USA

WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.

OPINION ONLY

Tobacco lobbyist James Savarese specialised in recruiting academics with substantial teaching positions at various state universities to create cash-for-comment networks of academic lobbyists for the Tobacco Institute. These academics could be relied upon to write op-eds to their local newspapers, letters to their local Congressmen, and provide personal witness services at ordinance hearings, State Assemblys, and sometimes at Congressional hearings in support of various tobacco industry positions.

They were paid on a project basis, for work done — so they needed to send clippings of their articles, copies of their letters, etc. to Savarese (who would forward them to the Tobacco Institute) as proof of service. The Tobacco Institute also required articles to be 'corrected' and 'cleared' by its own staff before they were sent to the local newspapers — and the Tobacco Institute specified which newspaper were to be approached to avoid duplication.

The academics were then paid roughly $1000 per time (more for personal appearances as witnesses), through various channels designed to hide the financial source (and probably, also to avoid tax on the income).

The first network was for academic economists and over the years it had well over 100 professors of economics working in most of the US states. This was run in collaboration with Robert Tollison, and the Center for the Study of Personal Choice, at George Mason University.

The second network recruited academic lawyers at the various law and business schools, but it never succeeded like the economists network. [Note that one of the lawyers actually wanted to vet the material before he passed comment upon it.]

See
• Cash-for-comments lawyers network

• Cash-for-comment economists network

Some key documents

• Associate Professor of Business Law at University of Iowa.

1986 Aug 12: The cash-for-comments academic lawyer network was run by Savarese. It included three economists

enclosed is the academic lawyer list. There are 19 people on the list, 16 are lawyers and 3 are economists.

    We are still having problems with New Jersey but have calls in to several people. I'll let you know as soon as we get someone there.

    As you can see, the majority of these people are new with the exception of Ekelund, Parkman, and Mitchell. They all understand the issue and will be on call should we need them.

• ALABAMA, Professor Robert Ekelund, Dept of Economics, Auburn University [Also economists network]
• CALIFORNIA
  • Los Angeles/Southern California — Professor Donald P Lyden (Woodland Hills, CA) Don is a business law professor at California State University at Northridge
  • San Diego — Lloyd R Cohen, JD. PhD — California Western School of Law, San Diego.
• COLORADO, Professor John C Ruhnka, University of Colorado, Graduate School of Business Administration, Denver
• FLORIDA, Professor Marvin Newman — Rollins College in Winter Park, Clearwater,FL
• ILLINOIS, Professor Randy E Barnett, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago
• IOWA, Professor Paul Lansing — Department of Industrial Relations, Phillips Hall, University of Iowa
• KANSAS, Professor Douglas Whitman — University of Kansas School of Business, Lawrence KS
• MARYLAND, Professor John A. Gray — Loyola College, School of Business and Management, Baltimore,
  On vacation until 8/18/86
• MICHIGAN, Professor Steven B Dow— Michigan State University,Dept of Business Law, East Lansing/Detroit
• MINNESOTA, Dr David A Reese, Gustavus Adoiphus College, St Peter, MN
• NEW JERSEY/Camden/Rutgers, Professor William Clarritt — Rutgers University, Department of Business and Accounting, Newark, NJ
• NEW MEXICO, Professor Allen Parkman — School of Management, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, [Also economists network]
• NEW YORK
  • New York City, Anthony Wiener, Professor of Management, Polytechnic University of New York, Brooklyn
    Tony will be out of the country during August. He was very enthusiastic about the free speech arguments. Harvard J.D., with strong economic emphasis in his teaching and research.
  • Rochester, Professor George M Sullivan — Rochester Institute of Technology, College of Business, Rochester, NY
    George would like to see a legal brief on the subject he is arguing.
• OHIO/Cincinnati, Prof Richard Nathan, Ohio State University, Columbus ohio
• OREGON, Professor William Mitchell — Department of Political Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, [Also economists network]
  Bill will be in Washington in late August for the American Political Science Association meetings. He would like to go to lunch with us on August 28.
• PENNSYLVANIA, Professor John Bagby, State College, PA
  John is a business law professor at Penn State, which is about halfway between Pittsburg and Philadelphia.
• UTAH/Salt Lake City, Professor JR Kearl — Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
  Jim is Mormon, so he has a problem with most Tobacco Institute issues; however, he says he would probably be comfortable with a 1st Amendment op-ed on the advertising ban.
• TEXAS, D Bruce Johnsen— Department of Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

1987 Jan 6: Savarese writes to Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute.

Attached are the three op-ed articles and the current lawyers list. As you know, the Institute has paid for the lawyer list. These three op-eds were sent to Anne and you before the holidays. The attached invoice is for production of the three pieces.

    Production of three advertising opinion editorials..... $3,000

1986 Aug 12: James Savarese writes to Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute who has complained that the tobacco industry needs more academic lawyers willing to provide comment in the media in support of the industry. [They are beginning a new project, and so Savarese deals with the top man rather than the middle-manager level (Peter Sparber and Susan Stunts).]

    This must be an extension of some previous project — perhaps the beginning of the Tobacco Ad-ban project — and, as with the academic economists, they want at least one paid-behind-the-scenes legal academic on-tap in each state.

    The idea is to have these academics promote the tobacco industry's causes by writing op-ed articles for their local newspapers, and acting as 'independent' witnesses at State legislature hearings or local government ordinarnce hearings, etc. Their academic [rather than crass-commercial] status is the important factor. Savarese writes:

There are 19 people on the list, 16 are lawyers and 3 are economists. The three economists are Bob Ekelund in Alabama, Bill Mitchell in Oregon, and JR Kearl in Utah.
• Professor Ekelund is an expert on the economics of advertising and knows the law.
• Professor Mitchell is a political scientist tuned into the constitution and an expert on first amendment arguments.
• Professor Kearl is probably the only person in Utah who will make these arguments.
We have used both Ekelund and Mitchell on other projects with the Tobacco Institute.

    We are still having problems with New Jersey but have calls in to several people. I'll let you know as soon as we get someone there. As you can see, the majority of these people are new with the exception of Ekelund, Parkman, and Mitchell. They all understand the issue and will be on call should we need them.

IOWA
Professor Paul Lansing
Department of Industrial Relations, Phillips Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 522420: 319-353-5573, Sec: [353-5090]
[Comments:] no comment

1987 Feb 26: Savarese to Panzer on Tobacco Ad-Ban Op-ed Project

I have attached three more editorials. They are from:

• Donald P. Lyden, Southern California
• William C. Mitchell, Oregon
• Paul Lansing, Iowa This brings the total as of today to five editorials.

I will wait to hear from you before I send these back to the authors for newspaper submission.

1987 April 11: Lansing has a Tobacco Institute-inspired article "Tobacco-advertising issues light up" in the Des Moines Register. [See page 12]

1988 Dec 8: Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute returns corrected and processed op-ed articles opposing advertising restrictions to Jim Savarese.

Enclosed are Op-Ed pieces by [Allan] Parkman, [Henry] Butler, [Douglas] Whitman and [Lloyd] Cohen. They have been cleared by legal counsel with
    corrections.

    Our lawyer said the pieces by [Paul] Lansing and [Ronald] Groeber are unsalvagable. I'll have more on this tomorrow when he returns for out of town. Meantime go ahead with the four good ones.

1989 Aug 1: Jim Savarese's July Status Report to the Tobacco Institute. His operation is working on

• Women's Coalition Building (National Women's Political Caucus)
• Veterans - smoking policy for VA hospitals
• Smoker Discrimination Issues — with O&M and Mike Forscey for Massachusetts
• Labor Management Committee — AFL-CIO Convention
• Federal Excise Taxes
  — Citizens for Tax Justice, Deficit Reduction Conference, Advertising Campaign, Economic Policy Institute
• Public Smoking
  — Airline Cabin Air Quality, Safe Workplace Air Coalition, Boston Building Audit, National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), Texas AFL-CIO Convention
• Ad Bans — op-ed projects done by cash-for-comment economists and lawyers in the two networks, etc. Ten op-eds had been published:

  Des Moines Register,
  Paul Lansing, University of Iowa

1989 Oct 17: Jim Savarese, a favoured consultant to the Tobacco Institute, writes to Fred Panzer about their new Ad-ban project.

I have attached a list of some of the lawyers who participated in the Ad Ban campaign in February 1987. These are the ones I would recommend to use again, but remember we haven't contacted these people since 1987 so I don't know if they are still available or still at the same schools. We should also try to find a couple for the Northeast Area.

1988 Dec 22: This is the draft of the article by Lansing which later appeared in the Des Moines Register. There was remarkably little sub-editing required by the Tobacco Institute before it was submitted. It must have been largely rewritten by the tobacco industry lawyers.

1989 Jan 19: [Dated 26th Jan] Fred Panzer to Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Insititute. He is writing on the "op-ed project" and explains that this article has been published and that "Professor Lansing will follow up by enclosing a copy in a brief letter to his Congressman and Senators." Panzer also said that he would circulate this to members of the Freedom to Advertise Coalition.

    Lansing's op-ed was printed in the Des Moines Register.

This issue has been in public debate since December 1985, when the American Medical Association's House of Delegates approved a resolution calling for a legislative ban on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products. Legislation was proposed in both the 99th and 100th Congress for just such a ban.

    Another legislative proposal was made to disallow tax deductions for tobacco product advertising.

    While neither of these proposals has become law, they do raise serious issues about the government's right to regulate truthful advertising for lawful products.

    Does the government go too far when it proposes to ban all cigarette advertising?

    The arguments against the advertising ban are impressive.The proposed prohibition would be a clear violation of the First Amendment's constitutional protection of freedom of speech by the cigarette companies.... etc.

CONTRIBUTORS:TRMU ajw2 samf