If we think that we're being told which foods are being tinkered
with or animals being fed growth enhancing substances, think again.
That's the reason to buy organic if you can afford to.
Judy Ritchie
Journalists Sue Fox
July 14, 2000
Ralph Nader, Walter Cronkite on Witness List
Fired Journalists Stand Up to Media Empire;
Whistleblower Case is First of its Kind
While an increasing number of Americans suspect mainstream news
organizations sometimes twist the news, two veteran investigative
journalists say they are ready to prove in court how Fox television
managers and lawyers at WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa ordered them to
deliberately
distort news reports and then fired them for resisting those directives.
The landmark whistleblower lawsuit is believed to be the first time any
journalist has ever filed a claim against his own news organization and
offered evidence of behind-the-scenes manipulation of the news.
When the trial begins next Monday, reporters Jane Akre (pronounced
Ay-cree) and Steve Wilson say they will show exactly how Fox hired them
and advertised their reputations for hard-hitting investigations but
then
folded and pressured them to slant a story in favor of an advertiser who
threatened "dire consequences" if their reports were broadcast.
CBS journalist Walter Cronkite and public interest advocate Ralph Nader
are both on the plaintiffs' witness list, despite efforts by Fox
attorneys
who desperately sought to block their testimony.
The trial will pit the two fired journalists (with Wilson representing
himself for more than two years in an effort to save money on legal
fees,
and Akre represented by a small Tampa firm) against the powerful
Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly, the same lawyers who
represent
President Bill Clinton personally. To get their day in court, the
plaintiffs have sold their home, spent their life savings battling the
media giant, and say they have been branded as media traitors never
likely
to get another good job in the business again.
To the amazement of most legal observers, the reporters paved their way
to
court by defeating three Fox motions to summarily dismiss the case
without
a trial. Those victories were engineered by Akre's legal team led by
John
Chamblee and Tom Johnson.
At the heart of the dispute is a series of reports produced by Akre and
Wilson revealing the widespread and virtually secret use of a synthetic
hormone being injected into dairy cows throughout Florida and much of
the
U.S. The hormone causes cows to produce more milk.
The investigative reports that Fox abruptly pulled from its schedule in
early 1997 would have revealed that without the consent or approval of
milk drinkers and those who serve it daily to their children, use of the
synthetic hormone has altered what used to be called "nature's most
nearly
perfect food."
The stories would have also disclosed for the first time that leading
grocers now admit they quietly broke their 1994 promises not to buy milk
from hormone-injected cows until the practice achieved widespread
acceptance. Surveys have shown that the vast majority of consumers do
not
want artificial hormones in their milk and would avoid such milk if it
were labeled. No dairy anywhere is known to label its milk as coming
from
cows injected with artificial hormones.
Although legal in America, the artificial bovine growth hormone (rBGH)
has
been banned in Canada, throughout Europe, and elsewhere due in large
part
to concern about health risks for milk drinkers. One of the chief
concerns
is that while the growth hormones do cause the cows to produce more
milk,
the milk is changed in a way that could promote breast, colon and
prostate
cancer.
"In wake of the two written threats from Monsanto to Fox News chief
Roger
Ailes, we were asked to put Fox's interest in its own bottom line ahead
of
the public interest," said plaintiff Steve Wilson. Monsanto is the
multi-national chemical company that makes the genetically engineered
hormone.
"When the president of Fox Television Stations saw those threats, that
executive who controls more television stations than anyone in America
simply ordered his lawyers to Ętake no risks' with the story," Wilson
said. The executive's directive has been confirmed in sworn testimony
from
two Fox attorneys in the written notes of one them.
And we have also discovered, in another handwritten note of one of the
broadcaster's attorneys, that if they tried to kill the story and word
leaked out, it would be "a major p-r problem for Fox," said co-plaintiff
Akre. "So they decided to eliminate their risk by pressuring us to
placate
Monsanto and essentially lie to the public. No decent journalist can
ever
do that."
The reporters will testify that Fox managers first threatened to fire
them
for insubordination, then offered them a six-figure deal to entice them
to
go along. When the pair refused, they say they were strung along for
months re-writing the story 83 times in an effort to get it on the air
before being suspended, locked out, and ultimately fired by Fox for what
the broadcasting company claimed was "no cause."
The reporters will not be able to tell the jury about a second deal Fox
offered to pay each reporter a whole year's salary for no-show jobs as
"news consultants" in exchange for their leaving quietly and never
disclosing to anyone what they learned regarding the milk or the quality
of Fox journalism. The trial court ruled that the second six-figure deal
was actually made to try and avoid a lawsuit. To encourage out-of-court
settlements, such offers cannot be admitted into evidence when disputes
cannot be settled without a trial.
The issue has drawn world-wide attention as a result of a website the
journalists posted the day their lawsuit was filed. The reporters, who
happen to be married to each other, have also traveled far and wide to
accept invitations to speak about genetically engineered milk and their
experiences with Fox. They have vowed not to personally benefit from
their
efforts to publicize the story Fox refused to tell.
Many of the documents from the suit are posted on the World Wide Web at
http://www.foxBGHsuit.com/
For further information or to arrange interviews:
Jane Akre or Steve Wilson (727) 796-6504 or [log in to unmask]
John Chamblee or Tom Johnson, Akre's Attorneys (813) 251-4542
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