J. H. Marsh to T. A. Dougherty and Others on Placing Favorable Asbestos Articles in the Press (1978)

A letter of November 17, 1978, from John H. Marsh to T. A. Dougherty, G. G. Gabrielson, H. B. Rhodes and others, enclosing a memo "relative to our recent discussion concerning the feasibility of providing objective data on asbestos to responsible science writers and editors in the news media" and asking that it go on the agenda for their November 29 meeting. The enclosed memo of November 7, from Milton Q. Scowcroft of Raybestos-Manhattan's Industrial Products Company in North Charleston, South Carolina, to R. H. Sturm, passed on a customer's suggestion: James Guthrie, retired executive editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was available to help write and place articles "that would cast asbestos and products made from asbestos in a much more favorable light."

What it shows

The customer, Wally Grossman of A-Best Products in Cleveland, had faulted R-M, the Asbestos Textile Institute and the Asbestos Information Association for their "inability or unwillingness to 'fight back'" against unfavorable publicity. Scowcroft thought the idea "has great merit" but noted that the Textile Institute could not pay for it and the Information Association would not.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

J.H. Marsh memo to T.A. Dougherty, et al., 11/17/78, enclosing a memo from M.Q. Scowcroft to R.H. Strum, 11/7/78, which is "relative to a recent discussion concerning the feasibility of providing objective data on asbestos to responsible science writers and editors in the news media." Scowcroft's memo states that a James Guthrie of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is available on a consulting basis to help write and to get published articles in the most prominent and respected newspapers "that would cast asbestos and products made from asbestos in a much more favorable light."

About this copy

This is document 678 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002358 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002359.