Wording dispute over tobacco companies’ mea culpa

The US’ biggest tobacco companies have asked a federal appeals court to set aside a series of court-ordered ‘advertisements’ saying they lied about the dangers of smoking, according to an Associated Press story.

The companies told a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington that they are ready and willing to pass along factual public health information about cigarettes, but said they would not go along with being forced to underwrite an ‘advertising’ campaign that would have the companies brand themselves as liars.

The statements imply “that we’re still engaged in aspects of wrongdoing … (and) that we do things that we don’t do,” Miguel Estrada, an attorney representing the tobacco companies, told the panel.

The requirement that the companies issue a mea culpa stems from a civil case the government brought in 1999 under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

In 2006, US District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the largest cigarette manufacturers to publicly admit that they had lied for decades about the dangers of smoking.

The companies in the case include the Altria Group, owner of Philip Morris USA; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, which is owned by Reynolds American, and Lorillard.

The ‘advertisements’ would be in all cigarette packs sold for 12 weeks over the course of two years, in TV spots once per week for a year, in a separate newspaper ‘advertisement’ by each company, on company websites indefinitely and at certain retail outlets.

The full story is at: http://www.dailynews724.com/new-mexico/tobacco-companies-fighting-over-claims-on-smoking8217s-effects-h407804.html.