Re: MUGGER, New York Press, October 1-7, 1997

Mugger: "Just a case of looking at the bottom line several years ago, boning up on the First Amendment and. voila!, Brewster's self-righteous decree went down the toilet."

The fact that the tobacco story has gone largely unreported for 40 years is due to the press' cowardly failure to inform the public on a continuing basis. It represents nothing less than the abject failure of the advertising-driven model of journalism.

But Mugger thinks tobacco ads are strictly a bottom-line and First Amendment issue. You don't expect anonymous dilettantes to have much insight or depth, but you'd think someone who seemingly does nothing but read magazines and eat would periodically notice larger trends in media.

Goebbels gave us the idea of The Big Lie--a lie which, constantly repeated, is eventually seen as truth. The advertising industry understands this, and further, that the Lie is far more effective when no contradicting voice can be heard.

NY Press (along with its near-identical nemesis, the Village Voice) is a perfect case in point. Its mission is to fill up the pages between the ads, and the copy often serves to effectively complement the advertising. All your readers see is how fine smoking is--from ad after ad after ad, and often from the editorial, too. When has NYPress had an article on the health effects of this product that's killing 400,000 a year?

400,000 dead a year from the over-the-counter sale of an addicting, deadly drug to kids. That's a monumental story, unprecedented in history. And yet the media has traditionally squelched full knowledge about tobacco issues, undoubtedly fearful of a sudden hole in its advertising income. How "self-righteous" do you have to be to see what's really going on?

Here are a few examples of magazines that lacked their usual complement of tobacco ads when they ran a tobacco story:

€MOTHER JONES January, 1979
"Why Dick Can't Stop Smoking." MoJo says it lost _years_ of tobacco and liquor advertising after running the story.

€NEWSWEEK June 6, 1983
"Showdown on Smoking." The article's author said Newsweek may have lost as much as $1 million in advertising this issue.

€TIME April 18, 1994
Time's only crime was to give a proper amount of space to then-current federal tobacco issues

€US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT April 18, 1994
US News' only crime was to give a proper amount of space to then-current federal tobacco issues

€PEOPLE, May 20, 1996
People knocked off 2 birds with one stone, running both a Stanton Glantz profile and a "Runaway Jury" excerpt.

€VANITY FAIR May, 1996
VF ran an in-depth profile of Jeffrey Wigand.

€FAIRFIELD COUNTY (CT) WEEKLY , early Oct., 1996
"Smoke Screen," was about industry-created political "watchdog" groups.

€VILLAGE VOICE, September 23, 1997
Guy Trebay "Smoking Zone" simply covered the current tobacco history exhibitions at the Public Library.

These are just some of the more obvious examples. Consider the hidden stories--how many publishers saw what happened to the Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, or Mother Jones, and decided behind closed doors, "Ah, to hell with running a tobacco story!"

For the industry, truly, no news is good news. No one should dare to know as much about tobacco as the industry itself, because the society at large may get an accurate idea of what it is we're really dealing with--and the options we then choose will probably be markedly different from those preferred by the industry.

This is hardly a "First Amendment" issue, as the industry likes to spout, and Mugger to swallow and smugly regurgitate. In an advertising-driven model of journalism, the withholding of vital information is accomplished not by government, but by advertisers.

If there is a restriction on the freedom to falsely yell "Fire" in a theatre because of the irreparable damage it may cause, then surely tobacco, as independent conservatives such as William F. Buckley, George Will, and Barry Goldwater will attest, cries out for government regulation--regulation which would not be needed if more than a handful of those in the media (and in our similarly bought-and-paid-for government) had ever exhibited an ounce of morality or integrity.

But maybe Mugger enjoys living in a society where dealers can openly sell addicting, deadly drugs to kids with impunity. His is obviously the God of Mammon, and for him--as well as for many in the publishing industry--the only imperative is the duty to make money--no matter what the cost to anyone else.

As we contemplate the legalization of harder drugs, I can't wait for those cool "China White" ads!
Gene Borio Tobacco BBS PO Box 359 Village Station, NY 10014-0359

Tobacco BBS: 212-982-4645 Tobacco BBS WebSite: http://www.tobacco.org geneb@tobacco.org

Gene Borio 195 Bleecker St., #11 New York, N.Y. 10012-1480 212-260-6825

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