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Don't Buy the B.S.

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real. Posted December 8, 2005.


Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and Big Energy are trying hard to convince us they really do care. And they do -- they care about keeping things exactly the way they are.
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Don't Buy the B.S.

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Iraqis are not the only folks these days being served B.S. disguised as steak. In fact I have some real news for the Iraqis - you folks ain't seen nothin' yet! Just wait until things settle down there enough for the Madison Ave. crowd to set up shop.

If Iraqis want a preview of the kind of dis-/mis-information they will get should they ever fully join the Western world, just come on over to my place and watch a couple of evenings of American network and cable TV.

Where to begin? How about we start with the Saddam Husseins of corporate America -- Big Tobacco. Spare me the tales of Saddam's brutality. Big Tobacco is killing more folks every day than Saddam killed during his entire twisted career. Nevertheless, no tobacco industry executives are on trial. Their stocks are still traded on the exchanges and doing quite well, thank you.

But wait, what's this? Tons of anti-smoking are suddenly appearing nightly on my TV. They show clean-cut, preppy parents cavorting with playful towheaded children. These Norman Rockwell families appear on my screen filtered in soft, gauzy light. A sincere, fatherly voiceover advises us that "Anytime is a good time to warn our children about the dangers of smoking."

At the end of the ad is a text tag telling us that if we want more anti-smoking tips we should go to the Philip Morris website, where we can also learn about the superior taste and smoothness of their cigarettes.

My two sons, now in their 20s, have left home. But apparently no one told the Marlboro Man because almost weekly I get the most amazing things addressed to my boys in the mail. These packages contain the strangest combination of the delightful and deadly. Inside one was a beautifully done cowboy cookbook, featuring coupons for dirt-cheap smokes. (Everyone knows real cowboys want a smoke after a hearty meal of beans and rice. Are YOU a real cowboy?)

Often, as I open these Marlboro packages in the evening I notice one of the same company's anti-smoking ads droning away on my TV. Then my head explodes.

What's that all about?

Well, have you been keeping track of the Bush administration's handling of the Justice Department's civil suit begun during the Clinton years against Big Tobacco? If not, it's no surprise you're a bit confused.

"The government presented a strong case regarding the industry's liability. However, in closing arguments on June 7, 2005, the government significantly reduced one of its most important remedies....The government's expert witness on smoking cessation recommended requiring the industry to pay for a 25-year, $130 billion program to help smokers quit. But the government called for only a five-year, $10 billion program. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health groups criticized this proposal as inadequate, and several newspapers reported that political appointees at the Justice Department ordered the legal team to reduce this proposed remedy." (Full report here).
Big Tobacco, working hand-in-hand with compassionate conservatives in the Bush administration, is on the cusp of saving itself $120 billion. Not only that but, if the deal goes through, the industry will not be forced to spend a ton of money convincing people to reject its demonstrably dangerous product.

But -- and pay attention now, because this is the point -- under the Bush DOJ deal Big Tobacco would be forced to spend only $10 billion on anti-smoking campaigns but they promise to do more, "voluntarily."

And that's why you are being bombarded with tobacco-company sponsored anti-smoking ads. Even as you read this, attorneys for anti-smoking groups are in court trying to prevent the Bush administration from giving Big Tobacco such a sweet deal. That's why these companies are throwing all those public service ads at us -- to prove they really, really, really do get it.

Big Tobacco isn't the only company messing with reality. The anti-smoking ads are usually sandwiched between a couple of Big Pharma ads featuring miracle drugs fewer and fewer of us can afford. My wife is a practicing medical professional so I know a bit about things that can kill me. But I had no idea how bad it was until I started watching these drug company ads. They've convinced me that, from bowels to brain, I'm a ticking time bomb.

But the pharmaceutical industry ads offer hope. First they tell us what's going around out there that can cripple or kill us; then comes the good news -- they have the cure! All you have to do is demand that your doctor prescribes it for you. Never mind that your doc has not diagnosed you with any such condition. Trust us, they imply, if you don't have it now, you'll get it if you don't take this drug. (My wife tells me she sees patients everyday who arrive in the exam room, list in hand, of the drugs they want because they saw them on TV. And, they get downright pissy if she refuses to prescribe them.)

Ever since the flap over the administration's so-called Medicare Drug Benefit, drug companies have added this tagline to their ads: "If you can't afford this medication, contact us and we may be able to help you."

Ah yes, a little corporate charity for poor old granny. It would be really bad PR if grandpa croaked in the lobby of his rest home clutching a note explaining that he could not afford his pills. With that little tag, drug companies can now retort, "Well, why didn't grandpa call us? We would have been happy to provide his pills free of charge."

Like Big Tobacco, Big Pharma wants us to believe they really do give a damn. And they do. They give a damn about keeping things exactly the way they are. Times have never been better for them. People can choose whether to smoke or not, but they have little choice when it comes to their meds. You pay the price demanded or you go without.

And that's how Big Pharma wants to keep it. Which is why the industry went on Red Alert when the administration started down the road to creating a Medicare drug benefit. Medicare is the industry's biggest customer, and gets bigger by the day. If the new law allowed Medicare to use its enormous buying power to negotiate volume price reductions that would represent the first real crack in Big Pharma's medicine monopoly. So they got busy writing checks to politicians. And it worked; they won a specific rule in the new law actually prohibiting Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.

So much for the "magic of the marketplace," Republicans like to tout. Instead we get the John Gotti version of free enterprise -- pay up or die.

Big Tobacco and Big Pharma are not alone in showering us in the glow of video Orwellianism. Big Energy is at it too. Like the tobacco companies they are sincerely begging us to use less of their product. "Please conserve energy," their new ads implore. "We must join hands in a community of responsibility and conservation," they suggest, with images of hands clasping in communion at the alter of conservation.

Big Energy wants you to understand that it's not their fault energy prices are so high or that there's any connection between that and their soaring profits. No. They are victims of circumstances beyond their control. If anyone is to blame, it's the public. We didn't conserve! We bought big SUVs! And it's also our fault for insisting on heating our homes to levels that allow us to take our coats off.

Finally there's our president, a veritable cornucopia of bullshit. He's blathering away on my TV as I write this, touting the progress the Iraqi economy has made. Well duh! Shower $6 billion a month into the American economy every month for three years and we'd be better off, too. That's not exactly rocket science, and it's hardly something to brag about. Any fool with a bottomless checkbook could do the same.

I don't know about you, but I am a lot less worried about the propaganda being fed the Iraqis by the US military than I am about the rising tide of corporate and government bull we obediently consume every night on TV.

Mom, Dad, remember: anytime is a good time to warn your children against the dangers of believing what they see or hear on television. Teach them to just say no to BS. (And while you're at it, remind yourself too.)

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Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was nominated for a Pulitzer.

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Why don't we see the same people who protest the war protest big tobacco?
Posted by: thedude on Dec 8, 2005 12:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Look at how many of these headlining liberals who lead the packs of anti-war protests are also smokers! Especially look at Hollywood and how many movies feature smoking so prominantly.
Natalie Portman shows up at rallies and in interviews badmouthing the President and talking about how she doesn't want to see another American die in war. Yet she appears in movies where she is smoking in almost every scene.
Al Franken is a notorious chain smoker as is Janeane Garafolo.
Look no further than the Scientologists. Tom Cruise - smoker. John Travolta - smoker. Kirstie Alley - smoker.
Maybe if the Hollywood elite could show some REAL compassion and quit smoking and speak out against Big Tobacco, we might actually see a decrease in its use among young people and we can take away Big Tobacco's next pool of customers!

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agreed on most points, but
Posted by: Samantha Vimes on Dec 8, 2005 2:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We really *should* conserve energy. And peak oil isn't going to help the life span of the energy companies. Mind, in California, isn't it the state itself that's been running the conservation commercials? At least, I don't associate them with energy companies... just frogs jumping at light bulbs, so if they mean for it to be a warm-feelings generator, they need to fix their ad campaign.

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surreality
Posted by: menckenman on Dec 8, 2005 5:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Corporate and religious bullshit has bamboozled the booboisie since Creation 6000 years ago. Its a free country, supposedly.

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Great article except for the last line
Posted by: maxpayne on Dec 8, 2005 5:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just saying no isn't going to cut it. Parents need to be able to give their kids a layman's version of why saying no is actually cool. And of course, it'll be harder if they did it too but at least they can give their kids a grim picture of the consequences.

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» why not take the easy way out? Posted by: mwildfire
big pharma is not being honest
Posted by: lb on Dec 8, 2005 7:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Even though the pharmaceutical companies say they will help people who can't afford their medication under Medicare Part D, the fact is that they are discontinuing their Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs. I am a physician, and for 20 years, I have been able to obtain FREE medication from the drug companies for patients who met financial guidelines (usually below poverty level) by filling out reams of paperwork every 3 months. One patient has been getting free drugs that would cost over $1000 per month. In the past month, I started getting letters saying that the drug companies will no longer provide these free drugs because, now patients have Medicare Part D. The last time I checked, Medicare Part D is not free. It reduces the person's monthly benefit, they pay the first $250 of drug costs and they pay a copay for each drug. My patients can't afford that. I have already started talking to patients about switching to generics and buying them at warehouse clubs, which should be the least expensive alternative. This is a disaster.

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» RE: big pharma is not being honest Posted by: ConnecttheDots
Easy way to fix it
Posted by: junglebob89 on Dec 8, 2005 8:33 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am stunned that the easy way to end smoking in 'Murica is never mentioned: Simply require tobacco companies to phase out the additives and added nicotine from their products over a stated time frame and VOILA!! People will one day look at the stick in their hand and, without the physiological addiction, wonder why they are still doing it. If you don't believe me, then look into how relativley non-addictive natural leaf tobacco is compared to the science experiment they are doing on us right now. This "FREE" nation probably has more laws against this or that than anywhere so what's not to like about phasing synergystic chemicals and added nicotine from these products?

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no-name
Posted by: otto on Dec 8, 2005 8:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Steve Pizzo is right on again! Calling in from Canada, I ask: Is he or is anyone aware of ADBUSTERS and CULTURE JAM in British Columbia, by Kalle Lasn? They are reacting regularly to our North American brainwashing to buy and consume, thru slick advertising, etc. (Anyone remember "The Hidden Persuaders"
back in the 50's and 60's?)

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Eh?
Posted by: Colin on Dec 8, 2005 9:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't understand - I thought this was a progressive forum?

How can the outlawing of smoking - or the curtailing of personal freedoms - be considered progressive thinking? Striving for longevity may well be the fad of the moment and if that's the way you want to live then so be it. However, demanding the choices you've made in your life are forced onto others is exactly the same thinking as George Bush has propogated in his fallacious attempt to bring democratic capitailism to the rest of an unwanting world. You would be wise to remember that.

Don't get me wrong - there is no doubt that many of the big tobacco companies are bastards but curtailing the company and banning the product are two very different things. Personally, as a grown up - it's my choice to decide whether I smoke - not yours, the health sectors or a politicians.

Can I suggest that perhaps if we didn't lead such shallow lives you wouldn't be so interested in the health aspects as you would be happy with what you have regardless. The average life expectance for everyone was in the early 40's only a couple of hundred years ago. The idea we should all strive to live until a hundred is nothing more than yet another false profit and will not bring you the happiness so many seem to think is everywhere but inside yourself.

Ending the nagative practises of tobacco/drug companies is one thing. Deciding to outlaw smoking is another completely different issue and should be treated as so.

(No - I don't work for Phillip Morris but I do have an interest in personal freedom and liberty)

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» RE: h? Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: h? Posted by: tcx2
» 100% right Posted by: warbi
» I agree with you. Posted by: ABetterFuture
» RE: h? Posted by: EncinoM
» Libertarianism Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: Libertarianism Posted by: crusty
chemical additives.......
Posted by: Smiggsy on Dec 8, 2005 10:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can vouch that natural leaf tobacco is not addictive (though a health hazzard nevertheless). If I need to stop smoking for a known reason I can. Yet people around me are amazed at how well I can start and stop month on month off. These same people smoke prepackaged taylored cigarettes produced by big tobacco. Every smoker I have known to quit, I advised them to change to natural tobacco leaf until their body gets the addiditives out of their system & then try to quit. It is remarkable how effective this works. No nicotine patches or gums or whatever.

Just think how effective a ban on all chemical additives would be in tobacco on the addictiveness it creates - though it will never likely happen. I guessing the same would happen if you removed all the addictive crap out of cola & processed cerials. Tomato ketchup is only widely popluar because it is highly dosed with sugar. Modern life is certainly full of crap.

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» RE: chemical additives....... Posted by: wearesilhouettes
zen
Posted by: esactun on Dec 8, 2005 10:28 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Stolen from a Yahoo group ;) :

> Truth's naked radiance,
> Cut off from the senses
> And the world,
> Shines by itself
> No words for it.
> - Pai-chang Huai-hai (720-814)

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Corporate power
Posted by: Lincoln fan on Dec 8, 2005 10:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The rich elite corporate establishment in the U.S. is stealing the wealth of the middle class and the power of the voters. After the election your vote has lost its power. After the election, to whichever party wins, it is more important to pay back the campaign contributions with legislation friendly to the contributors than to represent the voters who elected them. This explains the steady march of both parties to the right. There would be nothing wrong with the parties being alike, if they were alike in the interest of the majority. For a truly representative government, both parties would only differ in their ideas of how best to carry out the will of the majority. Of course, the majority will must be tempered with a respect for the rights of the individual and the minorities. A step toward this ideal can be accomplished before the 2006 election. I propose that every voter write to the state and national campaign headquarters of both parties, tell them his/her view on his/her most important issue, and that he/she will not support any any candidate that does not support this view. Further, if neither party supports his/her view, he/she will cast a write-in vote for "Honest Abe" in protest. Click on we can do it

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Burn Baby Burn
Posted by: Artkansas on Dec 8, 2005 11:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hand roll a cigarette, light it, watch it soon go out.

Take a pre-made cigarette, light it, watch it burn to the very end.

Self-smoking cigarettes are such a boon to the industry. Its like smoking matchheads, or dynamite primer cord.

Think of how many lives are lost because of this. Tobacco execs are to blame.

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» RE: Burn Baby Burn Posted by: crusty
We are a nation of suckers, and that means you.
Posted by: lamar on Dec 8, 2005 12:32 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We are to blame for the effectiveness of bullshit. Too many parents don't teach their child to be skeptical. There's a sucker born every minute? BS! Suckers are made, not born.

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Turn the TV off.
Posted by: Ben Furman on Dec 8, 2005 1:24 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Seriously. Ditch all of the ads. Read web sites AlterNet and participate in (read: fund) public television and radio instead. Eliminate the corporate invasion into your sense perceptions.

I realize getting grandma to do this is a bit harder... but then we are all future senior citizens.

By the way, you can also affect your mailings by sending some of the very delightful advertisements on to those friends who provide business reply envelopes. After all, don't you think the credit card protection agent could use a few helpful recipes and coupons? It's amazing how quickly the junk mail stream can dry up!

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Corporations with the rights of persons is the problem
Posted by: marktab on Dec 8, 2005 1:29 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Corporation were once allowed in America only if they provided a specific public benefit. There was a time when "We the People" could determine what corporations were allowed to do. Today corporations rule and truth telling will not increase as long as they do. There is an answer but it will require citizens willing to do the hard work of self government. Citizens taking their democratic rights for granted are forgetting that Democracy is not something people have. Democracy is something people do. Democracy is not trappings, such as elections, any more than justice is trial by jury. Justice happens in a courtroom when jurors judge honestly and fairly. Democracy happens because people do the hard work of self-government. It is time to reclaimdemocracy.org and endcorporaterule.org. It is time to be Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine and stop watching.

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SusanQue
Posted by: Susan Quaintance on Dec 8, 2005 1:41 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"It might be hard getting grandma to do it..." What is this? I am a grandmother, and I tell everyone I know, not to smoke (never have, myself), to eat organic food, and not to eat industrial meat, especially. To lump every woman over age 50 into some inane club of stupidity is a gross insult to us, and simply untrue. You should apologize.

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» RE: SusanQue Posted by: Ben Furman
» RE: SusanQue Posted by: doctorvee
What do you expect with a whole country full of suckers?
Posted by: nzo on Dec 8, 2005 2:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Solution: quit being a sucker! Really!

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Greedy Pharmas and their 'pocket government'
Posted by: polyquats on Dec 9, 2005 12:32 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"If the new law allowed Medicare to use its enormous buying power to negotiate volume price reductions that would represent the first real crack in Big Pharma's medicine monopoly."

The US Govt has just been using the new Free Trade Agreement signed with Australia to reverse this policy in here. Not only need to be dirty, greedy bastards at home, but have to get 'their' government to force the rest of us to accept their dirty, greedy bastardry too.

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Paranoid Pollyanna
Posted by: Linda on Dec 9, 2005 8:50 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Madison Avenue is already in Iraq, folks! Philip Morris p.s.a. ads about kids not smoking? They changed name of their company to "ALTRIA", becuz of the bad reputation, the stink clinging to their original name. But, Altria is not as bad as R.J. Reynolds (who gave Republican criminal indictee, Rep. Tom DeLay, a ride to his last Court date on their private, chartered Jet, sweet perks for crooks!) which markets Camels, etc. targeting teens. They're not sexist, either, boy. Young girls age 12 up are just as welcome to become what the Tobacco industry calls "Replacement Smokers", & "Cash Cow" customers.

Cash Cows because nothing cramps one's personal freedom & choice, than being saddled at age 14 with a nasty addiction more hard to kick than crack cocaine or heroin! It ain't like marijuana!

I am somewhat amazed that some clueless celebs like Madonna, Britney Spears, Brad Pitt, etc., smoke cigarettes & cigars; & that some college kids have fallen for a new "fad" promoted by Big Tobacco: Hookah Bars, where it's not weed they're tolkin', but godawful tobacco! Those they didn't hook as kids, they're targeting now at colleges & in the military.

There ARE a growing number of Hollywood & music role models, tho, speaking out about Tobacco, helping to make a difference. You can help us make a difference too, becuz smoking tobacco is a CHILDHOOD communicable disease, which IS spread by Tobacco Companies!

They have Billions of $$$ to spend on Advertising-- most of it "covert" & "embedded" in TV shows, movies, music videos, etc.; they give Celebrities a lifetime supply of smokes, support their careers & pay them $$$ to pimp as "celeb smokers": to go to nightclubs & be seen smoking cigars. Guess what? It works!

We don't have Billions of $$ to fight their propaganda: we have only our voices! Check out: www.grassroots-solutions.org, www.scenesmoking.org, & tobaccofreekids.org. Get informed!

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Will you take on the Fed, next?
Posted by: lmiesse on Dec 16, 2005 1:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You nailed it! Big Tobacco+Big Pharma+ Big Energy (and don't forget Big Music. Read "Payola Unbound" for that industry's tactics!) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff46.html!) = Big Government. Big War keeps it going, as well. See "Warmongering is the Health of Statism" http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory98.html.

Maybe we ought to look at the chain of command with regard to the "players" in our compassionate, conservationist, and above-all safety-conscious(????) government. I mean, to whom are those Department of Justice appointees accountable for the 120 billion dollar subsidy they gifted to the tobacco industry? After all, we the people sure didn't vote them into their government offices.

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