Tobacco.org

ARCHIVE: Hunting the mole ($$) 

SUSPICION about the identity of a tobacco-industry consultant linked to The Lancet in a 1990 memo is focusing on the late Petr Skrabanek, formerly of Trinity College, Dublin. Though not on the journal's staff, Skrabanek featured regularly in The Lancet's correspondence columns and wrote a number of unsigned editorial comments.

Last week, New Scientist revealed the existence of a memo from the London offices of the law firm Covington and Burling to the American tobacco giant Philip Morris (This Week, 16 May, p 4). Among consultants said to have assisted a campaign to allay fears about the effects of passive smoking was "an editor" of The Lancet.

The Lancet's current editor, Richard Horton, responds to the allegation in the journal's 16 May issue (vol 351, p 1450). Each member of The Lancet's senior editorial staff of the time has denied any link with Philip Morris or its ...

The complete article is 537 words long.

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VIDEO: Carville hits reported Phillip Morris influence on McCaughey: "breathtaking proof" of "vast right-wing conspiracy"  

McCaughey has run this con before. During the debate over Clinton's health care overhaul in the early 1990s, McCaughey - then an academic at the right-wing Manhattan Institute - wrote an article for The New Republic called "No Exit," in which she claimed that Hillarycare would prevent even wealthy Americans from "going outside the system to purchase basic health coverage you think is better." Even though the bill plainly stated that "nothing in this Act" would prohibit consumers from purchasing additional care, McCaughey's claim was echoed endlessly in the press, with each repetition pounding a stake further into the heart of the reform effort.

McCaughey's lies were later debunked in a 1995 post-mortem in The Atlantic, and The New Republic recanted the piece in 2006. But what has not been reported until now is that McCaughey's writing was influenced by Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company, as part of a secret campaign to scuttle Clinton's health care reform. (The measure would have been funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.) In an internal company memo from March 1994, the tobacco giant detailed its strategy to derail Hillarycare through an alliance with conservative think tanks, front groups and media outlets. Integral to the company's strategy, the memo observed, was an effort to "work on the development of favorable pieces" with "friendly contacts in the media." The memo, prepared by a Philip Morris executive, mentions only one author by name:

"Worked off-the-record with Manhattan and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part exposé in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. The first part detailed specifics of the plan."

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Manhattan Institute Statement: Betsy McCaughey Was Not Paid or Influenced 

"Below is a letter to the editor of Rolling Stone from Lawrence Mone, President, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research."

In his article "The Lie Machine" Tim Dickenson asserts that former Manhattan Institute scholar Betsy McCaughey's work was influenced by Phillip Morris. This conclusion is false. Betsy McCaughey wrote two articles for the Wall Street Journal on the Clinton Health Care plan and an additional article for the New Republic which was solicited by its publisher. At no time were her ideas influenced or controlled by anyone but the author herself.

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COTTLE: No Exit 

A few feet from his maroon-flocked podium sits Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, former fellow with the conservative Hudson Institute, and longtime scourge of health care reform. A constitutional scholar by training, McCaughey (pronounced "McCoy") blazed to fame in 1994 as the person who drove a stake through the heart of Hillarycare, with a detailed (and, as it turned out, false) takedown of the plan published in this very magazine.

Fifteen years later, she has reemerged for an encore, penning op-eds and making the TV and radio rounds to issue apocalyptic warnings about the horrors lurking in the fine print of Obamacare. Pick an inflammatory, misleading rumor that has sprung up in this debate, and chances are McCaughey had a hand in springing it. . . .

With the help of a friend on the board of the Manhattan Institute, Betsy landed a fellowship at the conservative think tank, with a mandate to write about electoral reform and the legal system. Instead, in early 1994, she published a scathing vivisection of the Clinton health care plan in The New Republic. Touting her academic experience, McCaughey painted herself as a dispassionate truth-seeker who felt an obligation to read the entire 1,342-page bill (something few lawmakers were willing to do) and flag its malignancies for the rest of us. To emphasize how judicious her research was, McCaughey sprinkled her article with page numbers, directing readers to the exact subsections and footnotes of the text on which her criticisms were based. But, while McCaughey's reading may have been uncommonly thorough, it was also fundamentally incorrect--or grossly dishonest, depending on your view of her (and of a recent Rolling Stone article exposing her consultations with Big Tobacco during the writing). . . .

Palin, of course, hawks homespun wisdom, faith, and common sense, in contrast to McCaughey's figures and footnotes. But both women have an uncanny ability to shovel their toxic nonsense with nary a blink, tremor, or break in those dazzling smiles. People of goodwill and honest counsel don't stand a chance.

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• DICKINSON: Echoes of Philip Morris and Hillarycare 

I touched on the Philip Morris campaign, briefly, in "The Lie Machine," but I've since uncovered a bumper crop of additional memos from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library that offer a detailed picture of the cigarette maker's behind-the-scenes moves to defeat the Clinton health care reform in '94 -- and why the tobacco company was so motivated.

The costs of the Clinton health reform were to be covered, in part, by new tobacco taxes. As this memo from the company's Washington Relations Office reveals, Philip Morris' decided it would try beat back this threat by torpedoing health care reform altogether: . . .

• Third Party support is important. We provide assistance to Citizens for a Sound Economy, Center for Policy Analysis, Manhattan Institute and numerous other organizations. . . .

Citizens for a Sound Economy's effort bore a striking resemblance to the town-hall campaign waged this August by its offspring. This "Tobacco Strategy" memo describes CSE's program in full swing, replete with a mobilization of up-in-arms constituents at town halls . . .

Philip Morris tapped its own employees to play the part of concerned citizens . . .

Who were those allies? This March 22, 1994, "Tobacco Strategy Review" marked "confidential" lists Philip Morris' friends in the foxhole, including, notably, the Manhattan Institute, where one Betsy McCaughey was a fellow: . . .

To influence swing Democrats in the House, PM quietly paid CSE to gin up a "grassroots" anti-tax rebellion, as detailed in this memo . . .

• PM COMPANIES INC. AND RJR HAVE FORMED THE PM/RJR TOBACCO TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE ACTIONS ON… FET.

This “Task Force” was star-studded. Indeed, it was anchored by a former top George H.W. Bush consultant who would go on to found FoxNews:

• TASK FORCE MEMBERS INCLUDE:

…

Roger Ailes, public affairs strategist

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Tobacco Strategy 

Page 1 of the "Tobacco Strategy" memo in which Philip Morris boasts of shaping former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey's analysis of the House health care bill. The memo also reveals the tobacco giant paid Citizens for a Sound Economy to engineer a "grassroots" revolt against health care reform by staging demonstrations in the home districts of key congressmen.

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'Death Panel' Inventor & Critic of Healthcare Reform Betsy McCaughey 'Has Close Ties' to Philip Morris; Healthcare Industry Today Offers Complete Coverage 

According to the Web site Raw Story, Rolling Stone Magazine is about to reveal that during the Clinton administration Philip Morris "worked off-the-record with . . . writer Betsy McCaughey" to help derail health care reform which would have been partly funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.

McCaughey is also credited with inventing the term "death panels" used by anti-healthcare reform activists determined to scuttle Barack Obama's reform plans.

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• Serial misinformer McCaughey exposed as Big Tobacco shill during 1994 health care debate 

Philip Morris budgeted $25,000 for McCaughey employer Manhattan Institute in 1995. As Media Matters Senior Fellow Jamison Foser documented, Philip Morris budgeted $25,000 for The Manhattan Institute for 1995 -- the think tank that employed McCaughey when she authored her hit piece in 1994.

Neither The New Republic nor McCaughey disclosed her reported conflict of interest

TNR presented McCaughey as an impartial expert.

In McCaughey's February 7, 1994 article, "No Exit," and February 28, 1994, article, "She's BAAACK!," The New Republic only identified her as the "John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute" (articles retrieved from the Nexis database). . . .

McCaughey's Clinton-era claims have been widely debunked -- repeatedly so in TNR

Media cite bill Section 1003 explicitly providing "protection of consumer choice." Rebutting McCaughey's claims, many media accounts have cited Section 1003, which, contrary to McCaughey's claims, makes clear that individuals can "go outside the system to buy basic health coverage" and that individuals can pay doctors out-of-pocket. This section is often referenced as "page 15" or "page 16" of the bill, the pages on which it appears. . . .

Weinstein points to George Will to explain how McCaughey's "misrepresentations ... spread quickly." In his February 6, 1994, New York Times opinion piece, Weinstein wrote that "Conservatives, ranging from Senator Bob Dole to the columnist George Will, have embraced her broadside as gospel." He added that "[h]er misrepresentations have spread quickly . . .

Despite her past conflicts of interest and falsehoods, media treat McCaughey as if she's credible

McCaughey is a serial misinformer who has perpetuated numerous falsehoods about health care reform. . . .

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FALLOWS: Manhattan Institute replies (re McCaughey and tobacco lobby) UPDATED 

I wrote back to Lindsay Craig asking which of these options the Manhattan Institute was saying:

"A: The Rolling Stone contention that tobacco companies collaborated with Ms. McCaughey and M.I. is totally false; there was no such contact or collaboration.

"B: We are confident that Ms. McCaughey's opinions were not influenced by tobacco companies, even though she may have worked with them.

Her immediate response:

"A. Betsy never worked with Phillip Morris."

Is this a question of a lobbyist grossly exaggerating his "influence" to impress bosses and funders? That's a very familiar pattern in Washington. On the other hand, the lobbyist's detailed knowledge of Betsy McCaughey's writing plans suggests some interaction. I don't know the underlying truth here. It would be valuable if Ms. McCaughey, who has specialized in detailed textual analysis, would address in specific what these documents contend.

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FALLOWS: One crucial B. McCaughey update  

I have deliberately laid off the Betsy McCaughey theme for the past month-plus. . . .

Now Tim Dickinson produces documents from a tobacco lobbyist about his efforts to derail the Clinton health bill, including this one involving McCaughey and her then employer, the Manhattan Institute: . . .

' "Worked off-the-record with Manhattan and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part exposé in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. The first part detailed specifics of the plan." ' . . .

"McCaughey did not respond to Rolling Stone's request for an interview."

Maybe there is another side to this story, but if unrebutted it is damning.

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Betsy McCaughey, Big Tobacco, and the campaign to destroy health care reform 

Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson reports that Betsy McCaughey's mid-1990s lies about health care reform -- lies that helped torpedo the Clinton administration's efforts to provide universal health care -- were, in effect, the result of tobacco-industry propaganda: . . .

See, McCaughey was working for The Manhattan Institute at the time. And The Manhattan Institute was funded by -- you guessed it -- tobacco companies.

While Phillip Morris was "working with" McCaughey in 1994, the tobacco giant was also budgeting $25,000 for The Manhattan Institute for 1995. The Manhattan Institute has also taken tobacco money from Brown & Williamson, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard.

So that's where McCaughey's dishonest New Republic article -- the article that did more than any other to kill health care reform in the 1990s -- came from. The tobacco companies that funded the "think tank" that employed McCaughey "worked off-the-record" with her to shape the article.

The New Republic eventually "recanted" McCaughey's article, a decade after the damage was done, and apologized for it (though then-editor Andrew Sullivan stands by the decision to publish the article.)

So, now that Betsy McCaughey is again trying to kill health care reform, you have to wonder -- who is paying for her deception this time? And which news organizations will eventually have to apologize for promoting her dishonest work?

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• Manhattan Institute Statement: Betsy McCaughey Was Not Paid or Influenced by Philip Morris 

"Below is a letter to the editor of Rolling Stone from Lawrence Mone, President, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research."

In his article "The Lie Machine" Tim Dickenson asserts that former Manhattan Institute scholar Betsy McCaughey's work was influenced by Phillip Morris. This conclusion is false. Betsy McCaughey wrote two articles for the Wall Street Journal on the Clinton Health Care plan and an additional article for the New Republic which was solicited by its publisher. At no time were her ideas influenced or controlled by anyone but the author herself.

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• TOBACCO STRATEGY (dtv34e00) (PDF) 

Document Date: 19940300/E . . .

TOBACCO STRATEGY

• Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty . . .

Acton is presently preparing, with our assistance, a monograph for the Detroit News detailing arguments against "sin" taxes. I win be contacting them this week to elicit their assistance in rebutting the just-released University of Michigan report that attacks industry projections of economic dislocation caused by prohibitive excise tax hikes.

• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI) . . .

• American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) . . .

• Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)

A staunch ally of PM for a number of years in many tax battles, ATR has sponsored print ads against the use of excise taxes to fund health cam as well as VNRs on the subject, most recently one detailing the impacts of prohibitive cigarette excises in Canada on the economy and on crime .... which had a profound influence on the eventual decision to rollback the tax. ATR is very close to proponents of alternative health care plans, has good access in the dungeons of Washington as well as with its many state-level contacts throughout the country, and could be mobilized for lobbying or other grassroots tactics either in Washington or in key legislative districts. . . .

• Cato Institute

An Associate Broadcaster of NET, Cato is in discussions with us re promotion on their show ("Cato Policy Forum") of the issues contained in the Regulation magazine article by Dr. Gary Huber, "Smoke and Mirrors: The EPA's Flawed Study of Environmental Tobacco Smoke". As Regulation is a Cato product we are optimistic that such a forum will be provided. Cato is also the "co-sponsor" of the John Goodman/NCPA/Phil Gramm health care alternative---which contains no excise taxes--and hence we should consider working with them in any way possible to promote this as a better alternative to the Clinton plan. This could include any of the spate of policy group activities, ranging from conferences and panel discussions to op-eds and ads, and, of course, including maximum promotion on NET.

• Center for the Study of American Business (CSAB)

Directed by Murray Weidenbaum, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, CSAB is perhaps the leading American think tank on regulatory issues. We have worked with them on numerous aspects of the regulatory burden imposed on the tobacco industry, and their work has, gotten tremendous airplay. . . .

• Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America

As we all know, the Chamber has been all over the map, including on the wrong side, on this debate. However, we have been intensely lobbying them behind the scenes to "bring them in line" consistent with the other major business organizations, especially on FET, but also on employer mandates. . . .

We are funding a major (400K) grassroots initiative in the districts of House Energy & Commerce members to educate and mobilize consumers, through town hall meetings, radio and print ads, direct mail, patch-through calls to the Capitol switchboard, editorial board visits, polling data, meetings with Members and staff and the release of studies and other educational pieces. The goal of this effort is to show the Clinton plan as a government-run health, care system replete with higher taxes and government spending, massive job losses, less choice, rationing of care and extensive bureaucracies. CSE is taking aim at the heart of the plan --- employer mandates, new entitlements, price controls, mandatory health alliances, heavy load of new taxes and global budgets--and, with the program well underway, is by all accounts getting rave reviews in the respective districts.

• Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ)/Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy(ITEP)

As a leading labor-backed organization, CTRJ/ITEP and we have worked closely to highlight the regressive nature of tobacco excise taxes, and, in particular, how the problem would be exacerbated by passage of the Clinton plan. As this group has a strong voice in the labor movement, we plan to reinforce this message through the mobilization of this important constituency.

• The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy

Worked with this think tank in the development of a major policy paper entitled "The Clinton Health Plan: Bad Medicine for California". Bruce Herschensohn and other Claremont spokesmen are doing a media blitz to disseminate the findings . . .

• Consumer Alert

The antithesis of the Nader/Citizen Action brand of "consumer defense", Consumer Alert has worked with us in the promotion of the concept that the Clinton plan is anti-consumer, both in toto and because of the regressive excise taxes contained therein. . . .

• Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA)

Worked with GMA in the formulation of a resolution on health care reform mirroring that of the BRT. We currently chair the GMA Tax Committee and hence can ensure that no wayward positioning on excises ensues.

• The Heartland Institute

As a member of the Board, I am working with Heartland in several areas: . . . Through all these efforts runs Heartland's 1994 top priority: to inform policymakers, reporters and opinion leaders of the true nature of the Clinton Administration's health care reform legislation . . .

• The Heritage Foundation

Worked with Heritage in the development of alternative policy prescriptions to the Clinton plan, and articles and opeds espousing such positioning. Our efforts have resulted in several major policy papers, including one on the massive economic dislocation that would result from the implementation of the Clinton plan (including drastically less cigarette tax revenue than is currently envisioned), one on the implications of a prohibitive cigarette excise hike on the CPI, government transfer payments and net revenue, one on the misapplication of science in the EPA/ETS debate, and, possibly, one on the Surgeon General's broadside against tobacco advertising combined with a commercial speecb/First Amendment perspective.

• Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace

Have worked with them on several pieces focused on the Clinton program for universal health care coverage, which, combined with insurance coverage for mental health and reduced prescription costs, bound together with a fuzzy plan to finance the program, would be a recipe for disaster that will result in reduced employment in the international economy, continued unequal access to medical services and additions to the federal deficit.

• Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET)

Led by Norm Ture, former Undersecretary of the Treasury for Tax and Economic Affairs, and a long time friend of PM, IRET has been perhaps the leading policy group exponent of the evils of selective excise taxation. Via conferences, policy forums, articles, op-eds and the like, IRET has emphasized the point that excises are inefficient and unfair, and has beefed up these efforts since the introduction of the Clinton plan. . . .

• Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Have worked closely with this Michigan-based group in their policy study opposing the President's health care reform proposal, including its funding mechanism. . . .

• Manhattan Institute

Worked off-the-record with Manhattan and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part expose in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. . . .

• National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)

Similar to the BRT, but even more strongly, NAM (with our support) came out in opposition to the Clinton health care plan. Simultaneously, we have been working with the NAM Taxation Committee to ensure that regardless of what plan eventually materializes, no selective excise taxes of any kind will be used to fund it. . . .

• National Empowerment Television (NET)

Through a major financial grant (200K) we have signed on as an Associate Broadcaster of this 24-hour-a-day cable/satellite network with potential viewership of nearly 25 million people. We are meeting Friday with producers and staff to plan the miniseries on health care .... which will focus on debunking the myths of the Clinton plan and the use of excises to fund such a plan, and to investigate more market-driven alternatives. . . .

• National Journalism Center

This group was developed to train budding journalists in free market political and economic principles. As a direct result of our support we have been able to work with alumni of this program .... about 15 years worth of journalists at print and visual media throughout the country .... to get across our side of the story .... which has resulted in numerous pieces consistent with our point of view. We also co-sponsored in December a policy minibriefing on health care for a broad cross-section of the Center's Alumni Council, and are now working with the Journalism Center in the development a major health care reform policy conference (tentatively scheduled for late April/early May) that will debunk the myths of the Clinton plan . . .

• National Policy Forum . . .

As a member of the Board, I have worked closely with PRI in the development of policy pieces and op-eds, particularly for major Western markets, in opposition to the Clinton plan and in support of free market alternatives. As a Canadian, the president of PRI has first-hand experience of the evils of government-run health care . . .

• Philanthropy Roundtable . . .

• Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research . . .

• Tax Foundation

Heavily involved in analyses of the impacts of the Clinton plan on a state-by-state basis. PM is a major supporter of this group, and we have extremely close ties. . . .

• The Texas Republic

Working with the editor of this free market monthly, funded by PM, on an analytic piece debunking the Clinton plan . . .

• Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

A close ally of PM for many years, WLF has been involved in numerous aspects of the tobacco industry debate. They have filed amicus briefs against the EPA

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• DICKINSON: McCaughey and Philip Morris: Read For Yourself 

Betsy McCaughey has responded to my reporting in the latest issue of Rolling Stone that her infamous writings for the New Republic magazine, which helped torpedo the Clinton health care reform effort of the early 1990s, were shaped by the world's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris.

McCaughey calls the reporting "baseless" and "fictional." But here -- as in the health care debate -- McCaughey is the one distorting the facts. Rolling Stone never claimed that McCaughey "worked for a tobacco company." Further, McCaughey brags that her New Republic piece "No Exit" received a National Magazine Award in 1994. True enough, but McCaughey ignores the fact her willful misrepresentations of Hillarycare were exposed by James Fallows in the The Atlantic in 1995, and that the New Republic recanted her story in 2006.

Now for the truth in black and white: Here is a link to the March 1994 memo (click here for the .pdf) by a Philip Morris executive detailing the tobacco giant's strategy to derail the Clinton health care plan.

The coaching of McCaughey -- then a fellow at the Manhattan Institute -- is detailed on page 5:

A final note: McCaughey tries to attack the messenger, criticizing Rolling Stone for accepting tobacco advertising. Yet McCaughey's own political fortunes have been propelled by tobacco company funds. As this thank you letter on McCaughey '94 stationery reveals, her leap to become lieutenant governor of New York was made possible, in part, by a "generous" campaign contribution from the Tobacco Institute.

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• Betsy McCaughey Responds to the Baseless Charges From Rolling Stone Magazine 

The October 1, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine includes the outrageous and fictional accusation that I worked for a tobacco company in writing my critique of the dangers of the Clinton Plan. I did not. I was a scholar at the Manhattan Institute, and did no fundraising or conferring with corporations. Absolutely none. My article was based on text of the Health Security Act, period. Because of the accuracy and insights in the article, it was awarded a National Magazine Award for the best article in the nation on public policy and the H.L. Mencken Award.

It is shocking that fifteen years later, Rolling Stone still accepts tobacco advertising. See page 93 of the current issue. Shame on hypocritical Rolling Stone Magazine.

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