Today’s New York Times devotes a long editorial to questioning the ethics of new senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The main thrust of the editors’ argument is that Gillibrand represented Philip Morris when she worked as an attorney and, inexcusably, advocated fiercely on behalf of her client. In short, she was a good lawyer.
Even so, it’s reasonable to bring up that relationship when evaluating a new senator, especially with major tobacco bills currently working their way through Congress. What’s not reasonable is failing to mention that the bill giving regulatory power to the FDA that is headed to the Senate right now is backed enthusiastically by Philip Morris. The editors strive to give the opposite impression:
She was privy to unsuccessful efforts to dissuade a smaller tobacco company, the Liggett Group, from breaking ranks and cooperating with prosecutors — a move, it was feared, that could result in the release of incriminating internal documents and a strengthening of Food and Drug Administration efforts to regulate the marketing and sale of cigarettes, including to children.
That was prior to the Master Settlement Agreement. As anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the industry knows, the MSA marked a sea change in big tobacco companies’ strategy for dealing with the government, especially with regard to Philip Morris/Altria. Pre-MSA they generally opposed unrelentingly every regulatory encroachment. Post-MSA their strategy has been to partner with regulators to preserve the Big Tobacco oligopoly. The FDA bill is an especially egregious attempt to secure Philip Morris’ market share and eliminate competitors.
The Times’ understanding of contemporary tobacco policy strikes me as superficial at best and deliberately misleading at worst. They support the FDA bill because it represents “real power to regulate tobacco products,” but I’m not convinced they’ve really thought through its unintended consequences. They believe Philip Morris is a villain but refuse to acknowledge that the villain and the government have been teaming up for years now. They do their readers a disservice by ignoring this changed regulatory landscape.
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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