A Sneaky Tactic by Big Tobacco? You Decide

Source from:  Sep 19, 2007 By Melica Johnson and KATU Web Staff 09/25/2007

A letter from a Salem school teacher trying to get you to vote against a proposed cigarette tax is not what it appears to be at first glance. The letter is in reference to Measure 50, which, if passed, would increase the state's cigarette tax to provide money for children's health care and to fund tobacco prevention. The letter states it is from the desk of Ben Matthews, a first grade teacher at Arthur V. Myers Elementary School in Salem, but the return address on the envelope tells a different story. You see, the letter was actually mailed from the office of Mark Nelson, a lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. "It's not clear that big tobacco is behind it, and it is behind it," said Jane Killefer with the Oregon Education Association, a Measure 50 supporter. "It is deceiving. It is. Because it's a tactic they're using that's not very honest." If you look closely, the letter is paid for by Oregonians Against the Blank Check, which is actually a cover group for big tobacco. According to David Douglass, a Professor of Rhetoric at Willamette University, using Ben Matthew's name was a calculated move. "It lends this letter a kind of credibility because we tent to trust teachers," Douglass said. "We tend to trust educators." Nelson said the letter is not misleading since everyone knows the tobacco industry is against the tax, so we asked the obvious question - if everybody knows the campaign is funded by R.J. Reynolds, why not put that on the letter? "We don't think it's needed," Nelson said, adding that the purpose of the letter was to outline the points of the campaign, not who is funding it. When asked whether the teacher was paid for the letter, Nelson said no, he volunteered. When asked whether the teacher wrote the letter himself, Nelson said "we helped him and he approved it - we went through about four or five drafts." Ben Matthews, who did not return calls on Wednesday, is in the minority among his teaching peers. Almost every educational organization in Oregon has come out in support of raising the cigarette tax to pay for children's health care. Enditem