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 and Professor Robert Tollison of George Mason University collaborated in the 1980s to provide the tobacco industry, through the Tobacco Institute, with a number of networks of academics who would be willing to write propaganda material ... always provided their names were not linked to the industry or to any of the cigarette companies.

The idea was simply that the academic 'sleepers' would be available on a cash-for-services basis when needed to counter attempts to increase excise taxes, or to ban public smoking, or just to appear as independent experts at Congressional hearings and promote the industry causes.

They always appeared as 'independent academics' from some credible university, and never admitted the source of their funding in their op-eds or letters-to-the-editor.

If ever put under cross-examination, they must be able to claim with weasel-word precision, that they had never received a penny from the tobacco industry. Therefore all payments were laundered, either through tobacco industry lawyers (usually Covington & Burling), the principle organisers, James Savarese & Associates, or through Bob Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University.

The aim was to have, in each State, at least one academic economist, one academic lawyer, and one academic from a business management, business law, marketing or advertising discipline willing to jump into action and write op-ed articles for their local newspaper, or to appear at local ordinance or legislative hearings. Copies were always sent to a local Congressman, who sat on some important (to the tobacco industry) committee.

The academics were always expected to wave their own and their university's credentials vigorously, and loudly proclaim their "independence' from any crass-commercial motives. And those who could boast of being 'non-smokers' were especially prized — since without this addiction, their non-dependent-on-tobacco status was thought to be proved beyond any doubt!

Some key documents

• An international lawyer with a law firm at Orlando, Florida, who also lectured on Law and Ethics at the Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

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 [Panzer] rather than the middle-manager level [Peter Sparber and Susan Stunts].. This must be an extension of some previous project — or perhaps the beginning of the Tobacco Ad-ban project. As with the academic economists, they want at least one paid-behind-the-scenes lawyer on-call in each state. He is selected for Florida.

    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.

    This project appears to be an extension of the economists networks and uses some of the same cash-for-comments academic economists (even though they are not lawyers). See this letter sent to economists, to explain how the system worked:


    Savarese writes:

I have enclosed the annual report from the Public Choice Center at George Mason University.

[This was Tollison's money-laundry service]

Also enclosed is the academic lawyer list. 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.

FL0RIDA/C1earwater
Professor Marvin Newman
Rollins College in Winter Park, FL
1317 Anchor Ct., Orlando, FL 32804
Law Office : 305-843-8100

1986 Aug 14: Savarese has now identified a lawyer in New Jersey willing to act as a tobacco stooge [ Professor William Clarritt, at Rutgers University, Department of Business and Accounting] So he sends the now-complete list to Fred Panzer, who copies it to Anne Duffin [Public Relations Director] who is putting together the project to fight Henry Waxman's Subcommittee Inquiry in Congress. Fred Panzer notes:

"Anne, Here's the full list of experts — tailored to your issue —
• Lawyer/economists or
• Lawyer/business management
one for each State representative on Waxman committee. Let's discuss further. Fred.

Fee for developing list of academic lawyers in states with Congressmen on Waxman's subcommittee. Complete invoice, 18 states, 20 academicians
$11,400.00

1987 Jan 6: James Savarese sends his list of legal academics along to Fred Panzer at the Tobacco Institute.

This is essentially the 1986 list with the same comments and notes about lunch, etc. However there are also some deletions. Two professors have pulled out. Namely:
  • Richard Nathan of Ohio State Uni
  • John Bagby of Pennsylvania State Uni]

1988 Oct 17: Jim Savarese 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.

1989 /E: Marvin Newman does not appear to have helped the tobacco industry further — either that, or the lawyers' files at the Tobacco Institute were culled with special care. There is no further record of him in the tobacco archives.

    A Google search also fails to turn up any further pro-tobacco activities, op-ed articles, etc.

1993 Oct 25: Orlando Sentinal report: Oh, The Humanity

At Rollins College in Winter Park, liberal arts majors and graduate business students mix like oil and water. But two liberal arts professors have come to a conclusion that might not compute for some of the spreadsheet jocks in the Crummer Graduate School of Business: Management is a liberal art that draws from the great works of literature.

    English Professor Maurice O'Sullivan and ethics Professor Marvin Newman next month plan to launch what they call a ''novel'' approach to leadership — a month-long course that draws lessons from classic literature and applies them to modern management techniques.

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