inside story on tobacco whistleblowing scoop a lesson for journos

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2000)

"Insider" was a lot better than I expected, much more thoughtful and absorbing than the schlock thriller suggested by the trailer. At two hours 40 minutes it's far too long for a thriller and we could have done without the trip to Lebanon to see the head of the Hezbollah, but we do get an intelligent analysis of whistleblowing.
Whistleblowing is full of pitfalls, and internal whistleblowers tend to get it in the neck. Jeffrey Wigand, former Brown & Williamson head of R & D, here at least survives with his integrity intact, though he loses his family. To the press he is a person - until the next story comes along. America's "free" press is generally thought of as being pretty fearless, but this story (largely true, it is claimed) shows a media giant, CBS, being stopped in its tracks by a legal side wind. As if "tortious interference with contractual relations" could stand in the face of the First Amendment after the US v Nixon. The alternative explanation - worries about the effect of a lawsuit on the value of executive stock options - was much more plausible.
The disclosure itself really came as no surprise - that B & W, a big tobacco company, retained a proven harmful ingredient in cigarettes to keep customers addicted. It also came as no surprise that all the tobacco company CEOs perjured themselves before a congressional committee when they swore that they did not believe nicotine was addictive. In fact the only real reason for trying to shut Wigand up was as an awful example to other insiders who might be contemplating similar moral outrage.
Russell Crowe, aged suitably, portrays Wigand as very focused but rather emotional man who has difficulty in both expressing and dealing with his feelings. Strangely enough his true metier turns out to be teaching. Al Pacino as the investigative TV journalist Lowell Bergman is a much more straightforward piece of acting. Bergman is not very susceptible to self-doubt - the faults he rails against are in the news institution he serves. Christopher Plummer plays the "60" Minutes anchorman Mike Wallace as somewhat of an egomaniac (you can see why the real Mike Wallace didn't like the portrayal) who, more used to getting his own way, was allegedly rather more prepared to bend to his corporate masters than Bergman was,.At the end, the fictional Mike Wallace redeems both himself and CBS. Some of the minor characters are beautifully done also, such as Michael Gambon as the sinister southern gentleman B & W CEO and Gina Gershon as the super smooth CBS in-house counsel whose iron-clad poise Bergman manages to disrupt.
It's interesting to compare the "wives" in the story. Mrs Wigand is the traditional supportive housewife, and she crumbles under the strain (which is considerable, death threats, bullets in the letterbox, financial stringency and worries about two small chidren). Bergman's partner, admittedly not under quite the same pressure, with her own job and perspective, acts as a useful sounding board for Lowell. It seems if you want to have a really supportive partner you should have someone with a bit of emotional independence.
Big tobacco certainly has a lot of clout but it has since been brought to an accounting of sorts with the US$250 billion settlement in the States' lawsuit (which has a role in the movie). What I find truly amazing about the US political system, though, is the way quite minor lobbies can paralyse government action, for example relations with Cuba. For the sake of two or three congressional seats in the Miami area the US government keeps Cuba in the deep freeze, to the long-term detriment of both countries.
On journalism, it was nice to be reassured that those who do their work properly get the better stories. The New York Times was happy just to print Bergman's leaks to it on arguments within CBS about airing the Wigand story. The Wall Street Journal (ficticiously prompted by Bergman) got a much better story when it checked out the 500 page dossier on Wigand prepared and distributed by his ex-employer and found that much of it was false.