Thursday, October 7, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Nation
Metabolife ad refutes ABC report
Company fears ABC story might retaliate against its lawsuit
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - The maker of the popular dietary supplement Metabolife has launched an extraordinary pre-emptive strike against ABC News in anticipation of a story it fears will attack its product.
Metabolite's chief executive officer accused ABC of ordering the 20/20 report, which has not been scheduled for air, in retaliation for a lawsuit the company filed against an ABC affiliate.
An ABC representative said the charge was
utterly false and promised ABC's report would be fair and balanced.
Metabolic International Inc. is posting on the Internet a videotape of an interview that its CEO, Michael Ellis, conducted with ABC News and is spending at least $1.5 million in advertising to call attention to it.
"What I'm concerned about is that the whole story won't be out there." Ellis said. "20/20 may, and I'm not saying they will, have a different agenda on how they want this story to go."
A full-page ad directing people to the Web site with the interview ran in yesterday's edition of The New York Times. The company is planning ads nationwide.
San Diego-based Metabolite is popular among people who want to burn calories, but some medical authorities warn about side effects such as increased blood pressure.
The company's strategy seems curious, ABC
representative Eileen Murphy said.
"The they clearly think this is as important an issue as we do, or else they wouldn't have been devoting all these resources to rebulting a piece that they haven't seen yet." she said.
Murphy said WCVB's story was one of the reports that persuaded ABC to take its own look into Metabolife. She strongly denied any retribution was involved.
Ellis said a 20/10 representative called to talk to Metabolife 10 days after the company filed a defamation lawsuit against WCVB-TV, an ABC affiliate in Boston, for a story it ran about potential harmful side effects from its products.
Metabolite's ad says it is concerned ABC may selectively report comments from a medical expert, and printed quotes supportive of its product. Ellis said ABC would not speak to the medical authorities the company offered as interview subjects.
Study gives best proof yet that fat is fatal
The Associated Press
A study of more than 1 million Americans provides the most convincing evidence yet that simply being overweight can cut your life short.
The study, the largest ever done on obesity and mortality, found that overweight people run a higher rate of premature death. And this was true even among people who didn't smoke and were otherwise healthy during their middle years.
The study was conducted by the American Cancer Society and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
It settles once and for all any lingering questions about whether weight alone increases the risk of death and disease, said physician JoAnn Manson, a Harvard University endocrinologist.
"The evidence is now compelling and irrefutable." Manson said. "Obesity is probably the second-leading preventable cause of death in the United States after cigarette smoking, so it is a very serious problem."
The study found an especially clear association between excess weight and a higher risk of dying from heart disease or cancer.
And unlike a similar study last year that suggested being overweight is less of a problem as people grow older, this study found many more deaths among overweight people of all ages, especially those older than 75.
More adults and children are overweight than ever before, with 55 percent of American adults weighing more than they should.
"The message is we're too fat and it's killing us. We need to come up with ways as a society to eat less and exercise more," said American Cancer Society epidemiologist Eugenia Calle, lead author of the study.
Manson said: "it's going to take a coordinated campaign to turn this around, at the community level, at the environmental level, with
changes in the food industry and marketing industry, having more bike paths and sidewalks."
Black women were found to be the only exceptions to the rule. The study found that the most obese black women did not have a significantly higher risk of premature death than slender black women.
That poses a fascinating scientific riddle, said June Stevens, a University of North Carolina professor of nutrition.
"Although I had seen this in several other studies, I wasn't ready to believe it was true," she said. "Now I'm thinking maybe this is true, and we need to figure out why."
Clinton seeking delay of test ban treaty vote
Helms leads GOP conservatists who want written delay
remainder of his presidency.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton signaled yesterday he would accept a postponement of next week's scheduled vote on a global nuclear test ban treaty rather than risk near-certain defeat.
But Senate conservatives, led by treaty foe Jesse Helms, R-N.C., demanded the president request the delay in writing and also promise not to seek action on it through the
Democrats have balked at being seen as initiating such a delay or being denied a chance to bring up the treaty in the 2000 presidential election year.
But Helms, who had kept it bottled up in his Foreign Relations Committee for two years, told a news conference, "We're ready to vote."
Democrats, seeing they lack the votes to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, are trying to dictate the terms of their own surrender. Helms said.
Helms' objection is significant because under Senate rules any move to cancel next week's vote would require unanimous consent
Furthermore, Helms was joined by other prominent Republicans in demanding Clinton seek the delay in writing.
"He must share with the Senate leadership the burden of not going forward," said Sen. John Warner, R.Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
The development came as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., were trying to negotiate terms of a delay.
Without a delay, the Senate will begin debating the treaty tomorrow and vote either next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Albright, preparing to testify in support of the treaty today, told senators in a letter that U.S. scientists were able to maintain the U.S. nuclear deterrent without test explosions.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary William Cohen told the Senate Armed Services Committee a vote against the treaty could draw international condemnation and even lead to nuclear testing elsewhere.
The treaty, she said, would provide an unprecedented monitoring system to detect others' tests.
The treaty has been signed by 154 nations but ratified by only 48, Mexico becoming the latest to do so yesterday. But only two of the seven declared nuclear powers, Britain and France, have ratified it.
New tapes show Richard Nixon using foul words
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The National Archives Tuesday released more than 440 hours of tape recordings from the Richard Nixon White House, doubling the number of hours of Nixon tapes previously available for public listening.
The tapes, covering events from February to August 1971, include conversations about China, the environment, unemployment and anti-war demonstrations. The recordings capture a worried Nixon crafting a strategy to attack his perceived enemies following the leak of the Pentagon Papers, a classified government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was published by The New York Times.
On July 1, 1971, Nixon lectured his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman: "We're up against an enemy, a conspiracy," Nixon says, rapping on a desk to underscore his message. "We are going to use any means, is that clear?"
When he learned that papers from the liberal-learning Brookings Institution think tank had not yet been raided, as he'd ordered, Nixon raised his voice and admonished Haldeman to "Get it done! I want it done! I want the Brookings safe cleaned out!"
In another conversation, Nixon calls the Supreme Court a disaster.
"You've got a senile old ... in (Justice Hugo) Black. You've got an old fool and a Black fool in that (Justice) Thurgood Marshall. Then you've got (Justice William) Brennan, I mean, a jackass Catholic."
On another, Nixon complains about Jewish people in the government.
"I want to look at any sensitive areas where Jews are involved, Bob," Nixon tells Haldeman. There are exceptions, he said, but, "Generally, you can't trust the bastards."
Representatives from the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation in Yorba Linda, Calif., who reviewed the tapes insisted the president was not anti-Semitic. It noted his many Jewish advisers and said: "The president's words about the Jewish community on these tapes show that his basic sense of compassion and support for these communities tends to coexist with terminology from an earlier time."
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BARGAIN MATINEES INDICATED BY () STADIUM SEATING * A DIGITAL
Sat & Sun 8:00
1 Drive Me Crazy ®**10** 1.00 5:00, 7:35, 9:45
2 Sigmatica ® 1.00 1:00, 7:35, 9:45
3 Munford ® 1.15 4:15, 7:00, 9:30
4 The South Sense ®**10** 1.20 4:10, 7:40
5 For Love Of The Game ®**10** 1.00 4:00, 7:00
6 Three Kings ® 1.05 4:25, 7:10, 10:00
7 Double Joeparty ®**10** 1.40 4:30, 7:55, 9:50
8 American Beauty ®**10** 1.25 4:35, 7:50, 10:00
9 Mystery, Alaska ® 1.05 4:05, 7:50, 9:40
10 Jakob the Liar ®**10** 1.30 4:10, 6:50, 9:20
11 Elmo in Grouchland ®**2** 2.05 4:50, 6:55, 9:20
12 Blue Streak ®**2** 2.05 4:50, 7:40, 10:00
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1 The 13th Warrior ®² 2:10 4:40, 7:10, 9:35
2 Runaway Bride ®³ 2:05 4:35, 7:50, 9:35
3 Better than Chocolate ®⁴ 4:35 4:35, 9:35
also... Dog Park ®⁵ 2:20 4:45, 7:20, 9:40
4 Bowfinger ®⁶ 2:15 4:45, 7:10, 9:40
5 The Thomas Crown Affair ®⁷ 2:00 4:30, 7:00, 9:25
6 Sir of Echos ®⁸ 2:00 4:50, 7:20, 9:45
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*Based on survey responses from 1,621 KU students. Survey administered by the KU Office of Institutional Research. & Planning (1999).
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