60 Minutes Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Brown & Williamson=== In 1995, former [[Brown & Williamson]] Vice President for Research and Development [[Jeffrey Wigand]] provided information to ''60 Minutes'' producer [[Lowell Bergman]] that B&W had systematically hidden the health risks of their cigarettes (see [http://jeffreywigand.com/pascagoula.php transcription]). Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents (such as [[Fiberglass#Health hazards|fiberglass]] and [[Ammonia#Stimulant|ammonia]]) with the intent of enhancing the effect of [[nicotine]]. Bergman began to produce a piece based upon the information, but ran into opposition from Don Hewitt who, along with CBS lawyers, feared a billion dollar lawsuit from Brown and Williamson for [[tortious interference]] for encouraging Wigand to violate his [[non-disclosure agreement]]. A number of people at CBS would benefit from a sale of CBS to [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|Westinghouse Electric Corporation]], including the head of CBS lawyers and CBS News. Also, because of the interview, the son of CBS President [[Laurence Tisch]] (who also controlled [[Lorillard Tobacco Company|Lorillard Tobacco]]) was among the people from the [[Big Tobacco|big tobacco companies]] at risk of being caught having committed perjury. Due to Hewitt's hesitation, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' instead broke Wigand's story. The ''60 Minutes'' piece was eventually aired with substantially altered content and minus some of the most damning evidence against B&W. The [[Investigative journalism|exposé]] of the incident was published in an article in ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' by [[Marie Brenner]], entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Man Who Knew Too Much|url=http://www.mariebrenner.com/articles/insider/man1.html|last=Brenner|first=Marie|author-link=Marie Brenner|work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|publisher=MarieBrenner.com|date=May 1996|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040805231342/http://www.mariebrenner.com/articles/insider/man1.html|archive-date=August 5, 2004}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' wrote that "the traditions of Edward R. Murrow and "60 Minutes" itself were diluted in the process,"<ref>{{cite news|title=Self-Censorship at CBS|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/opinion/self-censorship-at-cbs.html|work=The New York Times|date=November 12, 1995}}</ref> though the newspaper revised the quote slightly, suggesting that ''60 Minutes'' and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow". The incident was turned into a seven-times [[Academy Awards|Oscar]]-nominated feature film entitled ''[[The Insider (film)|The Insider]]'', directed by [[Michael Mann (director)|Michael Mann]] and starring [[Russell Crowe]] as Wigand, [[Al Pacino]] as Bergman, and [[Christopher Plummer]] as Mike Wallace. Wallace denounced the portrayal of him as inaccurate to his stance on the issue.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-10/15/046r-101599-idx.html | title=The Explosive Film That Ticked Off '60 Minutes' | last=Shales | first=Tom | date=October 15, 1999 | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | access-date=June 20, 2016}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page