Health

Monday, January 17- Wendell Potter in Madison for Book Tour

by Nikolina Lazic — January 11, 2011 - 5:23pm

CMD's Wendell Potter will be at the Goodman Community Center in our hometown, Madison, WI, Monday to sign his new book Deadly Spin: An insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate PR is killing health care and deceiving Americans. Wendell was just recognized by the Nation Magazine as "the most valuable author of the year" on the Nation's Progressive Honor Roll.

Since Wendell Potter walked away from his executive position at a top health insurance company in May of 2008, he has worked tirelessly as an outspoken critic of corporate PR and the distortion and fear manufactured by America’s health insurance industry. Time magazine wrote that Potter "may be the ideal whistleblower."

Keith Olbermann recently interviewed Wendell about the industry's effort to discredit Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko" and Deadly Spin has been reviewed in countless journals, most recently in a moving article in the New York Times.

Join us Monday night!

7:00 PM CST

The Goodman Community Center
149 Waubesa Street
(off of Milwaukee Street on Madison’s East Side)
Madison, WI 53704

Potter Tells Single-Payer Group to Do "PR"

by Jack O'Dwyer — January 11, 2011 - 5:21pm

Topics: Activism, Health, Public Relations

Wendell Potter, author of "Deadly Spin," told a capacity crowd of 200 in New York last night that backers of a single-payer health plan must adopt the techniques and strategies of the opponents of such a plan.

Potter, speaking to Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) at the Murphy Institute for Education and Labor Studies, said the PNHP must seek allies, get "others" to tell their story, use appeals to basic emotions, and create memorable slogans.

"Special interests have kicked your butt with the skillful use of language," he said. They have been able to "demonize" single-payer, he added.

Politicians, he said, are not going to support such a health plan unless their constituents are in favor of it, he said. He faulted the single-payers for lacking a "long term strategic plan," something that he said the healthcare insurance industry excels at.

Rite Aid Healthwashes Cigarette Sales

by Anne Landman — January 10, 2011 - 6:04pm

Topics: Cause-Related Marketing, Health, Tobacco, Women

The Rite Aid drug store chain announced that it is once again teaming with the American Heart Association (AHA) to promote AHA's "Go Red for Women" campaign. Rite Aid collects donations of one dollar or more from customers in exchange for little red paper dresses that contain detachable coupons for merchandise. Rite Aid issued a press release touting the campaign and their free "heart health guide" that contains advice on how to prevent heart disease. Absent from the promotion and the press release, and kept quiet by AHA, is the fact that Rite Aid contributes mightily to causing heart disease in women by selling cigarettes.

Lorillard Buys "MentholKillsMinorities.com"

by Anne Landman — January 5, 2011 - 2:25pm

Lorillard, Inc., manufacturer of the country's best-selling menthol cigarette, Newport, is working behind the scenes to keep the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning menthol as a cigarette flavorant. Adopting a PR tactic other embattled companies like Bank of America and Altria have used, Lorillard is scooping up a host of menthol-bashing domain names to keep them out of the hands of critics, including MentholKills.com, KillerMenthol.com, MentholKillsMinorities.com and MentholAddictsYouth.com. Menthol acts as a mild local anesthetic in the throat, which critics say masks the harsh taste of cigarettes and makes them more appealing to younger users. Studies show that menthol cigarettes are disproportionately popular among African Americans, a group that also has a higher rate of smoking-related disease than the general population. An FDA advisory panel is scheduled to decide in March whether to
recommend ditching menthol in cigarettes across the board, including
Lorillard's flagship brand. Congress passed legislation in 2009 giving FDA more power to regulate tobacco, including artificial flavorants.

Main Source:

Wall Street Journal (Media and Marketing), January 5, 2011

Bloomington, Indiana- Talk about "Deadly Spin" and documentary film "Sicko"

Health

Event Date: Sunday, January 16, 2011 - 3:00pm - 6:00pm

Event Contact Name: Karen Green Stone

Event Contact Email: grostone@gmail.com

Taking place at:
Buskirk-Chumley Theater
114 East Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, IN

Sunday, January 16 @ 3pm- 6pm Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN Wendell Potter Speaks Out About "Deadly Spin" and documentary film "Sicko"

See map: Google Maps

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Taxpayers Subsidize Big Screen Movie Promos for Cigarettes, and More

by Anne Landman — December 21, 2010 - 12:50pm

Steven Antin's new movie, Burlesque (PG-13), features about twenty different brands of products, including gratuitous use of R.J. Reynolds' Camel cigarettes. Other films that have showcased cigarettes this year include the Disney film The Sorcerer's Apprentice (rated PG, which features Newport cigarettes), and For Colored Girls (rated R, by Lionsgate, which features Marlboros). States are now spending millions to subsidize the production of movies, meaning taxpayers are not only paying to help big companies advertise their products, but they are also helping pay to showcase smoking -- a harmful addiction that many states are simultaneously spending millions to reduce. California taxpayers shelled out $7.2 million to subsidize the movie Burlesque alone, which not only features gratuitous smoking, but also showcases a slew of other brands, including Famous Amos cookies (the character Jack holds a box over his genitals), Dos Equis beer, Michelob, Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, Oreos, KitchenAid, Ultimat Vodka, Coldwell Banker, Chase Bank, Patron Tequila and many more.

Main Source:

SmokeFree Movies, December, 21, 2010

Lorillard Loses

by Anne Landman — December 15, 2010 - 2:19pm

A Massachusetts jury has ordered cigarette maker Lorillard, Inc. to pay $71 million in damages to the family of a Boston woman who said she was seduced into smoking Newport cigarettes as a child. The plaintiff, Marie Evans, died from lung cancer at age 54, after smoking Newport cigarettes for 40 years. Before her death, she gave a videotaped deposition in which described how, starting at age nine, she received free samples of cigarettes from a man in a white truck who would drive through their neighborhood passing them out to children. Evans said the trucks "seemed to be there waiting when we got out of school." Evans' sister, Leslie Adamson, corroborated her testimony. Evans accepted some responsibility for never being able to quit her nicotine addiction, even after suffering a heart attack at age 37. Lorillard denied marketing cigarettes to children and targeting black communities with Newports.

Main Source:

Boston Globe, December 14, 2010

Insurers Spin Court Decision on Health Insurance Mandate

by Wendell Potter — December 14, 2010 - 1:35pm

Topics: Corporations, Health, Propaganda, U.S. Government

When I testified before Congress last year, I told lawmakers that if they passed a health care reform bill with an individual mandate but no public option, they might as well call their bill the "Health Insurance Profit Protection and Enhancement Act." Well, of course, that is exactly what Congress did, but they didn't change the name of the new law as I suggested. I was as upset as anyone that the public option was stripped out, but I nevertheless later said that Congress should still pass the bill because of the protections it contained against common predatory practices by insurers, like canceling breast cancer patients' insurance in the midst of treatment and refusing to sell coverage at any price to people with pre-existing conditions. The bill also expands Medicaid to encompass several million Americans who cannot afford to buy overpriced and often inadequate health insurance.

Hell Freezes Over: Philip Morris Settles a Wrongful Death Suit

by Anne Landman — December 14, 2010 - 12:52pm

Topics: Children, Health, Tobacco

Philip Morris (PM) broke from its longstanding policy of never settling a personal injury case recently after it quietly paid $5 million to settle a wrongful death suit brought against its subsidiary, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco (USST), maker of Copenhagen and Skoal brands of spit tobacco. PM's parent company, Altria Group, acquired USST in 2009.

Kelly June Hill sued USST on behalf of her son, Bobby Hill, who died of oral cancer in 2003 at age 42. Bobby got addicted to spit tobacco as a child, long before health warning labels were put on the product in 1987. In the course of the case, USST dumped a half million pages of documents on the plaintiffs lawyers, which, by Hill's attorneys' own account, made searching for helpful material quite interesting.