European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 27, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes sunday july 27,1986 George will tobacco ads should be banned Nof protected if applause is indeed the Echo of platitude applause probably greeted the Legal director of the american civil lib erties Union when he denounced government imposed but before applauding understand that Burl Neu born s worry is the ignorance that would result from a ban on All forms of tobacco thinks such a ban would be unconstitutional and immoral. It would be a recent decision upholding the constitutionality of puerto Rico s ban on the advertising of Casino gambling which is Legal there the supreme court reiterated the principle that commercial speech is More subject than other speech to regulation when the regulation directly advances a substantial government in Terest such As Public health. That principle flows from this one the first amendment is after All an amendment to a political document. It primary Protection is for speech related to the process by which we govern our selves the working of representative government and the cultural activities that nourish a free society. In the puerto Rico Case Justice Rehnquist writing for the majority argued that regulation of the advertising Ofa product is less intrusive than regulating the Sale of the product. There Are Only afew products such As contraceptives the Sale of which enjoy constitutional Protection smoking like gambling is not a constitutional would be perverse to argue that a legislature can ban a product or activity but cannot regulate commercial speech that stimulates demand for that Sam product or activity. It is Odd to suggest that Banning Tobac co advertisements would constitute enforced ignorance of what the availability of cigarettes neusome considers a ban on tobacco ads a form of censorship and says All censorship arises from paternalistic Zeal to shield other presumably less enlightened americans from speech that one or another press regroup thinks in t particularly Good for no one thinks tobacco advertising is Good for someone who reads it. Per haps because he knows that reasonable people can not differ about tobacco advertising s potential for Good neusome leaps As the Acle is wont to do to the notion that any regulation of any sex Carl Rowan i Okaj is oarq8o6ur Hrth. i Suyeon general no to pkwy a a a fear two nor Gilt few. Hqwmi7 a of Aknoun pm and Tymir Fababe farm pression puts society on the path to totalitarianism. The hallmark of a totalitarian state he says is a government managed information but examine the average cigarette advertisement toothsome Young people frolicking in surf a picture of a Moun Tain Meadow slogans such As get a taste of it or come to where the try to measure the information con tent. Cigarette advertisements Are no seminars they Are inducements. Neusome says it is incipient by totalitarian for government to use Manipula Tion of information As a behaviour modification by manipulation he seems to mean any government use of selected information for government purposes. By his logic he must oppose the required health warnings on cigarette advertisements the Only real information in most such ads. Much modern illness is voluntary meaning based on behaviour peo ple eat and drink foolishly exercise Doolittle smoke drive recklessly. The Only substantial improvements of Public health immediately available can come not from new medical technologies but from modifications of behaviour. The most successful Cost effective govern ment programs of the last several dec Ades have involved government directed flows of information about smoking High blood pressure automobile safety Etc. And the behaviour modification Capac Ity of advertisements without ascribing to advertising More manipulative Power than can be measured one fact is telling. Last year $2 billion was spent Advertis ing tobacco products. It is to say no More counter intuitive to suggest As some Industry sources do that the principal purpose of such Adver Tising is to influence the choices of con firmed smokers who change 10 percent of smokers change each year. Anyway Many competing brands Are manufactured by the same Parent companies that Are buying the Advertis ing. Given that 330,000 persons die each year from smoking related illnesses and one million quit the Industry must find1.35 million new customers a year just to maintain its Market. Advertising is de signed to manufacture new demand not just redirect existing demand. Furthermore cigarette advertise ments which Are Low on information and High on appeals to social aspirations Areat to be especially effective with Young people. Sixty percent of today s smoker started by the age 13 or 14. The evidence from the nations with the severest limit son cigarette advertising is that after such advertising is limited adult smokers continue but fewer Young people Start the habit. Sen. Bill Bradley in j., note that the tobacco Industry having tried the patience of reasonable people by arguing that smoking does not cause ill Ness now suggests that advertising do snot cause smoking. Two billion dollars says they do not believe that. nicaraguans can t win in Reagan Ortega feud bitter emotional fights Between neigh Borsare always lamentable. The feud Between the Reagan administration and the sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua is especially bad. It drags the people of both countries into morally and legally indefensible postures and it guarantees Thano mat Ter what the future the nicaraguan people will be the big losers. It has Long been Clear that neither thoughtful americans nor the nicaraguan people want Rule by the contras a cutthroat band of thieves who manage to steal most of the Money the United states sends in to try t6 prevent Nicaragua from becoming another communist beachhead just off the Southern shores of our nation. It is becoming clearer that Ortega and the Sandinia tas deliberately or stupidly Are showing that they de serve no support from the people of the world who hate gunboat diplomacy and the United states View that it can dictate the social political and economic systems of its latin american neighbors. Ortega has shown an incredible Knack for embarrassing Nicaragua s friends in Congress by going to the soviet Union just when a crucial vote is up on Aid to his enemies the contras. Just when the world court condemns the unite states As an International outlaw and bully Ortega goes out of his Way to posture Nicaragua As a dictatorial repressive country striving to emulate Russia and nazi Germany. Ortega has abandoned the moral High ground by expelling from Nicaragua Catholic Bishop Pablo Anto Nio Vega which Pope John Paul ii called an almost incredible the sandinista accused Bishop Vega Nave betrayed a revolution and a murderous group off conspiring with the Cia a charge that seems contras who seem to offer nothing that decent demo Gallin Gly hollow in View of the bang of the director lure support is contingent upon the sandinista Ceas ing the oppression of the Church and opening the doors to a free press. Ortega must be Able to withstand the criticism of those who disagree with him Jackson told me. Jackson is not the Only american who is appalled by recent actions of the sandinista regime. In fact Mil Lions of americans anguish Over having to make Choice Between a ruthless band of sandinista who of Catholic radio monsignor Bismarck Carballo from returning to his Homeland from a trip abroad and the june 26 shutdown of the Only opposition newspaper la Prensa. The Ortega regime is losing support in More places than the Vatican and press circles. The Rev. Jesse Jackson a vocal foe of . Aid to the contras went to the embassy a few Days ago to warn the nicaraguan ambassador that world sympathy has Bee your strongest ally your recent actions have eroded world the nicaraguan embassy has sent a special emissary uralic people can accept. Long used . Policies of gunboat pressures an political manipulation will not meet the Challenge of Nicaragua today. We ought to be Able to live without neighbors to the South the Way we live in relative peace with Canada. But factors of race historical arrogance on the part of the United states soviet Union Blandishments and the stupidity of the Ortega regime seem to make a military confrontation inevitable. Bad neighbors policies seem to be dragging us to a calamity. C a fat amen i syn due
