Fun_People Archive
17 Nov
CounterSpin - CBS Puffs Tobacco


Date: Fri, 17 Nov 95 13:14:24 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: CounterSpin - CBS Puffs Tobacco

From: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting <fair@igc.apc.org>

                           CounterSpin

[This is a partial script for CounterSpin, the nationally syndicated radio
program of FAIR. For more information on FAIR and CounterSpin see
http://www.fair.org/fair/ or send a blank e-mail message to:
fair-info@fair.org -- counterspin-info@fair.org gets you a listing of the
over 90 non-commercail stations that broadcast CounterSpin. If no station
in your area airs CounterSpin, please urge them to do so.]

Hosted by Janine Jackson
Broadcast from 11/17/95 to 11/24/95

This week on CounterSpin, we'll talk about the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa
and other Nigerian dissidents. All over the world Shell Oil is being blamed
for complicity in the executions -- but not here in the States. Our guest
will be Steve Kretzmann from Greenpeace.

Also, we'll have journalism professor and investigative reporter Karl
Grossman on his own media project, EnviroVideo. He'll talk about how
activists can make their own media.

Action Alert: CBS Puffs Tobacco
Network TV news shows have been interrupted by commercials for years. Now
they also get interrupted by apologies. The latest came on November 12th's
60 Minutes. Host Mike Wallace humbly announced that CBS management had
ordered 60 Minutes to kill an interview with a former tobacco company
executive who had exposed some of the industry's dirty deeds. The segment
aired without the hard-hitting expose, and Wallace came on afterward to
grumble a little about management's decision.

CBS claims that they feared the tobacco company (Brown & Williamson), would
sue CBS for encouraging the executive to violate his confidentiality
agreement -- although almost no one believes such a lawsuit could succeed.
Even a frivolous lawsuit, however, could complicate the impending takeover
of CBS by Westinghouse -- a takeover which promises to enrich CBS's top
management.

It's also worth noting that CBS's current parent, the Loews corporation, is
also the owner of Lorillard Tobacco.

If you'd like to comment on CBS's decision to kill the interview with an
insider critic of the tobacco industry, you can contact:

Eric Ober
President
CBS
534 West 57th Street
New York, N.Y.  10019

Tel: (212) 975-6581
Fax: (212) 975-7429


[=] © 1995 Peter Langston []