive Committee] Members. We need help. Key city newspapers (eg. NY Times, LA Times, Wash. Post, Houston Chronicle, etc., etc.) key. If you can set up and attend a similar meeting, please let Sam [probably Sam Chilcote] know. {2131.03, p. 1}

In a memo to Dr. I. W. Hughes, B&W chairman and CEO, also dated February 8, 1983, Tom Humber, B&W assistant director of corporate

affairs, discusses the possible pitfalls involved in attempting to influence the media:

I have persistently criticized the industry and TI [Tobacco Institute] for not taking a pro-active stance with regard to article placement in what I call, for lack of a better umbrella term, the popular press. By that I mean the mass circulation magazines, ranging from Ladies Home Journal to Playgirl . That, I believe, is where the attack is headed. Having lost our advantage of positive pursuit during relative quiet, we must now fight a rear-guard action with limited hopes.

...

Given the proclivities of several companies, I believe there is significant danger of pressure tactics that could easily backfire and make matters worse. If we've got what we say we've got, then the authoritative, coherent presentation of information is the best course. The seminar approach is substantive and clean; it can, to some extent, be better controlled. It can provide more information to more people in a shorter time. We will be attacked for whatever we do, but the open approach has a better chance of being regarded as honest and straightforward, even gutsy, than private meetings in parking garages [perhaps a reference to "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame] or French restaurants.

Our message should be simple: We shall not use our advertising dollars to influence editorial material. In fact, we believe that the smoking and health controversy mandates more public discussion, not less, just as it mandates increased research. But the discussion should be informed, balanced and accurate, not based on anyone's propaganda. To that end, here are scientists, here are films, here are documents, here are resources for you to call on when you have questions [emphasis added]. {2131.04, p. 2}

Some of the same concerns are expressed in a February 14, 1983, "restricted" memorandum from Pepples to Dr. Hughes, regarding "industry contacts with editors":

The gist of what I said was as follows. While contacts to media by CEO's do make sense in the present circumstances, they need to select the ground carefully and coordinate with the appropriate advisers. I suggested that the better ground was the Waxman-Hatch-Packwood legislation on cigarette labeling and advertising because it presents First Amendment concerns which are so dear to the heart of publishers. I further suggested that the footing would not be as good on the alternative ground, heart disease and the Surgeon General's Report. [The 1983 Surgeon General's report dealt with smoking and heart disease.]

...

Finally, a concern was mentioned to [Arthur] Stevens about a potential backlash, legal and otherwise, if the publishers see our contacts as either solo or jointcoercionto influence news and editorial content. I mentioned the Wall Street Journal article of some several weeks back as well as the recent

contact from a Milwaukee reporter, raising the issue of advertising dollars and the press' freedom to express antismoking views. This is merely a caveat, not a bone-breaker. The industry has a good, respectable position to present. It is just a matter of keeping it in mind and saying it to the publishers. No company uses its advertising dollars in a coercive way. Indeed, the industry urges that the public deserves more not less discussion of the smoking and health controversy. But the discussion should be balanced and accurate and it should be free of the rhetoric and one-sided propaganda which sees no good in cigarettes and only great harm.

...

Curt [Judge] then informs his listener that if such legislation [providing for rotational warnings on cigarette packs] passes, litigation will wipe out the cigarette industry and the publishers will not have a customer for their advertising space. Arthur [Stevens] indicated that Curt Judge would use this approach as part of his presentation to the editors of Time Magazine . Stated another way, he would get into the Waxman/Hatch/Packwood situation even though it is extraneous to the central subject of heart disease and the Surgeon General's Report [italic emphasis added]. {2131.01, pp. 1–3}

That both Humber and Pepples would state that the industry does not use its advertising dollars in a coercive way is remarkable. Not only does the industry apply pressure through its advertising clout to forestall criticism in the media, but, as was discussed in chapter 5, the industry occasionally buys favorable media coverage by paying people to write articles supporting the industry without disclosing their ties to the industry.