Word: tobacco
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Moore, a Democrat who took office in 1988 and is seeking testimony about tobacco's addictive properties and impact on health, believes the subpoena will protect Wigand from legal action by B&W for breaking his nondisclosure contract. But even more explosive than Wigand's deposition could be the documents that the subpoena requests him to produce. Those papers supposedly include evidence that B&W altered its research into the carcinogenic, toxic or addictive effects of tobacco, as well as a diary Wigand kept while working there. Wigand, says Moore, has "wanted to tell the truth...
...another point in the transcript, Wigand alleged that the company introduced into its cigarettes--at "a hundredfold the safety level"--a pipe-tobacco additive, coumarin, that it knew caused liver tumors in laboratory mice. And he described two threatening phone calls, one of which hinted at harm to his two children if he didn't "leave tobacco alone.'' B&W responded to the Daily News article by threatening legal action against CBS News for leaking it. A lawyer for the tobacco company warned that the network would be held responsible for any libel contained in the transcript...
...Minutes isn't the only place where Wigand is going--or would have gone--public. Last week he was served a subpoena in Mississippi. State attorney general Mike Moore wants him to testify in the preliminary phase of a Medicaid reimbursement suit against the tobacco industry. The case attempts to make the tobacco industry compensate state taxpayers for funds spent on the tobacco-related illness and death of indigent citizens...
...painful for CBS because 60 Minutes has long managed to remain aloof from the network's ups and downs--a steady symbol (and often vocal defender) of the old standards and traditions. The controversy stems from a 60 Minutes story that was to include an interview with a former tobacco-industry executive seeking to blow the whistle on alleged misdeeds by his former employer. But the interview was killed after CBS lawyers raised concerns about possible lawsuits that the network could face from the tobacco industry if it were...
...currently spend $1.2 billion dollars per year on smoke-filled treats. Even though one million teenagers get hooked on cigarettes every year and one-third of them will eventually die as a result of their addiction, the heavy hand of government should not be meddling in the lucrative tobacco industry...