Andy Rooney 60 Minutes Segment (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

International issues mentioned at the end of this commentary

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org


     Andy Rooney segment from CBS 60 Minutes,
     broadcast Sunday, April 26, 1998.

     Participants:  Ed Bradley, 60 Minutes Correspondent
                    Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes Commentator
                    Ernest Hollings, US Senator
                    Newt Gingrich, US Representative
                    Bill Clinton, US President

                                   * * *

     Bradley:  What do want to say something about tonight, Andy?

     Rooney:   Tonight I want to say something about tobacco.

               I think its safe to say we all owe something to the
               tobacco companies. I mean hate is such a satisfying
               emotion. And how many things are there that we all hate
               as much as we hate the tobacco companies.

               In congress they've been arguing about a law that would
               make the tobacco companies pay 516 billion dollars for
               a so-called settlement. But what's to settle? Smoking
               cigarettes often leads to death from lung cancer or
               heart disease. Why is congress pussyfooting around?

     Hollings: [From archived news footage]
               Because it is very complicated and not very pleasing to
               everybody.

     Gingrich: [From archived news footage]
               My position is that the money has to go to children's
               health. That's the biggest single question I have about
               the entire tobacco deal.

     Rooney:   In Kentucky President Clinton said he didn't want to
               put tobacco companies out of business.

     Clinton:  [From archived news footage]
               We have, we have no interest whatever in putting the
               tobacco companies out of business. I just want to get
               them out of the business of selling tobacco to
               children.

     Rooney:   Well, why in the world doesn't he want to put them out
               of business? How does he feel about the Mexican drug
               cartels? Which weed has killed more people over the
               years? Tobacco or marijuana? No contest, tobacco has.
               Marijuana and cocaine are bad for people so they're
               illegal. Why isn't tobacco illegal?

               The idea that the United States government actually
               pays farmers to grow tobacco is one of the great
               mysteries of our capitalistic economy. We should pay
               them not to grow tobacco? That's what we should do.

               Tobacco companies are trying to make up for the loss of
               business in the United states by selling more
               cigarettes in foreign countries.

               [Footage of "Philip Morris" and "Galaxy" cigarettes
               from foreign TV commercials]

               No wonder Americans are thought of as the bad guys in
               so many other places. Its no worse to sell a carton of
               cigarettes to a sixteen-year-old American kid than it
               is to sell one to a sixteen-year-old in Africa, China
               or South America. It should be as illegal to export
               cigarettes as it is to import cocaine.

               Smokers make some people mad. They don't make me mad.
               They make me sad. We've got a couple of them right here
               at 60 Minutes. Harry Reasoner was addicted to
               cigarettes.

               The tobacco companies are addicted - not to cigarettes.
               They're addicted to money. and they can't get enough of
               it.