Corporations

The Untold Story of How & Why Philip Morris is Pushing for FDA Regulation

Congrats Philip MorrisIt may seem incongruous to the average person why Philip Morris (PM) would back legislation to restrict its business, yet that is what PM seems to be is doing by supporting S. 625, the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," the bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products. After all, PM has a corporate mandate to increase profits for its shareholders, so PM would not support this legislation if it wasn't going to benefit its bottom line, and it is practically an axiom in public health that whatever benefits PM's bottom line is going to be bad for public health. That's what makes this bill especially troubling to people who study tobacco industry documents; it is clear that PM had a hand in crafting it. That alone sounds like a lot, but PM's efforts to enact it are clearly delivering the company a hefty side-benefit of causing dissent within the tobacco control community over its passage.

Jamming Pearl Jam

"Over the weekend," comments SaveTheInternet.com, "AT&T gave us a glimpse of their plans for the Web when they censored a Pearl Jam performance that didn’t meet their standard of 'Internet freedom.' During the live Lollapalooza Webcast of a concert by the Seattle-based super-group, the telco giant muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a ly

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Monsanto: Time to Cry Over Spilled rBGH Milk?

Monsanto is discovering a troubling new side effect from use of Posilac, its controversial recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) injected into cows to increase milk production: use of rBGH is shriveling up the market for milk from Posilac-treated cows. In response to growing consumer demand for hormone-free dairy products, retailers are increasingly rejecting milk products derived from rBGH-injected cows.

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Bob Burton Takes Readers "Inside Spin"

Cover of Inside Spin: The dark underbelly of the PR industryThe PR industry in Australia "employs more than 10,000 people and turns over more than $1 billion a year," writes the Center for Media and Democracy's Bob Burton, drawing on research published in his new book, "Inside Spin." While some PR campaigns are ben

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Beverage Industry Tries to Bottle the Opposition

Glass of waterWith increasing criticism that "bottled water has misleading labels and is of inferior quality to municipal water systems," and the governments of San Francisco and Salt Lake City prohibiting city agencies from buying bottled water, the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and the American Beverage Association (ABA) have ramped up their PR.

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An Ugly Fight over Cosmetics Safety

"The increasing number of attacks by lobby groups on the US cosmetics and personal care industry means that it is time to fight back," according to CosmeticsDesign.com. The main industry group, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA), will "use the internet ...

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Bush's Concern for the Poor Shines Through on Cigarette Tax

Poverty Brand CigsThe Senate Committee on Finance by a vote of 17-4 last Friday approved a hike in the federal cigarette tax to expand health insurance coverage for children from low-income families, but President Bush has vowed to veto the measure.

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A Black Day for Yellow Journalism

Former media mogul Conrad Black has been convicted by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice and could face up to 35 years in prison for looting his former company, Hollinger International, of tens of millions of dollars.

Before his downfall, Black was a smaller-scale version of Fox-TV owner Rupert Murdoch, building a media empire that he used to inject his right-wing views into U.S., Canadian, British and Australian politics. He pumped money into the pockets of the neoconservative pundits who helped sell the war in Iraq and gave them prominent voice in his own newspapers.

Green as in Money

The UK Telegraph notes that "it is not just politicians and rock stars who are trying to persuade people to reduce their carbon footprint. Banks, lenders and fund managers are dreaming up ethical options for environmentally aware customers. ... The question is whether these products really make a difference, or whether it is simply a case of providers jumping on the green bandwagon. ...

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