Author: George E.

A revised plan for major tobacco companies to purchase court-ordered ads to admit that they deliberately misled the public about the dangers of smoking would add nine white-owned newspapers to the list of publications carrying tobacco ‘apology’ ads but shut out more than 90 percent of black newspapers and all black-owned radio and television stations, according to documents filed in federal court.

“If they had asked, we could have helped them develop a better plan than this,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Chairman Cloves Campbell. “They didn’t consult us and the end result is that we’re back to where this process started last year. What they have put on the table is totally unacceptable.”

If the NNPA files a motion in opposition to the revised plan, as expected, the judge has a number of options from which to choose, including making a final decision on the merits of the case or ordering the defendants to come up with a more comprehensive plan.

After being sued by the Justice Department and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, the major tobacco manufacturers were found guilty in 2005 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act (RICO) when they deliberately misled the public about the dangers and addictiveness of smoking.

U.S. Judge Gladys Kessler ordered them to halt the offending practices and place a series of full-page ads in newspapers and commercials on network TV during prime time for a year, reported by Target Market News to be valued between $30 million and $45 million, acknowledging their wrongdoing.

The defendants— Philip Morris USA, Inc., Altria Group, Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (in its own capacity and as successor to Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation and American Tobacco Co.) and Lorillard Tobacco Company— went along with a plan proposed by the judge that excluded all black-owned newspapers and broadcast companies.

The tobacco companies submitted a revised plan last week after the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), two trade associations whose member businesses reach more than 95 percent of all African Americans, filed an amicus or friend of the court brief challenging the original plan to run court-ordered ads only in white and Latino publications and on the three major television networks.

In an amicus brief supporting the Black Press, the NAACP said, “To rectify the damage created by Defendant in their targeting of African American communities, this Court should require Defendants to use NABOB and NNPA member organizations to fulfill its remedial order. Black-owned print and visual media remain a primary method of receiving information for African Americans.”

After accepting the filing by NNPA and NABOB, Judge Kessler ordered the defendants to address the issues raised by the two trade associations and cable networks that later filed similar briefs protesting the arrangement that favored the three major broadcast networks over them. Among those joining the action, were Fox Network News, Viacom (the parent company of BET. MTV and VH1), Univision, TV One, Radio One, CW Network and A&E Television Networks.

Under its latest plan, the tobacco firms propose advertising in only 13 of approximately 200 black newspapers: The Arizona Informant; The Denver Weekly News; The Inner-City News (Conn.), The Gary Crusader (Indiana); The Louisville Defender; Insight News (Minnesota); The St. Louis American; The Omaha Star; The Ohio City News; Black Chronicle (Nebraska); The Portland Skanner; The Seattle Skanner; and The Milwaukee Courier.

The tobacco companies proposed reducing what it called “major-circulation newspapers,” i.e. white dailies, from 29 to 27, eliminating the Boston Herald; the Florida Times-Union; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; the Fresno Bee; the New York Post; the New York Sun [which has closed]; the Orlando Sentinel; the Palm Beach Post; the Sacramento Bee; the San Diego Union-Tribune; and the Tallahassee Democrat from the original list.

Added were: the Baltimore Sun; the Birmingham News; the Charleston Post & Courier; the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.; the Memphis Commercial Appeal; the Detroit Free Press; the New Orleans Picayune; the Newark Star-Ledger; and the News Journal in Delaware.

Remaining on both ad buy lists were: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the Boston Globe; the Charlotte Observer; the Chicago Sun-Times; the Chicago Tribune; the Dallas Morning News; the Houston Chronicle; the Los Angeles Times; the Miami Herald; the New York Daily News; the New York Times; the Philadelphia Inquirer; the Richmond Times-Dispatch; the San Francisco Chronicle; the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times); USA Today; the Wall Street Journal; and the Washington Post.

The filing, called a joint praecipe, stated: “The parties believe that they have reasonably accommodated the amici’s requests to modify the proposed Consent Order. While it is impossible at this late juncture to accommodate all of the concerns raised by the recently-appearing amici, the revised proposed Consent Order changes, the geographic distribution of major-circulation newspapers to better reach African Americans, adds the largest African-American newspapers in 14 states, and allows defendants to run a portion of the corrective statements on television on any other channel network that will reach the same number of viewers and more African Americans. The parties believe that these adjustments should satisfy the concerns raised by the amici and by the Court at the Status Hearing.”

Campbell, chairman of the NNPA says that the black media remains deeply dissatisfied.

“What they have done is include some key cities that were ignored in the original proposal and assigned them to white papers while again bypassing local black newspapers that were subjected in the past to heavy tobacco advertising aimed at blacks,” he explained. “Tobacco companies can’t have it both ways. They can’t say we were effective advertising vehicles when they were peddling life-threatening cigarettes, but when it comes to correcting the public record under court order, they want to leave most of our papers on the sidelines.”

Campbell said the tobacco industry could advertise in every black newspaper in the nation without suffering any financial hardship.

“The tobacco companies considered us effective when they were targeting us for their products,” the NNPA chairman said. “If anything, with our stronger circulation, digital platforms and our use of social media, we are even more effective in del`ivering messages to African Americans today than we were when they willingly patronized us.”

Prior to Sunday’s Super Bowl, I told anyone who would listen that I like both the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, so I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed regardless of who won the game. But…I was hoping Seattle would emerge the victor and I will tell you why.

First— because as a former high school and college quarterback, I am partial to teams with a black starting quarterback. In Seattle’s case, their first and second team quarterbacks are African American. To understand the significance of this breakthrough, for years, blacks were not allowed to play quarterback or middle linebacker at major universities or in the pros. Quarterback in particular was the glamour position and any African American coming up through the ranks as a quarterback was usually converted to a defensive back or a wide receiver, if they made it to the NFL.

Regardless of how great a black quarterback was at an HBCU, for example, he didn’t get a chance to showcase his skills as a quarterback at the pro level. It was as if the scouts thought black teams played football with 10 men instead of 11. Even a, shall we say, passing look at history would have dispelled that notion.

“Fritz” Pollard was professional football’s first black quarterback in 1920, leading the Akron Pros to victory in the NFL’s first championship game. In the modern era, James Harris, the Grambling great, became the first regular starter for the Buffalo Bills in 1969.

Nearly 20 years later, in 1988, another ex-Grambling QB, Doug Williams, became the first Black to start and win a Super Bowl. This season was hailed as the “Year of the black Quarterback” in the NFL, with nine starting on the third weekend of the season.

The second reason I was pulling for Seattle was their coach, Pete Carroll. I always enjoyed his brand of football when he was head coach of the University of Southern California (USC). But my respect for him deepened when I learned he regularly made midnight trips to the ‘hood in an effort to curb gang violence.

LA Times columnist Kurt Streeter would later write: “Few know that about twice a month Carroll leaves his comfy digs at USC, hops in the back of a beaten Camry driven by a former gang member and heads to South L.A. neighborhoods where the snap of gunfire and the anguish of death occur with the steady regularity of a metronome.

“These are not recruiting visits. He’s trying to save lives.

“Most often, he arrives near midnight and walks shadowy streets with that familiar, electric strut, surrounded by little boys, grandparents, crack heads and gang toughs. He empathizes, listens, encourages and laughs. He talks about jobs and kids and marriage, about perspective and courage, about how difficult it must be to be caught in the madness of the streets.

“He realizes that some might think he’s a fool, that some might say he should pay no mind to gang members. Naysayers do not stop him.”

My third reason for cheering for Seattle is that they’ve often been called misfits, with many so-called experts questioning their ability to play in the NFL. However, one-by-one, the players, many of whom were drafted in the low rounds, if at all, have proven their critics wrong.

Case in point: Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith, the game’s Most Valuable Player, wasn’t picked until 242nd in the 2011 NFL draft. Yet on Sunday, he was the star among stars, making nine tackles, recovering a Demaryius Thomas fumble early in the third quarter, and with less than four minutes remaining in the game, intercepted a Peyton Manning pass and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown.

And there was that quarterback who, at 5’11” would never make it in the NFL. At least, that’s what they told Russell Wilson. All he did Sunday was lead his team to a Super Bowl victory in his second year as a pro. When he was younger, he attended a football camp organized by Peyton Manning. On Sunday, Wilson played as though he was the instructor and Manning was his pupil.

Richard Sherman again proved he is NFL’s best cornerback. After Seattle’s division playoff game against San Francisco, he was depicted as a loudmouth defender lacking class. What the talking heads didn’t say was that he had extended a hand to Michael Crabtree, a gesture that was rejected, before he boasted that the 49’ers should have known better than trying to complete a pass on his side of the field. Anyone who has ever played organized football realizes that’s the mindset of defensive backs: Don’t even think about it. When Colin Kaepernick, another black quarterback, tested him near the end of the division title game, Sherman made him pay.

For a group of so-called misfits who routed the favored Denver Broncos 43-8, the Lombardi Trophy seems to fit them very well!

George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He is a keynote speaker, moderator and media coach. Curry can be reached through his website: www.georgecurry.com.