Tobacco makers appealed and reappealed the Banzhaf decision, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, letting the decision stand. The industry tried to mount an aggressive countercampaign. An unpublicized internal report drawn up in 1969 to respond to the looming threat of the FCC advertising ban concluded, “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact.’” But antismoking advocates had also learned the tricks of the trade; if tobacco sellers had “doubt” to sow into public minds, then tobacco opponents had something just as visceral: fear—in
...more
