-----------------------------------------------------------------
04/FEB/96 CBS 60 MINUTES Part I
Participants:
* Mike Wallace, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent
* Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand, Former B&W executive
* Gordon Smith, Brown and Williamson attorney
* Mike Moore, Attorney General of Mississippi
* Thomas Sandefur, former President/CEO B&W
* Merrell Williams, former paralegal for B&W law
firm [shown only on camera]
* Dr. Stanton Glantz, Professor of Medicine,
University of California Medical Center, San
Francisco
* Kendrick Wells, assistant general counsel,
formerly staff attorney, B&W [shown only on
camera]
* Lucretia Wigand, wife of Dr. Jeffrey Wigand
* Two daughters of Dr. & Mrs. Wigand [only seen at
distance on camera]
[Introduction]
Wallace: [voiceover showing footage of Dr. Wigand in "60
Minutes" frame]
Which is true?
[voiceover showing footage of Gordon Smith in "60
Minutes" frame]
What the tobacco men at Brown & Williamson say about
their former research director, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand ...
Smith: His life has been a pattern of lies.
Wallace: [voiceover showing footage of Mike Moore in "60
Minutes" frame]:
or what the Attorney-General of Mississippi says about
him?
Moore: The information that Jeffrey has, I think is the most
important information that has ever come out against
the tobacco industry.
Wallace: [voiceover showing footage of Dr. Wigand in "60
Minutes" frame]
Tonight, Jeffrey Wigand, the scientist whose
insistence on defying his former employer has led him
to tell what he believes to be the truth about
cigarettes.
What is it that he believes to be the truth about
cigarettes? And what is it that Brown & Williamson
believes to be the truth about him?
[Beginning of segment]
Wallace: [in studio]
A story we set out to report six months ago has now
turned into two stories: how cigarettes can destroy
peoples' lives and how one cigarette company is trying
to destroy the reputation of a man who refused to keep
quiet about what he says he learned when he worked for
them. The company is Brown & Williamson, America's
third largest tobacco company.
[speaking in front of backdrop showing picture of Dr.
Wigand surrounded by cigarette packs and title of
segment: Jeffrey Wigand Ph.D. Produced by Lowell
Bergman]:
The man they set out to destroy is Dr. Jeffrey Wigand,
their former three-hundred-thousand-dollar-a-year
director of research. They employed prestigious law
firms to sue him, a high-powered investigation firm to
probe every nook and cranny of his life. And they
hired a big-time public relations consultant to help
them plant damaging stories about him in the
Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and others.
But the Journal reported the story for what they
thought it was: "scant evidence" was just one of their
comments.
CBS management wouldn't let us broadcast our original
story and our interview with Jeffrey Wigand because
they were worried about the possibility of a
multi-billion dollar lawsuit against us for tortious
interference, that is, interfering with Wigand's
confidentiality agreement with Brown & Williamson.
But now, things have changed. Last week, the Wall
Street Journal got hold of and published a
confidential deposition Wigand gave in a Mississippi
case, a November deposition that repeated many of the
charges he made to us last August.
And while a lawsuit is still a possibility, not
putting Jeffrey Wigand's story on "60 Minutes" no
longer is.
Scene: Dr. Wigand; video of Brown & Williamson Tower
building, Louisville, KY; cigarettes and loose tobacco
on conveyer belt; Dr. Wigand; Brown & Williamson Tower
building, Louisville, KY; cigarettes in cigarette
machine and loose tobacco on conveyer belt; footage of
tobacco company executives swearing oath to tell truth
before House Subcommittee on Health & Environment,
April 1994
Wallace: What Dr. Wigand told us in that original interview was
that his former colleagues, executives of Brown &
Williamson Tobacco, knew all along that their tobacco
products, their cigarettes and pipe tobacco, contained
additives that increased the danger of disease. And
further, that they had long known that the nicotine in
tobacco is an addictive drug, despite their public
statements to the contrary, like the testimony before
Congress of Dr. Wigand's former boss, B&W's Chief
Executive Officer Thomas Sandefur.
Sandefur: [testifying before House Subcommittee on Health &
Environment, April 1994]
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
I believe he perjured himself because I watched those
testimonies very carefully.
Wallace: All of us did. There was the whole line of people,
the whole line of CEOs up there all swearing that ...
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
Part of the reason I'm here is I felt that their
representation clearly, at least within Brown &
Williamson's representation, clearly misstated what
they commonly knew as language within the company.
That we're a nicotine delivery business.
Wallace: And that's what cigarettes are for?
Wigand: Most certainly. It's a delivery device for nicotine.
Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine? Put it in your mouth,
light it up, and you're gonna get your fix?
Wigand: You'll get your fix.
Wallace: [in CBS office]
Dr. Wigand says that Brown & Williamson manipulates
and adjusts that nicotine fix, not by artificially
adding nicotine, but by enhancing the effect of the
nicotine through reuse of chemical additives like
ammonia, whose process is known in the tobacco
industry as "impact boosting."
Wigand: While not spiking nicotine. They clearly manipulate
it.
Wallace:
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| |
| B&W |
| BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORPORATION: |
| ROOT TECHNOLOGY: A HANDBOOK |
| FOR LEAF BLENDERS |
| AND PRODUCT DEVELOPERS |
| |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The process is described in Brown & Williamson's leaf
blender's manual and in other B&W documents.
Wigand: There's extensive use of this technology which is
called ammonia chemistry that allows for nicotine to
be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore
affect the brain and central nervous system.
Scene: file drawer full of numbered folders; computer screen
showing Brown & Williamson documents on World Wide
Web; Merrell Williams walking down street; Dr. Stanton
Glantz in his office; JAMA July 19, 1995 issue on Dr.
Glantz's desk
Wallace: And then there are these documents, thousands of pages
of confidential scientific reports and legal memoranda
from B&W's secret files, which experts say support Dr.
Wigand's claim that Brown & Williamson's executives
had had strong reason to believe all along that
nicotine is addictive and that their tobacco products
cause cancer and other diseases.
Most of these documents had been locked away in B&W's
lawyers' confidential files in Louisville, Kentucky
until this man, the paralegal in that law office,
Merrell Williams, walked off with them.
The documents found their way to Dr. Stanton Glantz, a
professor of medicine at the University of California
Medical Center in San Francisco. It was Dr. Glantz
and a team of scientists from the university who wrote
about the documents this past summer in a series of
articles in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Wallace: [to Glantz in Dr. Glantz's office]
What is the story that the documents told you?
Glantz: They told me that thirty years ago, Brown & Williamson
and British American Tobacco, its parent, knew
nicotine was an addictive drug and they knew smoking
caused cancer and other diseases.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Dr. Glantz looking through
some documents]
And Dr. Glantz says these documents reveal how Brown &
Williamson was keeping that knowledge from the public.
Glantz: And they also developed very sophisticated legal
strategies to keep this information away from the
public, to keep this information away from public
health authorities.
Wallace: Dr. Wigand said that a cigarette is basically a
nicotine delivery instrument. That's what it's really
all about.
Glantz: Yes, absolutely. And in the documents they say that
over and over and over again.
Wallace: [voiceover footage of smokers smoking cigarettes]
And finding a way to deliver that nicotine to the
smoker's brain without exposing smokers to
disease-causing pollutants like tar that come with
tobacco smoke is one reason, says Dr. Wigand, that he
was hired by B&W on January 1st, 1989.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
They were looking to reduce the hazards within
cigarettes, reduce the carcinogenic components or the
list of the carcinogens that were within the tobacco
products.
Wallace: They talked about carcinogens too?
Wigand: They talked about carcinogens.
Wallace: They talked about cancer and heart disease and
emphysema and all of those things and they were going
to work toward making a safer cigarette?
You must have been very excited.
Wigand: I was enthusiastic and energetic in terms of pursuing
that.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Dr. Wigand perusing books on
shelves at home]
Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, with a doctorate in biochemistry,
had spent nearly twenty years of working in the
health-care and biotechnology industries. He says his
goal at B&W was to make a cigarette that would be less
likely to cause disease.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
People will continue to smoke no matter what, no
matter what kind of regulations. If you can provide
for those who are smoking, who need to smoke,
something that produces less risk for them. I thought
I was going to be making a difference.
Wallace: [voiceover]
Brown & Williamson made Jeff Wigand Vice-President for
R&D, paying him more than three hundred thousand
dollars a year in salary and perks.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
And I was very inquisitive when I came on. Have you
ever done any nicotine studies? Have you done any
pharmacology studies? Have you done any biological
studies? Have you looked at the effect of nicotine on
the central nervous system? And always, generally
categorically "No, we don't do that kind of work."
Wallace: [voiceover showing Brown & Williamson Tower,
Louisville, KY]
But according to thousands of pages, from B&W and its
parent British American Tobacco's confidential files,
the company had, in fact, done exactly those kinds of
studies.
[voiceover showing Dr. Wigand at computer]
Dr. Wigand says he did not suspect there was anything
wrong until he attended a meeting of scientists who
worked for British American Tobacco companies from
around the world. Dr. Wigand says that his colleagues
talked about working together to develop a safer, a
less hazardous cigarette, a cigarette less likely to
cause disease. But when it came time to write up
their ideas, to create a documentary record of their
discussion, B&W's lawyers intervened.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
The minutes that came in, they were roughly about
eighteen pages long. I knew what was in the content.
They were rewritten by Kendrick Wells. They were ...
Wallace: Who is he?
Wigand: Kendrick Wells was one of the staff attorneys at B&W.
Wallace: And he rewrote the minutes of the meeting?
Wigand: He rewrote the minutes of the meeting. He edited out
the discussions on uh safer cigarette and basically
toned the meeting down ...
Wallace: You're saying that one of the staff attorneys for B&W
here in the United States whose name was ...
Wigand: Kendrick Wells.
Wallace: An attorney, rewrote the minutes of this research
meeting with all of the research heads of BAT
Industries?
Wigand: That's correct.
Wallace: in order to sanitize it, in effect?
Wigand: Sanitize it as well as reduce any type of exposure
associated with discussing a safer cigarette. When
you say you're going to have a safer cigarette, that
now takes everything else that you have available and
say it is unsafe. And that, from a product liability
point of view, gave the lawyers great concern.
Wallace: [voiceover footage showing Kendrick Wells walking down
street]
Kendrick Wells, the lawyer Dr. Wigand says deleted
materials from the minutes of the scientific meeting
is now the assistant general counsel of B&W.
Why would B&W lawyers like Kendrick Wells be so
concerned?
According to B&W's own confidential files, any
evidence, any documents that show any B&W tobacco
products like Kools or Viceroys might be unsafe, those
documents would have to be produced in court as part
of any lawsuit filed by a smoker or his surviving
family.
And according to the lawyers, those documents could be
disastrous for B&W.
[to Wigand in office interview]
For the lawyers to hold ...
Wigand: The lawyers intervene and then they purge documents.
And every time there was a reference to the word "less
hazardous" or "safer."
Wallace: [voiceover showing Dr. Wigand sitting at his desk]
But Dr. Wigand says the lawyers' interference, their
editing and review of his reports, did not stop him.
Wigand: I started asking more probing questions and I started
digging deeper and deeper. As I dug deeper and
deeper, I started getting a bodyguard.
Wallace: What do you mean, bodyguard?
Wigand: I went to a meeting. I now was now accompanied by a
lawyer. My bodyguard was Kendrick Wells.
Wallace: [voiceover showing Dr. Wigand sitting at his desk;
photo of Thomas Sandefur holding hand on forehead]
Frustrated by the lawyer's intervention and presence
at major scientific meetings, Dr. Wigand says he took
his complaints to Thomas Sandefur, then the president
of B&W.
Wallace: [to Wigand]
What did he say to you?
Wigand: I don't want to hear any more discussion about a safer
cigarette.
Wallace: [voiceover photo of Thomas Sandefur at hearing table
with outstretched arm]
And he says Thomas Sandefur went on to tell him ...
Wigand: "We pursue a safer cigarette, it would put us under
extreme exposure with every other product. I don't
want to hear about it anymore."
Wallace: All the people who were dying from cigarettes?
Wigand: Essentially, yes.
Wallace: Cancer?
Wigand: Cancer.
Wallace: Heart disease, things of that nature?
Wigand: Emphysema.
Wallace: [voiceover showing a smiling Thomas Sandefur at
hearing, April 1994]
Lawyers representing B&W and Thomas Sandefur have said
that all this as well as other accounts of
conversations with Thomas Sandefur are absolutely
false.
[voiceover showing Dr. Wigand in office interview with
Wallace]
We asked Dr. Wigand what his reaction was to what he
says was Sandefur's decision to abandon the safer
cigarette.
Wigand: I said I got angry.
Wallace: He was your boss.
Wigand: I bit my tongue. I had just transitioned from
another, one company to another. Uh, I was paid well
and was comfortable. And for me to do any precipitous
would put my family at risk.
Wallace: You were happy to take down the three hundred thousand
bucks a year?
Wigand: I essentially, yeah, took the money. I did my job.
Wallace: [in his own CBS office]
So Dr. Wigand abandoned his idea of trying to develop
a new and safer cigarette. He turned his attention to
investigating the additives, the flavorings, the other
compounds in B&W tobacco products. Many, like
glycerol, which is used to keep the tobacco in
cigarettes moist, are normally harmless. But when
glycerol is burned in a cigarette, its chemistry
changes.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
Glycerol, when it's burnt, forms a, a very specific
substance called acrolein.
Wallace: According to the American Council on Science and
Health,
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| |
| "Acrolein is extremely irritating |
| and has been shown to interfere |
| with the normal clearing of the |
| lungs. Recent research shows |
| that acrolein acts like a carcinogen, |
| though not yet classified as such..." |
| |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"acrolein, or 'acroli-en' is extremely irritating and
has been shown to interfere with the normal clearing
of the lungs. Recent research shows that acrolein
acts like a carcinogen, though not yet classified as
such."
[voiceover footage showing young people smoking]
And Dr. Wigand says that B&W continues to add glycerol
to their products.
But it was another additive that Dr. Wigand says led
to the end of his career at B&W.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
The straw that broke the camel's back for me and
really put me in trouble with Sandefur was a compound
called coumarin.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing young woman smoking;
documents on which clearly written "% COUMARIN"]
Coumarin is a flavoring that provides a sweet taste to
tobacco products but is known to cause tumors in the
livers of mice. It was removed from B&W cigarettes,
but according to these documents, B&W continued to use
it in its Sir Walter Raleigh aromatic pipe tobacco
until at least 1992.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
And when I came on board B&W, they had tried to tran,
transition from coumarin to another similar flavor
that would give the same taste. And it was
unsuccessful.
Wallace: [voiceover]
Dr. Wigand says the news about coumarin and cancer got
worse.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| |
| "TOXICOLOGY AND CARCINOGENESIS: |
| STUDIES OF COUMARIN |
| (CAS NO. 91-64-6) |
| IN F344/N RATS AND B63CF 1 |
| MICE (GAVAGE STUDIES) |
| |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
This report, by independent researchers, part of a
national toxic safety program, presented evidence that
coumarin is a carcinogen that causes various cancers.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
I wanted it out immediately. And I was told that it
would affect sales and I was to mind my own business.
And then I constructed a memo to Mr. Sandefur
indicating that I could not in conscience continue
with coumarin in a product that we now know, have
documentation that is lung-specific carcinogen.
Wallace: Really? You sent the document forward to Sandefur?
Wigand: I sent the document forward to Sandefur. I was told
that we would continue working on a substitute and we
weren't going to remove it because it would impact
sales and that, that was his decision.
Wallace: In other words, what you're charging Sandefur with and
Brown & Williamson with is ignoring health
considerations consciously?
Wigand: Most certainly.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Dr. Wigand at his office
desk]
After his confrontations over coumarin, Dr. Wigand
says he was not surprised when on March the 24th,
1993, Thomas Sandefur, newly promoted to Chief
Executive Officer, CEO of B&W, had him fired.
[to Wigand in office interview]
And the reason for firing that he gave you?
Wigand: Uh, Poor communication skills, uh, just not cuttin'
it, poor performance.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Dr. Wigand, his wife and two
daughters saying grace before meal at home]
When Dr. Wigand, who has a wife and two young
daughters, was fired by Brown & Williamson Tobacco,
his contract provided severance pay and critical
health benefits for his family, critical because one
of his children requires expensive daily health-care.
[voiceover showing video of Mrs. Wigand serving
dinner]
Several months after he was fired, B&W decided to sue
their former head of R&D and they cut off his
severance and those vital health benefits.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
They said I violated my confidentiality agreement by
discussing my severance package.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Jeffrey and Lucretia Wigand
walking together]
Lucretia Wigand says that the firing and B&W's
suspension of benefits was devastating.
Lucretia Wigand:
[in office interview with Wallace]
We almost lost our family as a unit. Jeff and I
almost separated.
Wallace: Why?
Lucretia Wigand:
Because he was under so much stress and so much
pressure that it was something we needed help dealing
with. We went to counseling and we worked through it.
Wallace: And this was, you think, started, triggered by the
business with B&W.
Lucretia Wigand:
Yes, I know it was.
Wallace: [voiceover video showing Jeffrey and Lucretia Wigand
at home in kitchen; "Dear Jeff" confidentiality
agreement]
B&W settled that lawsuit we mentioned and reinstated
those critical health benefits, only after Dr. Wigand
agreed to sign a new, stricter, lifelong
confidentiality agreement.
[in CBS office]
Nonetheless, word of Dr. Wigand's battles with Brown &
Williamson attracted attention in Washington, where in
the Spring of 1994, a Democratic Congress and the FDA,
the Food and Drug Administration, were investigating
the tobacco industry. Dr. Wigand was contacted by
their investigators. And after notifying Brown &
Williamson, he talked with those investigators.
Shortly afterwards, he was stunned by a couple of
anonymous telephone calls.
Wigand: [in office interview with Wallace]
In April 1994, on two separate occasions, I had life
threats on my kids.
Wallace: What?
Wigand: We had life threats on my kids.
Wallace: [showing Dr. Wigand referring to his diary]
Dr. Wigand told us he doesn't know where they came
from, but that, understandably, they frightened him.
He described the threats by referring to his diary.
Wigand: [reading from his diary]
A male voice that was on the phone that said: "Don't
mess with tobacco anymore. How are your kids?"
And then on April 28th, around 3 o'clock in the
afternoon, relatively the same voice, says: "Leave
tobacco alone or else you'll find your kids hurt.
They're pretty girls now."
So I got scared. I started carrying a gun.
Wallace: Really?
Wigand: Yeah, started carrying a handgun.
Lucretia Wigand:
[in office interview with Wallace]
Someone called and threatened to, to kill him and to
hurt the family if he messed with the tobacco
industry.
Wallace: [in studio with segment backdrop depicting Dr. Wigand]
That was last August. Now, in February, Lucretia
Wigand has filed for divorce, citing spousal abuse,
just one of the accusations Brown & Williamson is
using in their full-throated campaign to discredit
Jeffrey Wigand.
That report when we return.
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04/FEB/96 CBS 60 MINUTES Part II
Participants:
* Mike Wallace, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent
* Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand, Former B&W executive
* Mike Moore, Attorney General of Mississippi
* John Scanlon, Media Consultant
* Gordon Smith, Brown and Williamson attorney
* Hubert Humphrey III, Minnesota Attorney General
* Bob Butterworth, Attorney General of Florida
Wallace: [in studio]
Today, three years after he was fired by Brown and
Williamson, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is the star witness in
a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation into
the tobacco industry, which includes the question of
whether B&W's former CEO lied to the U.S. Congress
when he said that he believed that nicotine was not
addictive. But Dr. Wigand is paying a heavy price for
his decision to testify as well as for breaking his
confidentiality agreement by talking to us. His
family life has been shattered. His reputation has
been tarnished because of B&W's massive campaign
designed to silence him and to discredit this former
research chief turned whistle-blower.
[to Wigand]
They're trying to do what they can to paint you as
irresponsible, a liar.
Wigand: Well, I think the word they've used Mike is, "The
Master of Deceit."
Wallace: You wish you hadn't come forward? You wish you hadn't
blown the whistle?
Wigand: [hesitating]
There are times I wish I hadn't done it. But there
are times that I feel compelled to do it. Uh, if, if
you asked me if I would do it again or if it, do I
think it's worth it. Yeah. I think it's worth it.
Uh, I think in the end people will see the truth.
Wallace: [in studio]
Well these three men have seen the same truth as
Wigand. They are the state Attorneys' General of
Florida, Minnesota and Mississippi where Dr. Wigand is
testifying in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against
the tobacco industry. Mike Moore is Attorney General
of Mississippi.
Moore: Uh, Jeffrey's testimony is gonna be devastating, Mike,
to the tobacco industry. Uh, so devastating that I
fear for his life. Uh, I think, uh ...
Wallace: You serious?
Moore: I'm, I'm very serious. Uh, the information that
Jeffrey has, I think, is the most important
information that has ever come out against the tobacco
industry. Uh, this industry, in my opinion, is an
industry who has perpetrated the biggest fraud on the
American public in history. Uh, they have lied to the
American public for years and years. They have killed
millions and millions of people and made a profit on
it. So, uh, I hope that they won't continue to lie
and try to destroy Jeffrey like they destroyed the
other lives of people all over this country.
Wallace: [in studio]
The campaign to destroy Dr. Jeffrey Wigand began over
two months ago in the midst of a media frenzy over our
failure to broadcast our August interview with him.
Brown and Williamson sued Dr. Wigand for talking to us
despite his confidentiality agreement and they got a
court order in Kentucky to try to silence him from
speaking out further.
[against scene of wall with sign, "The Investigative
Group, Inc."]
Then investigators hired by B&W fanned out across the
country looking for anything they could use to
discredit the whistle-blower.
Wigand: They been going around to my family, my friends,
digging up and digging here and digging there.
Wallace: [in studio]
Then their lawyers, and B&W has a half dozen major
firms working on the Jeff Wigand case. Their lawyers
compiled the results of their nationwide dragnet into
a summary that alleges that in recent years Dr. Wigand
plead guilty to everything from wife-beating to
shoplifting. Beyond that they charged him with a
multitude of sins from fudging his resume to making a
false claim three years ago for ninety-five dollars
and twenty cents for dry cleaning.
[against scene of John Scanlon walking down a New York
street]
Then Brown and Williamson retained John Scanlon to get
their story to the media.
Scanlon is a fixture of the New York media scene who
has close personal relationships with print and
television reporters and producers as well as editors
and publishers. We asked him to sit down and discuss
the charges he has been circulating to me and other
reporters but he declined. But Scanlon did make this
statement to a CBS News camera crew.
Scanlon: He's running ... from cross-examination. His victims
have decided to respond and present evidence that
he's, in fact, a habitual liar.
Wigand: [in studio interview]
The smear campaign that's been very systematic, very
organized, very well-done.
[in classroom to students]
My background is, I have a PH.D. in biochemistry.
Wallace: [in studio]
Today Dr. Wigand is a 30,000 dollar a year science
teacher at a Louisville Kentucky public high school.
And his students, his faculty colleagues, and his
family were stunned last month when a Louisville
television station broadcast some of Brown and
Williamson's accusations.
Local News Anchor:
[broadcasting local news]
Court records show Wigand was charged with theft by
unlawful taking and shoplifting.
Wallace: [in studio]
Then the Brown and Williamson 500-page dossier on
Wigand was given to the Wall Street Journal, who
investigated the charges. And last Thursday in this
front page story, the journal reported, quote,
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| |
| "A close look at the file and independent |
| research by this newspaper into its key |
| claims indicates that many of the serious |
| allegations against Dr. Wigand are backed |
| by scanty or contradictory evidence." |
| |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
A close look at the file and independent research by
this newspaper into its key claims indicates that many
of the serious allegations against Dr. Wigand are
backed by scanty or contradictory evidence. And they
continued, quote,
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| |
| "Some of the charges, including that |
| he pleaded guilty to shoplifting |
| are demonstrably untrue." |
| |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Some of the charges, including that he pleaded guilty
to shoplifting are demonstrably untrue. We put that
Journal statement to Gordon Smith, an attorney
designated by Brown and Williamson to talk to us.
[to Gordon Smith]
The Wall Street Journal went through all of that
material. It says that, what the dossier that you put
together, scant evidence ...
Smith: Mr. Wallace, that is dead wrong. There's not scant
evidence. The Wall Street Journal did not, did not go
over the scores, literally scores of untruths told by
Jeffrey Wigand that we showed to them.
Wallace: [voiceover]
And Gordon Smith went on at some length to say that
Wigand's life quote, is a pattern of lies.
[to Smith]
I don't understand, frankly, Mr. Smith. I really
don't understand. Brown and Williamson must be in a
panic if they're going after this man as hard as you
are.
Smith: You're wrong. There are no material inaccuracies in
that book. None whatsoever.
Wallace: [voiceover]
But not included in that dossier were Brown and
Williamson's own personnel records which showed that
Wigand had received good performance appraisals for
the first three years from B&W. In his fourth year,
however, those appraisals turned sour. But despite
that, even after he was fired he received this letter
from Brown and Williamson's personnel director.
[reading letter to Smith]
To whom it may concern. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was
instrumental in the development of new products as
well as the major impetus behind a significant upgrade
in our R&D technical capabilities both in terms of
people and equipment. During his tenure at Brown and
Williamson, Dr. Wigand demonstrated a high level of
technical knowledge and expertise.
[Referring to stationary on Smith's desk]
At this is on your own stationary. Your own man
saying that about him.
Smith: Mike, Brown and Williamson refused to be a reference
for Jeff Wigand after he left. This letter was
negotiated with his attorney and it was the only
statement Brown and Williamson would ever make about
him because Brown and Williamson did not want to be a
reference for Jeff Wigand.
Wallace: [voiceover]
And Mr. Smith had this to say about our relationship
with Jeffrey Wigand.
Smith: You're being led along by a guy who's not believable.
You're getting half the story. You, you, and you've
got, you've got a, a vested interest in making this
man credible.
Wallace: Why do we have a ...
Smith: CBS has an interest, paid this guy twelve thousand
dollars.
Wallace: For what?
Smith: I believe for consulting.
Wallace: Now, wait just a moment. Let's get this straight.
Paid him twelve thousand dollars for what?
Smith: To consult on a story on CBS.
Wallace: [in studio]
For the record, as we explained to Mr. Smith, 60
Minutes did, in fact, hire Dr. Wigand two years ago to
act as our expert consultant to analyze nearly a
thousand pages of technical documents leaked to us not
from Brown and Williamson but from inside Philip
Morris - another tobacco company. At that time Dr.
Wigand told us he would not talk with us about Brown
and Williamson and he did not until over a year later.
Wigand: I felt an obligation to tell the truth. Uh, there
were things I saw. There were things I learned.
There were things I observed that I felt that needed
to be told. The focus continues to be on what I would
call systematic and aggressive tactics to undermine my
credibility and my, some of my personal life. Uh ...
Wallace: But you expected that, didn't you?
Wigand: Well, I didn't expect, to the extent that it's
happened, okay? Its, its disrupted not only my life.
Uh, I'm in divorce proceedings now.
Wallace: [voiceover in studio with three Attorneys General]
These three state Attorneys General say that no matter
B&W accusations are, they remain convinced that what
Wigand has to say about the tobacco industry in
general and Brown and Williamson in particular is
thoroughly credible. They are suing the tobacco
industry for the billions of dollars in state Medicaid
costs their states have paid to treat people who have
become ill from smoking.
Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey the third.
Humphrey: We want to see the full truth come out. We want the
deception, fraud and the violations of our state laws
stopped. And we want people that are making the money
on this product to bear the full cost of the health
care uh, burden that is there.
Wallace: [voiceover]
Bob Butterworth is the Attorney General of Florida.
Butterworth:
The issue has been deceit.
Wallace: Deceit?
Butterworth:
Pure and simply - deceit. The cigarette companies
made a decision that they would withhold valuable
information from the American public, information that