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Opinion
■
The Battalion
Page 7 • Thursday, July 24. 2
Lies behind the curtain
‘Truth’ anti-tobacco campaign misleads consumers about industry practices
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y now, almost everyone has
been unfortunate enough to
have witnessed a “truth”
anti-tobacco commercial. Among
I other things, the ads feature young
people ranting in front of “truth’s”
orange curtain about the ills of the
imaginary group “big tobacco” and tobacco casu
alties piled high in the streets in front of an
unspecified tobacco company’s headquarters,
w/d, $400/mo +i/4uti&M g utj t0 s i m piy dismiss the “truth” campaign as
childish and a waste of money would be letting it
off too easily.
In sharp contrast to the pre
sumptuous name the group has
given itself, “truth” misinforms.
It lies about and generalizes
tobacco company practices, dis
seminating misleading informa
tion to discredit a legitimate
industry. The real truth is out
there, but it is not behind the
orange curtain.
“Truth” wants people to
believe that the major tobacco
companies it lumps together
under the menacing title big
tobacco are oblivious to the health
issues surrounding tobacco use
and are adamantly opposed to
smoking prevention. The 50-plus TV, print and
Internet ads that “truth” puts out say as much. In
reality, “truth” itself receives millions of dollars
in funding from tobacco companies as a part of
1998’s Master Settlement Agreement, in which
tobacco companies were found partially liable for
smoking-related health issues.
So, tobacco companies in fact are funding
tobacco prevention and education efforts, if in no
other way than in the form of “truth.” And
though “truth” doesn’t deny its Master
Settlement Agreement funding, it refuses to cred
it tobacco companies for the millions they’ve
spent encouraging tobacco prevention. This is, at
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In sharp contrast
to the presumptuous
name the group
has given itself,
‘truth’ misinforms.
It lies about
and generalizes
tobacco company
practices... ”
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Little
the very least, misleading on
“truth’s” part.
Consider that of “truth’s” many
ridiculous commercials, only about
5 percent refer to tobacco industry
standards and practices since 1990.
The tobacco company policies
“truth” criticizes in its campaign are outdated and
not representative of today’s tobacco industry.
Most of “truth’s” ads criticize documents and
business practices from the 1980s, 70s, 60s
and even 50s. How can the current tobac- j ^
co industry be held accountable for
grievances from more
than 50 years ago?
Simply put, it cannot.
However, the gen
eralized and poorly
constructed indictment
of the tobacco industry I
doesn’t end there.
“Truth” takes issue with
the unsavory practices of
big tobacco, but it never
actually explains who big
tobacco is. “Truth’s” Web
site, www.thetruth.com,
even admits that “It’s not even so
much about smoking. It’s about
an industry....”
Well, if millions of dollars are being spent
defaming an industry, people should know who
the major players in the industry are and what
offenses each company has committed. “Truth”
gives no such information in its ads or on its
Web site. Instead, it takes obscure tobacco indus
try documents and outdated practices and manip
ulates the facts so that it seems as if all tobacco
companies operate this way. This is unacceptable
from a group that supposedly prides itself on
candor and honesty.
In reality, tobacco companies aren’t trying to
mislead anybody; they admit they’re trying to sell
cigarettes. They do not brainwash people into lik-
ing their products. Besides, smokers themselves
cannot be left out of the equation, as they choose
to smoke . A needless indictment of the tobacco
industry will not change this. Peoples’ decisions
are their own to make.
The big tobacco companies that “truth” so
openly demonizes have long been taking steps to
educate the public about the risks of smoking. In
just one example, Altria — formerly Philip
Morris — has spent 2003 distancing itself from
past industry practices by encouraging people to
quit smoking in its advertisements and offering
valuable smoking prevention links on its Web
site. In reality, there is only one group that open
ly lies about the tobacco industry: “truth.”
George Deutsch is a senior
journalism major.
Graphic by Grade Arenas
Partisan agenda pushing special session
Gov. Perry using dirty politics, breaking precedent to focus on redistricting
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G ov. Rick Perry, an Aggie, has apparently
forgotten about the Aggie Code of Honor
that he pledged many years ago while a
student at Texas A&M. He might still be sound in
his pledge to not lie or steal, although this is dubi
ous in the world of politics, but Perry may have
forgotten about his oath to not cheat. He has
decided that precedent does not matter, budget deficits are triv
ial and the purpose of elected representatives can be changed to
fit his agenda. In the last legislative session, Perry backed a
Tom Delay sponsored redistricting plan to bring a new
Republican majority to Rep. Delay’s House of Representatives.
Redistricting is done every 10 years with the census, but this
time around. Perry is showing he is willing to break precedent
and resort to any trick — in this case a special session — to
push his purely political agenda.
The tactic that Delay and his puppet Perry are employing to
push this redistricting bill through the Texas Legislature has set
an ugly precedent in Texas politics. Tim Storey, a redistricting
analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said,
“People who study this area can’t find any case in the last 100
years of mid-decade redistricting without a court order,”
according to the Washington Post.
In a dirty power grab, much like a kid in a candy store, Perry
sees this first Republican domination in Texas government in
JUSTIN HILL
recent memory as an open door to use whatever
means possible to change the Texas political sys
tem to fit his personal political agenda.
Do Texans want the governor to call a special
session at a cost of more than $1 million every
time Texas switches parties? Former Texas Govs.
Preston Smith and Dolph Briscoe weighed in on
Perry’s use of redistricting for purely partisan purposes in The
Houston Chronicle. Both expressed grave concerns regarding
Perry’s redistricting plan and pointed out that the time to
redistrict was in 2000-2001. Gov. Ann Richards was the last
to call a special session, but the topic was education, a topic
that is beneficial to all and not purely partisan politics.
Texas is in dire need of leadership and direction, and elected
officials have decided that political positioning is more impor
tant than underfunded colleges and universities, soaring home-
owners’ and health insurance, the poor performance of public
education and the rights of disabled Texans. The money allo
cated to redistricting purposes could be used to provide more
children in Texas with health insurance or save the jobs of the
40 people that A&M President Robert M. Gates has said will
have to be let go. The uninsured children and the employees of
Texas who are losing their jobs afe probably not feeling the
benefits of Perry’s underhanded fiscal irresponsibility.
While Texas faces massive budget shortfalls and A&M is
MAIL CALL
forced to lay off employees and cut departments, Perry has
found it beneficial to spend $1.7 million on this first special
session, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Perry is
using $1.7 million in taxpayer money to invalidate a court
ordered redistricting plan, break precedent and push a political
agenda that is considered confusing by most Texans — none of
which has any effect on alleviating Texan’s woes.
This special session may not signal the end of Perry’s dirty
politics. In The Houston Chronicle, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
said Perry had said he would call another special session if the
redistricting plan did not go through this session. What could
A&M or the public school system do with the $3.4 million that
Perry might use fleecing Texans?
A&M had to take a cut of roughly $3 million in funding due
to the budget crunch, and if Perry decides to call another spe
cial session, he is telling Aggies where his allegiance lies — in
the pockets of Washington, D.C., power brokers. The
Republican stranglehold and Perry’s political career could be a
fleeting whim in Texas history if this is the type of leadership
Texans can expect to receive.
Justin Hill is a junior
management major.
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more information.
Graduate pay increases
should be based on merit
In response to a July 21 mail call:
Regarding the physics graduate stu
dents' mail call, "Insurance Problems
Hit Graduate Students Hard," I wish to
address a few points.
Graduate students with a non-work
ing spouse and children may be affect
ed the most by the new insurance pre
mium increase. However, typifying this
scenario in the general sense is mis
leading. Statistics from the A&M human
resources department estimate that 8
percent or less of the graduate student
body who receive insurance fall into
this category.
Monthly graduate stipends across the
entire University average roughly
Si,000 after taxes. Interestingly, the
monthly stipend level for a physics
graduate student is approximately
Si,750 with tuition and fees often fully
remised the first year. Stipend levels as
well as tuition reimbursement within
the University are extremely variable
and are determined at the departmen
tal level, not by upper-level University
administration.
The statement, "international stu
dents...are not allowed to seek any
supplemental employment," is not
accurate. Any graduate student may
request that his work hours be
increased to 30-hours per week during
the summer through an approval
process within the Office of Graduate
Studies.
Suggestions that tuition remission is
provided to parents and/or married
students for only those simple facts are
not congruent with fair labor practices.
Pay increases should be based on
merit, not simply the number of
dependents. I say that comfortably as
a married student myself.
It is true that the quality of life for grad
uate students at Texas A&M is in ques
tion. Last Thursday, I charged the
Graduate Student Council's Executive
Committee to create a comprehensive
quality of life assessment for all graduate
students at A&M. The report will com
pare A&M graduate programs with their
counterparts in similar universities across
Texas and with the top public institutions
listed in Vision 2020. Factors such as
stipend amount, tuition levels, and insur
ance costs will be adjusted for costs of
living and compared.
I expect this report to be completed
sometime in the fall semester. Until we
possess quantitative evidence to sup
port the general statements often made,
we are only blindly guessing at solu
tions. Information is our greatest asset.
Joshua M. Peschel
Class of 1998
President, Graduate Student Council
Aggies must make views
known to administration
If the journalism department at Texas
A&M is eliminated, as recommended
by Liberal Arts Dean Charles Johnson, it
would be a great loss to the University,
its students, and the country at large.
A&M is a rare bastion of relative con
servatism in the world of academia and,
as such, no doubt contributes greatly to
a balanced world view as reported by
the media, a world view that it bears
mentioning is in need of balancing.
As a former student of this great
Texas University, I find it disgraceful that
my alma mater would discontinue a
valuable program in the name of "fiscal
necessity." I do not accept that the
A&M system is so hard-pressed as to
require this draconian measure.
Should I be mistaken about the
degree of the school's financial distress,
I would submit that there are undoubt
edly better methods of budget trimming
than eliminating educational programs.
I urge all Aggies of good conscience
to make their views known to the
administration of our school on this
matter. Recent years have seen far too
many changes in long-standing tradi
tions at A&M and in this case, as in oth
ers, the administration is in error if it
thinks it is taking the optimal course of
action.
Marc Moore
Class of 1988
PGccan 0 t-it-oi '