I get it; Altria doesn’t mean tobacco.

Oh wait, it does:

http://www.altriameanstobacco.com/

“every American corporation’s responsibility”

You bet. One tiny difference, hardly worth mentioning: every other corporation’s product, used as intended, doesn’t addict, maim, and kill the customer.

“the burden of proof”

Again I’m reminded of legal analysis by financial analysts, for some reason.

I’m not myself offering legal analysis here. In this case I think Big Tobacco’s own words make the point pretty well:

“Altria Group has a single overriding objective — to deliver superior returns to our shareholders”

When Big Tobacco is projecting an image of corporate “responsibility” the tune is different:

DOJ: Your goal is to maximize profits, right?

Philip Morris: No. . . . We try to balance many factors….

Oh gosh no. We wouldn’t put profits before human life. Golly.

In that respect the tobacco companies are no different than beer companies, car companies, insurance companies, drug companies, software companies, fast food companies, or any other large (”evil”) corporation. Unless you think there is something wrong with making money by providing goods and services there is nothing wrong with that.

Given the imperative to make money, by extension, every corporation also has some temptation to bend or break the law to do it. But merely having a motive to break the law doesn’t mean they *are* doing it, and it certainly isn’t evidence of wrongdoing.

In this particular case the burden of proof rests upon the gov’t to show that tobacco is lying about not advertising to minors and is more likely than not to continue to lie about it short of additional gov’t intervention. At this point, talking about motivation is puffery.

Apart from the fact that “maximum profits” (ie maximum corporate earnings) is NOT the same thing as “superior returns” (ie stock outperforming the broad market). . .

Mr. Willard doesn’t even work for Altria group!

He works for PMUSA, which isn’t even a publically traded company.

But hey, they’re all just a bunch of crooks anyway, right? Why let the facts get in the way of a good anti-corporate rant! How dare these companies try and make money!

DOJ: Your goal is to maximize profits, right?

Philip Morris: No. . . . We try to balance many factors….

What they say there:

“Altria Group has a single overriding objective — to deliver superior returns to our shareholders”
Louis C Camilleri, Chairman and CEO, November 4, 2004
http://www.altria.com/download/pdf/Investors_LCRemaks_MorganStanley4Nov04.pdf