The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi filed a motion
May 20 to compel sworn testimony by John Scanlon, a New York PR
consultant retained by tobacco company Brown & Williamson (B&W) to
distribute information to the press about Jeffrey Wigand, a former B&W
scientist.
Mississippi took the step last Monday after B&W rejected a
request by the State to question Scanlon. Mike Moore, attorney
general, alleges that Scanlon leaked information from a sealed
deposition to CBS-TV program "60 Minutes" and to The Wall Street
Journal. Moore contends that information from the deposition found
its way into a several-hundred-page dossier, "The Misconduct of
Jeffrey S. Wigand Available in the Public Record," which Scanlon
helped to prepare and distribute to the news media last year.
From a public relations point of view, the matter raises several
questions. If, as The Wall Street Journal suggested on Feb. 6, the
dossier contained contentions not backed by evidence, Scanlon could be
judged careless. But if he knowingly distributed charges that he knew
could not be proven, or knew to be false, he would be violating PR
codes of ethics, including those of the Public Relations Society of
America. He might also be open to charges of libel.
Scanlon responded to a call by PR NEWS on May 22, but declined
comment, asking to see the news release issued by the State of
Mississippi. After the document was faxed to his firm, he did not
respond as of PR NEWS' May 23 morning deadline.
Tom Fitzgerald, a Brown & Williamson executive was unable to
comment as of PR NEWS' deadline.
In addition to his difficulties with Mississippi, Scanlon faces
an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which believes
that distribution of the Wigand dossier may be a form of witness
intimidation (PR NEWS, Feb. 12, 1996, p. 1). (Abernathy MacGregor
Scanlon, 212/371-5999; Brown & Williamson, 502/568-7000)