TELEVISION - March 27, 1996

When ABC Backed Down: ABC News killed its own producers’ investigation of the Brown & Williamson tobacco company two years ago, fearful that it would incur a major lawsuit, PBS’ “Frontline” says on next Tuesday’s broadcast. The program will also report that ABC ordered its producers to delete all references to the investigation in their computers. The “Frontline” hour strongly implies that ABC News executives were “chilled” by a $10-billion libel suit filed against the network by Philip Morris for a “Day One” series on nicotine manipulation. ABC settled the lawsuit last summer and partly apologized for the “Day One” reports. Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News, denied “Frontline’s” allegations that computer files pertaining to the investigation were deleted but admitted that executives chose not to report on damaging documents they had obtained pertaining to a Brown & Williamson court case. “We did want to use them, but the lawyers argued that to use them, because of the way we had obtained them, would carry with it very stiff legal liabilities,” Friedman said.