| Better (%) | About the Same (%) | Worse (%) | DK/refused (%) | |
| Overall, in terms of ethics and values, do you think election campaigns in [your state] have gotten BETTER in the last 20 years, gotten WORSE, or do think they’re about the same? | 15 | 43 | 37 | 5 |
“A tax on working people!”
The phrase undoubtedly resonates with anyone not confined to a missile siloduring the past few weeks. It’s the anthem of the tobacco industry’s multimillion dollar ad campaign to defeat a proposed $1.10-per-pack tax oncigarettes.
And it’s a clever catchphrase because it can be interpreted several ways,thanks to the imprecision of English. Who are “working people?” What does “atax on working people mean?” Do unemployed people not smoke? Or is the phrase designed to make the per-pack tax sound to the casual listener like somethingit is not–a hated income tax? The phrase certainly leaves a verbal residueof “a tax on working” in the mind of a distracted listener or viewer.
Welcome to the world of confuse and conquer. As the public tries to digestmanageable portions of the gush of mass-media information–something liketrying to take a sip from a fire hose–those in the business of persuadingthe public have found that the disconnected piece of propaganda can carry thewrong message but trigger the right response.
The confuse and conquer technique is an old one, but it probably moved intothe big leagues of propaganda during the 1988 Bush-Dukakis presidentialcampaign with the “Willie Horton” commercial. The spot mixed and matchedstatistics to create a false implication that 268 first-degree murderers hadescaped a Massachusetts furlough program and gone on to commit other crimes.
Actually, only one first-degree murderer escaped. A total of 268 criminalsconvicted of a variety of crimes, such as burglary and drug possession, didescape. But superimposition of a graphic over an announcer’s narrationcreated the impression desired by the Bush-backing political action committee:an avalanche of murderers flowing through the revolving doors of justice.
The strategy worked, and during the following decade we were assaulted withconfuse-and-conquer claims:
But all these examples have one thing in common: To an extent, theyeventually backfired. The 1988 campaign left a foul taste and the sametactics were largely unpalatable and counterproductive in 1992. Long-distancecarriers faced increased scrutiny and clarified their claims. Colleges thatcooked the books were embarrassed by a series of investigative articles in theearly 1990s, and college guides now give the figures submitted by colleges atleast a cursory inspection. And the Securities and Exchange Commission iscracking down on financial pitches, including the notoriously confusingprospectuses for mutual funds.
The point? The public is on a propaganda learning curve, both intellectuallyand ethically. It may take a long time for the confuse-and-conquer techniqueto be recognized for what it is, but we are gradually becoming more savvy andintolerant of it.
We’re toiling to chip away at the propaganda machines. Call us the “workingpeople.”
What constitutes the greatest good for the greatest number, and is that avalid ethical premise on which to base public policy?
Several stories in this week’s Business Ethics Newsline focus on thatquestion.
Topping our report is a report on an emerging issue likely to soon dominatenational headlines: a proposal for a universal health identification numberthat proponents claim will benefit most people in the United States by streamlining access tomedical records. But opponents contend that universal identification opensthe door to abuse–and a small number of medical consumers may find theirprivacy invaded.
A related story deals with the ethical implications of requiring insurers toprovide coverage for contraception. Backers argue the greatest good would beserved by the measure, while opponents claim that such measures are not theproper realm of government.
A classic confrontation over rights of the many versus the rights of a fewplayed out this week in Atlantic City, where a judge ruled that a small groupof property owners had the right to refuse to sell their land to casinodeveloper Donald Trump. Trump and the city had argued they had a right to theland under the principle of eminent domain, which holds that the governmentmay require the sale of private property if such a sale benefits the public atlarge.
In other news from the world of ethics, we report on problems related toskyrocketing CEO salaries in Great Britain; a strike authorization at Saturn,a division of troubled automaker GM; and a fine levied against AT&T forallegations of improperly switching customers’ long-distance service.
In a special report from London correspondent Nick Mills, the European Court of Justice ruled that trademark designers can prevent their products from being brought into European Union countries–and sold in discount chains–without their approval.
Two “good news”stories are included in our wrap-up this week: a report on how public sentiment kept an elderly man from losing hisbusiness, and some literal good news about an Arizona paper that publishes stories with a “good news” slant.
In our “Whatever Happened To . . . ” feature, we update three ongoing stories. First,a follow-up on Red Cross of Canada, beset with lawsuits after atainted-blood scandal in the late 1980s. Second, the ruling in a Britishcontroversy over the press paying criminals for their stories. And weconclude with an update on the continuing saga of a British company that tookenterprise too far and saw its novel scheme collapse in court.
Finally, we bring you a special report on the shootings at the Capitol building in Washington this past week.
–Carl Hausman
WASHINGTON, D.C.
In the first serious violent incident at the building since 1983, a gunman burst through a security checkpoint at the nation’s Capitol on Thursday and killed two Capitol police officers. One tourist was wounded, as was the gunman.
Details on the man, Russell Eugene “Rusty” Weston Jr., 41, were still sketchy at press time. It was known that he was a resident of Illinois and Montana, and it was reported that he had shown up as a “low-level threat” to the president’s life in 1996, at which point the Secret Service had interviewed the man. The Miami Herald reports that he was last seen on Thursday in Illinois, after having had an argument with his father over his use of his father’s shotgun to kill more than a dozen cats.
Senator Bill Frist (R-TN), a cardiac surgeon, reportedly rushed from his office to the scene and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on one of the wounded. Frist rode to the hospital in the ambulance with the man, who turned out to be Weston.
President Clinton, Speaker Newt Gingrich, and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt all issued statements of condolence. Flags were ordered to fly at half-staff.
“. . . no terrorist, no deranged person, no act of violence will block us from preserving our freedom and from keeping this building open to people from all over the world,” Gingrich said in the weekly Republican radio address.
“The shooting at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was a moment of savagery at the front door of American civilization,” President Clinton said at a briefing before he boarded Air Force One.
PHOENIX, Arizona
The Tribune, a suburban Phoenix newspaper, gave itsreaders a new slant on the news last week, changing its masthead to The GoodNews Tribune and its focus to the day’s positive stories.
Executive Editor Alan Geere told the Associated Press that the good news issuewas a conscious rejection of the myth that only “murder and mayhem, death anddestruction” are newsworthy.
The paper’s positive spin carried through each of its sections, includingbusiness, sports, and the front page. A report on a massive fire aboard aMiami ship was headlined: “All Aboard Survive Cruise Ship Fire.”
LONDON
A British court last week rejected the appeal of two men banned frombuying Internet domain names similar to the names of prominent U.K. companies and then tryingto sell them at a profit to those companies.
The men had argued that their actions–securing domain names, including”spicegirls.net,” “buckinghampalace.org,” and “burgerking.co.uk”–were nodifferent than buying cheap real estate to sell at a subsequently higherprice.
But Court of Appeals judges ruled that the ransomed names “were registered totake advantage of the distinctive character and reputation of the marks.”
SPECIAL TO NEWSLINE FROM LONDON CORRESPONDENT NICK B. MILLS
Should Europeanconsumers be able to shop for designer clothes andaccessories at cut-rate prices? The European Court of Justice thinks not.In a decision that has raised howls of protest from supermarket chains andconsumer groups, the court ruled that trademark owners, such as Calvin Kleinand Armani, can prevent their goods from being brought into the European Unioncountries without their approval. The ruling means that discount chains suchas Tesco and Sainsbury’s would be barred fromimporting designer goods from the cheap-labor markets of the Far East andselling them at prices far below those of the up-market stores approved by theproducer.
For example, Armani wants its clothing sold only in its ownstores or other approved shops at full retail price. Discounters such asTesco buy the clothing on the so-called “gray market” in the Far East andsell it at much lower prices. The discounters and consumer groups say thecourt’s ruling is anticompetitive and amounts to price-fixing.
The European Commission said the court ruling was good for consumersbecause it guaranteed quality and after-sale service. Britain’s consumeraffairs minister, Nigel Griffiths, called it “bad news for consumers.”
In a follow-up on a related story: After a successful U.K. lawsuit, TommyHilfiger has launched a series of lawsuits in the United States, hoping to keep itsexpensive products off discount stores’ shelves, saying that firms like Wal-Mart sell “apparel that allegedly infringes on ordilutes Tommy Hilfiger’s trademarks,” reports Reuters.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
A government panel began hearings last week on a controversialplan to assign a lifetime “unique health identifier” to every U.S. citizen,sparking concerns that the health-care I.D. number may invade patients’ privacy.
The I.D. number–intended to streamline the process of getting vital medicalinformation to doctors and health-care providers tapping into a nationaldatabase–is mandated by a provision of the popular 1996 Health InsurancePortability and Accountability Act, which also guarantees health insurance toworkers between jobs or with preexisting medical conditions.
Consumer rights groups and privacy advocates contend the tagging system opensthe door for intrusive government control of the health-care system and mightallow health information to be linked with financial data or criminal records,the Associated Press reported.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida
Florida utility regulators slapped AT&T with a $5.5-million fine last week on charges of switching customers from other phonecompanies to AT&T without the customers’ direct and informed consent, apractice known as “slamming.”
An AT&T spokesperson blasted the fine as “totally inappropriate,” claiming thatefforts to implement its zero tolerance policy against slamming–includingcanceling contracts with marketing firms who slam on AT&T’s behalf–havemade the company a model for industry reform, the Reuters news agencyreported.
The Florida Public Service Commission last year leveled smaller fines againstMCI and another now-defunct long-distance carrier.
LONDON
Top executives in the United Kingdom have ignored government pleasfor salary restraints, awarding themselves pay raises averaging six times therate of U.K. inflation and four times the growth in average earnings, accordingto a report last week in The Guardian newspaper.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown repeatedly has called on U.K. companiesto rein in skyrocketing CEO salaries, arguing that disproportionate salarylevels will spark demands for wage hikes by workers and spur high interestrates, job loss, and inflation.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee was told last weekthat legislation requiring health-care insurers to pay for contraceptiveswould help fix a system biased against women, the Associated Press reported.
Advocates say the proposed Equity in Prescription and Insurance andContraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC) would make insurance coverage moreequitable–balancing existing coverage for male impotence drugs–and morecost effective, by eliminating payments for subsequent abortions and prenatalcare.
The EPICC, written by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NE), has won the support of many malecolleagues who hope to bring the bill to the full Senate for debate in thenext few weeks.
LONDON
Britain’s Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ruled last week that fournewspapers that paid criminals for their stories may have acted in bad taste,but did not breach the country’s journalistic code of ethics.
The PCC said that the controversial payments did not violate the code becausethey focused attention on stories justified by “a very strong publicinterest.”
The controversy was fueled in part by a newspaper serialization of a biographyof convicted child murderer Mary Bell.
MINNEAPOLIS
Public outrage over plans to boot an 80-year-old shoe-shine manfrom his 36-year tenure at a Minnesota airport has won him a new five-yearcontract, derailing airport plans to cut costs by selling the shoe-shinecontract to a corporation that entered a lower bid.
Under a barrage of scathing public criticism, the Metropolitan AirportsCommission voted unanimously to reverse its decision to evict veteranshoe shiner Royal Zeno from his post at the Minneapolis-St. Paul InternationalAirport as part of a $14-million renovation plan.
Explaining the support for the shoe-shine man, one of Zeno’s six employees toldthe Associated Press, “It’s quite simple. . . . Most people are tired of bigcompanies eating up little people.”
SPRING HILL, Tennessee
Workers at General Motors’ one functioning U.S. factory–the Saturn subsidiary–voted last week to authorize a strike against thebeleaguered automaker, saying that their unique partnership with Saturnmanagement is being ruined by GM interference.
If a strike does materialize, it would be the first for Saturn, known for itsharmonious labor relations.
Saturn workers charge GM with trying to make their “different kind of carcompany” into a GM cookie-cutter plant by outsourcing, cutting bonuses, andreducing input in management decisions.
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey
Real estate mogul Donald Trump and the state ofNew Jersey lost a battle to expand a hotel and casino last week when a NewJersey judge dismissed their case against three property owners who refused tosell their land to make room for the construction.
The judge ruled that the state’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority,spurred by Trump’s requests, overstepped its authority by trying to seize thelandowners’ property by right of eminent domain in 1994.
“I believe in justice,” Vera Coking, one of the victorious landowners, told theAssociated Press. “I didn’t believe before, but I do now.”
TORONTO
A judge last week granted Canada’s Red Cross 30-days’bankruptcy protection from creditors while the health agency sells its bloodservices and reorganizes in the wake of a tainted blood scandal.
Proceeds from the $93-million sale will be used to pay off debts and theremaining proceeds will be placed in a trust fund to compensate victims.
About 22,000 Canadians contracted hepatitis C and 1,000 contracted the AIDSvirus through transfusions administered by the Red Cross between 1986 and1990, the Associated Press reported.
You are never so easily fooled as when trying to fool someone else.
–Francois de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)
