POLITICS 88 : CAMPAIGN ’88 : LaRouche Talk Assailed

Public health officials on Friday criticized political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.’s discourse on network TV Thursday night, saying it had added to the misinformation and fear about AIDS.

LaRouche purchased a half-hour of CBS network prime time to air what have become familiar themes for him: the impending international economic collapse and the theory that the AIDS virus is transmitted in casual contact and that medical warnings saying otherwise are “an outright lie.”

LaRouche’s presidential campaign said it paid $250,000 to air the program nationally.

CBS officials said that because LaRouche is a legally qualified candidate for President, the network was required by law to sell him the time. That law prohibits stations from having any control over the broadcast’s content.

Medical experts say the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome is spread through close contact with blood or semen from infected people.

Dr. Robert E. Windom, assistant secretary for health, said through a spokesman that while LaRouche is entitled to air his views, he has added to misperceptions about the disease.

“I’m extremely concerned when either an article or an individual is providing misinformation,” Windom said. “You can’t get AIDS through casual contact.”

LaRouche is on the ballot as a Democrat in New Hampshire and several other states. He did not mention during the program his federal court trial in Boston, where he faces charges of conspiring to obstruct a Justice Department investigation of alleged fund-raising fraud by his 1984 presidential campaign.