ti, 1968, thompson on best stories cast doubt

8/14/2019 TI, 1968, Thompson on best stories cast doubt

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HILL &-vD K~7OWLTON_-. Ivc .October 18, 1968

N ' " ' , M C R A i d D i J M T Q :

SUBJECT :

William Kloepfer, Jr .

The Tobacco Institute, Inc .

Tobacco and Health Research Procedural Memo ? ;Fiere, as requested, is a memo on the writing and production of Tobacco andHealth Research .I . AUDIENCEThe primary audience is comprised of doctors and scientists . This determinesformat, content and. style . Secondary audience is the news media for which apress release is prepared s1mnr+Arizing contents . A third audience : .s the"tobacco interested" groups -- companies, organizations, etc . P4is thirdaudience gets little consideration in the selection and writin, - of material .However, at one time a special insert was prepared for this rroup which con-sisted (usually) of a one-sheet, two-page reproduction of ~_ws clippingsreporting more simply on some stories included in the pv'~iication .II . SELECTION OF MA`IERIAL

A. Sources : The inflexible rule is that mr_. ,;erial should come from primarysources, that is, from accredited medical and scientific journals (sometimes anunpublished paper delivered at a scientifi- meeting is used) . Secondary source(such as Medical 'orld News, Medical Tr;7,une) are subject to errors and biasesof the reporters . Because accuracy =.s the most important auality that can begiven to T&HR, our policy has beer Lo exlude them entirely .Most papers used in 'I'&HL' come from the Council for Tobacco Research librarythrough the advance distribution of Ken Austin of C'IR . Candidates for T&HR arexeroxed and kept for the next issue of T&HR . Other sources should, of course,be watched .

Q B. Criteria for Selection: First, the reports should be on new research,~ - 3O~ if possible . It need not always deal with some aspect of tobacco

; for example,a report indicating some factor or factors other than smo k cing may be involvedin one of tne diseases with which smoking has been associated . Other examples :

~ - a report in which the statistics of a smoking-associated disease are~~ ~questionedr ' ' 0y . . ' d

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- one in which death certificates or classifications of such a disease r~ are questioned tOz one showing that many lung cancers may be metastatic from some otherorgan . ~

-- one indicating that a virus may cause human cancer, whether or notthat cancer is associated with smokingone on research with animals, indicating that some other Pactor ybe involved with carcinogenesis or ciliostasis 7 1 3890


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?'!,~e most important type of story is that which casts doubt on the causeand effect theory of disease and smoking .

K second major category is medical opinion . The best of this type is

the report based on extensive review of the literature (such as :.eltzer's

1967 review of heart disease) . Second best are those in which a d3etor ofstature challenges the findings or conclusions of another (Garland doubtingAuerbach's interpretations of his lung slides, for example) .

Cccasionally, a'avorable editorial from a medical journal may be used,

but these must be chosen with care . An editorial from ia1~A or The Lancet

is obviously important .

^- third ma . .;or category is C'i''4-USA news . MIiR has announced annual grantS,

summarized annual reports, and summa.rized important papers deli vered by

Dr. Hcc:kett and Dr . Little. ( Lisually, the stories were Qcec- .,wnied by aboxed offer to supply complete texts on request .)

III . 'ZI2'I ; : C

A. Structure : 'ihe usual newspaper practice of leading off witnh the mostimportant finding is used . This -finding may be the most important finding to

tobacco, rather than the one considered most important by the author . If there

is a second important finding, this is usually placed in the second paragraph .

I ' r.is is followed by detail of who conducted the work and where, and 'ao it was

done. The article ends with direct quotations, if the payer contains any good

ones. If nct, the quotes are paraphrased .

Citations are footnoted at first opportunity in the story . This footnoting

has two purposes : It gives a scientific journal aura to the story, and itprevents cluttering up the story with space-consuming identification .

tIPCR'PA_NT : If the paper contains any conclusions or findings unfavorableto tobacco, these are reported scrupulously. The account of these findingsmay be terse and placed at the end of the story, but it must be there .

B . :=eadlines : These should be very carefully :rritten on the premise thatdoctors and scientists, like other readers, often grab information from the

headlines and nothing more. Thus, the headline should strongly call out the

point -- Controversy! Contradiction : Other i'actors: unkno.ms :

C. Editorial Comment : ?The policy has been to allow almost no editorial

co=ent . Very occasionally, coimnent to the extent is permitted :

1 . Exnlanation of a scientific term which is likely to be outsidethe average physician's experience (in an item on free radicals

or some other area of physics, for example) .

2 . Notation that a carc;nogen being discussed in an animal experi-

ment has not been found in cigarette smoke .

3 . Citation of an earlier study, if the present article confirms

and/or extends the earlier one, particularly if iH&R has reportedthe earlier paper .

CONFUjENTIAI,: TIMN 0071489MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION


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T:e general ru' e has been : "'Aaen in doubt, don't . ' Strenuous e"oris _.aCe to keep the tone s trictly reportorial and. neutral, and to allLc,w t : P

material to carry itsel~ on i ts c~rn i :~trinsic r~eri ts an d on the placement

of . ,:e i tem on the page .

T NT~ ~~~v LrL=TMe present s jstem is as lollows :

A . A list of proposed articles, with brief 3escript-s ons and ta.ou5zhtsabout the placement, to`ether wi th attribution of source and date is aravnup . ;esix ated 1' .I . officers and attorneys reviev this list, apnro4- ng,alti:.g, and ad3ir_d suggestions where they feel necessary .

- 2 . `!i?e ?pproved i tems are written, along ; , H - t h Q n ' " ' ' i .Pi`.2 &oi k'Y'eat _ : 1 2 ~ o Y ' t a ' _:c: a ?:-ich has appeared since . A tentative layout is prepared and ventative :,ewd-ia =zs are written . Cne conplete set of layout, eedi., a ~_~_~es nd copy ~oes toattorneys ; one to T . I . o.Lice_s and three to : d ." ' . Hloyt- of C~ wi t ~,1 a r c % :estT~

that :e ask Drs . Little and ._ockett Qor their comments and suggestio_^_s . ' : ` : , r osets are kept, rith source material attached for easy reference, shcul: az ! , . :estio :n arise .

~ . : , h e :^ the copy is returned, the indication changes are m ade ?r_,4 . r _ e : 1

-a ter ial Hr i t ten, i any z vem has been re jected . .

F =esh copy is then prepared for the printer and sent for tjpography .

'{nal laf out is prepared at this point.'D . then galley proofs are returned, the issue is du=ied a_* :d retur _e3 to

the t~To6rapher for page makeup . At least eight sets of nare Proofs arere^uared. Sets for T .I . officers and la*,ryers and ~or _'r. Iio~ and Drs. L_ttles , . n : _=cckett . Cne se t i skept for the files, and. the other is carefully proof-read and otzerwise ad,justedd and returned to the printer :1hes the correctionsa.nd su .gges tions come in . Final corrections are made by the 5r{ nter, andiresh page proofs prepared . ''hese are carefully proofread by at least t,To;eople, and names, iigures and ouo~-~tions ~.oablechecked against the originalsource .

V. CLRCLZA'iICN

Present circulation uses several different mailing lists, which are enumeratedon the attached memo .

; l l . =SS CQPIE-S AND RELEASE

It has been the practice to ma.il first class the copies going to the press,along with a two-page press release . The release consists of a long storydescribing the major contents of the issue, plus four or five one-or-twosentence "Briefs From TOBACCO AND HEALTH RESr1ARCK" which some editors mayuse as fillers . The release requires usual clearance .

CONFIDENTIAL :MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION

TIMN 0071490

~3892


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1 1 ? ' I . CC'_RRESPCriD . - F V C , E

! :ertai n set rules have been develoaed for the handling of co_=es_ cncance fa ; : ^

V . D . ' s and scien tis ts: ~1. Every letter, no ms.tter how abus; ve, must be answered : roxi ;_y

and courteously . Several "Porms" are use~ . .

2 . Every effort must be made to exclude _rom future :.ailinzs those

who request that their names be r emoved from the m.ailinK list .

3 . C areful recor ds of all corr espondence must be kept for future

reference . This r ecord can be useful in other si tuations :

Where you want to know, for example, a doctor' s stand on s : n o k i n K .

4 . rny reques t for ori ginal materi al should be honored promptl f .

T J I I I . MISCELLABECu'S

A. '?'he need for acc~zracy and complete fairness in reporting :rork _s

self-evident but is worth reiterating . IneTrent of any error or comA=sint,

correction and apologies are in order. So far as we can recoilect, or ;r one

error calling for correction ever appeared in MhR, and this was handlad

promptly and ai thout rancor on tne part of the authors, who were s ; mpa thetic

to the problem .

B . P ermissi on to use material has never been sought from either pl . i ' c -

lication or authors . This procedure was based on exFediehcy but was backed

up in?ormally by some legal discussions concerning copyright. (Apparently

the -rorst tn.at might happen would be a suit for daw . a .Qes ~ahicnh could recover

about the amount that would have been paid had the original publication been

paid for use of material -- and even this is somewhat z;rpothetical . ) However,worse than damages would be alienation of publication or authors, so this

again emphasizes need for aseptic treatment of material .

^ . Back and current copies of ~~'M are often valuable sources of i :^for-

mation in answer to queries from many sources . Issues can be marked up, for

example, to cover reports concerning heart diseases, or cancer, or s'-~,atistics,

etc .

Carl Thompson

CT:sdd

CONFIDENTIAL :MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION TIMN 0071491

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ti, 1968, thompson on best stories cast doubt

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