Well, not that shocked. Because it’s a court-ordered admission to *years* of lying to the American public.
What’s shocking is that it’s taken this long for Big Tobacco to be held accountable. They were found to have violated racketeering laws and of committing fraud 11 whole years ago, but managed to put off publically owning up to their lies until now.
What exactly did the tobacco companies lie about?
Oh, you know. Just the deadliness of their products. The addictiveness of their products. The negative health effects of their products.
To use the judge’s words, they “marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, and with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for human tragedy or social costs.”
That’s damning AF.
We’ve all paid the price — millions of deaths and more millions of health issues stemmed from their lies. And they’re finally having to publicly fess up to *knowing* their products were deadly, unhealthy, and majorly addictive.
But here’s the thing: most Americans don’t even know about the court ruling.
A study shows that less than 32% of Americans are aware of the court ruling. And these “corrective statements” (where they dryly run down a list of all the sh*t they lied about) that they’re being forced to publish, aren’t likely to reach young potential smokers.
So we’re calling them out. This story belongs at the top of every newsfeed.
Help us spread the word that the biggest liar of 2017 (which… is a tough race to win) is Big Tobacco. We’re not letting this damning conviction slide under the rug.