The Nation : $5-Million Award for Libel
A federal jury in Chicago awarded the manufacturer of Viceroy cigarettes $5.05 million in damages in a libel suit against CBS Inc. and a popular television commentator. The jury assessed the damages against Walter Jacobson, a commentator on WBBM-TV, and CBS, which owns and operates the station. The jury had found the defendants guilty of libel on Nov. 26, when it ruled that Jacobson, who anchors the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. news, libeled the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. in a 1981 commentary in which he said the cigarette maker was trying to lure children to smoke with advertising equating the habit with alcohol, sex and drugs.
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