Deadly Spin (32 page)

7
.    “Insurance and HMO Industries Spend Nearly $700,000 per Day to Kill Health Care Reform Measures,” Public Campaign Action Fund, Sept. 15, 2009, accessed at
http://www.campaignmoney.org/HMO_insurance_spend_to_kill_reform
.

8
.    “The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform: Key to Cost Control and Quality Coverage,” Jacob S. Hacker, Ph.D., Institute for America’s Future, Dec. 16, 2008, accessed at http://institute.ourfuture.org/files/Jacob_Hacker_Public_Plan_Choice.pdf?#.

9
.    “Poll: Most Back Public Health Care Option,” CBS News, June 20, 2009, accessed at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/19/opinion/polls/main5098517.shtml
.

10
.    “National Health Expenditures Historicals for 1960–2007,” table 13, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, accessed at
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/tables.pdf
.

11
.    “Insurer-Owned Consulting Firm Often Cited in Health Debate,” David Hilzenrath,
Washington Post
, July 23, 2009, Accessed at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072203696.html
.

12
.    “The Health Insurers Have Already Won,” Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein,
BusinessWeek
, Aug. 6, 2009, accessed at
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_33/b4143034820260.htm
.

13
.    “Health Care: It’s Time for a Major Overhaul,” Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet, Dec. 1, 2008,
http://www.alternet.org/story/109230
.

14
.    “Top Insurance Lobbyist: Dem ‘Vilification’ Could Kill Reform,” Alan Fram, Associated Press, Aug. 10, 2009, accessed at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/10/karen-ignagni-ahip-presid_n_255615.html
.

15
.    “Reality Check: AHIP’s ‘Study’ Hard to Take Seriously,” White House Blog, Oct. 12, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Reality-Check-AHIPs-Study-Hard-to-Take-Seriously
.

16
.    “PricewaterhouseCoopers Backs Away from AHIP,” Ezra Klein,
Washington Post
, Oct. 13, 2009, accessed at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/pricewaterhousecoopers_backs_a.html.

17
.    “Prognosis Improves for Public Insurance,” Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery,
Washington Post
, Oct. 24, 2009, accessed at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102304081.html?sid=ST2009102400183
.

18
.    “Anthem Blue Cross Dramatically Raising Rates for Californians with Individual Health Policies,” Duke Helfand,
Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 4, 2010, accessed at http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/04/business/la-fi-insure-anthem5-2010feb05.

CHAPTER XI: THE PLAYBOOK

1
.    “Tobacco Additives: Cigarette Engineering & Nicotine Addiction,” Clive Bates, Martin Jarvis, and Gregory Connolly, Action on Smoking and Health, July 14, 1999.

2
.    Document 2075733345/3346, Philip Morris Collection (hereafter “PM”), 2000, Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (hereafter “LTDL”), http://legacy .library.ucsf.edu.

3
.    “Enzi: Peace Treaty with Philip Morris No Way to Win War on Tobacco,” TradingMarkets.com, May 21, 2009,
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2340845
.

4
.    Document 2501358202/8212, PM, 1994, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

5
.    Document 505467389/7392, R. J. Reynolds Collection (hereafter “RJR”), 1986, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

6
.    Document 2047871256/1259, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

7
.    Document 507746564/6567, RJR, 1991, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

8
.    Document 2023959567/9579, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

9
.    “Pro-Tobacco Writer Admits He Should Have Declared an Interest,” Zosia Kmietowicz and Annabel Ferriman,
British Medical Journal
, February 2002; also Document 208578334/3335, LTDL, 2002, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rce20c00.

10
.    “A Snort of Derision,” Roger Scruton,
Times
(United Kingdom), October 19, 1998; also Document 2064822424-2426, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

11
.    Document 2504092395/2405, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

12
.    Document 2025492898/2905, PM, 1994, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

13
.    Document 2024233677/3682, LTDL, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.

14
.    “How BP Secretly Buys PR,” Rick Outzen, Daily Beast, May 19, 2010,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-19/how-bp-secretly-buys-pr/
.

15
.    “Slick Operator: How British Oil Giant BP Used All the Political Muscle Money Can Buy to Fend Off Regulators and Influence Investigations into Corporate Neglect,” Michael Isikoff and Michael Hirsh,
Newsweek
, May 7, 2010.

16
.    “BP: Coloring Public Opinion,” Gregory Solman,
Adweek
, Jan. 14, 2008.

17
.    “Oil Industry Front Group Runs Climate Change Disinfo Ads,” David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com, Sept. 7, 2009,
www.naturalnews.com/026985_oil_industry_climate_change_natural_health.html
.

18
.    “The 700 Club,” Jake Whitney, Guernica, April 26, 2010,
www.guernicamag.com/interviews/1687/700_club/
.

19
.    “Lobbyists Lining Up Against Nutter’s Soda Tax,” Jeff Shields,
Philadelphia Inquirer
, March 11, 2010.

20
.    “Soda Tax Gone; Nutter Eyes Jobs,” Catherine Lucey,
Philadelphia Daily News
, May 21, 2010.

21
.    “D.C. Soda Tax Proposal Draws Opposition from Beverage Industry,” Tim Craig,
Washington Post
, May 14, 2010.

22
.    “Rent-A-Front: New Group Wages Stealth Battle Against Wall Street Reform,” Justin Elliott, Talking Points Memo, April 21, 2010,
www.tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/rent-a-front_stop_too_big_to_fail_fights_reform.php
.

23
.    “Goldman Sachs Publicly Supports Financial Reform, but Fights It with Lobbyists,” Adele Hampton, Huffington Post, May 17, 2010,
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/goldman-sachs-publicly-su_n_578434.html
.

CHAPTER XII: SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

1
.   
Losing the News
, Alex S. Jones, Oxford University Press, 2009, 221.

2
.    “Murdoch Sees Newspaper Future on iPads,” Sylvia Smith, NPC Wire, April 7, 2010, accessed at
http://www.press.org/wire/article.cfm?id=2059
.

3
.    “Rocky Mountain News to Close, Publish Final Edition Friday,” Lynn DeBruin,
Rocky Mountain News
, Feb. 26, 2009, accessed at
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/26/rocky-mountain-news-closes -friday-final-edition
.

4
.   
Losing the News
, Jones, 2–3.

5
.    Ibid., 3–4.

6
.    “Newspapers Lost 105K Jobs Since 2001,” Erik Sass, MediaDailyNews, Feb. 22, 2010, accessed at
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.printFriendly&art_aid=122901
.

7
.    “The Reconstruction of American Journalism,” Leonard Downie and Michael Schudson,
Columbia Journalism Review
, Oct. 19, 2009, accessed at
http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php
.

8
.   
Losing the News
, Jones, xviii.

9
.    Ibid., 7.

10
.    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment Statistics Survey,” May 2008.

11
.   
Toxic Sludge Is Good for You
, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Common Courage Press, 1995, 272.

12
.   
Toxic Sludge
, Stauber and Rampton, 272–74.

13
.    “Why Is It Taking So Long?,” Brad Collins,
Solar Today
, January/February 2010, 10.

14
.    “Journalism 2009: Desperate Metaphors, Desperate Revenue Models, and the Desperate Need for Better Journalism,” Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post, Dec. 1, 2009,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/journalism-2009-desperate_b_374642.html
.

15
.    Ibid.

16
.   
Losing the News
, Jones, 8.

17
.    Ibid., xviii.

18
.   
Losing the News
, Jones, 99.

A Note on the Author

Wendell Potter is the senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy. He has appeared on countless television and radio programs and has been quoted in newspapers and magazines across the country. Prior to his twenty-five-year career in public relations, he was a journalist for the
Memphis Press-Scimitar
and Scripps Howard news service.

Copyright © 2010 by Wendell Potter Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury Press, New York

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Potter, Wendell, 1951—
Deadly spin : an insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate PR is killing health care and deceiving Americans / Wendell Potter.— 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Other title: Insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate PR is killing health care and deceiving Americans
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60819-281-6 (hardcover)
1. Health insurance— United States. 2. Insurance companies— Public relations— United States. I. Title. II. Title: Insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate PR is killing health care and deceiving Americans. [DNLM: 1. Insurance, Health— economics—United States. 2. Delivery of Health Care— economics—United States. 3. Health Care Reform— economics—United States. 4. Health Care Sector— economics—United States. 5. Public Relations— economics—United States. W 275 AA1 P825d 2010]

HG9383.P68 2010
659.2'936800973—dc22
201002270

First published in the United States by Bloomsbury Press in 2010
This e-book edition published in 2010

E-book ISBN: 978-1-60819-350-9

www.bloomsburypress.com