Tobacco Avenue

A series of media reports during the past two months have shed new light onto the relationship between Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani and Philip Morris USA, a company that makes tobacco and cigarettes and everyone thinks is evil and isn’t really but whatever and blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera.

The reports - a series of articles that started in the New York Times and have trickled down to other media outlets - attempt to find something scandalous out of what is most likely nothing, and explain how Trani has, like, ties or whatever to Philip Morris in a link that is perhaps damning, important or quite possibly bad, though it could be great for all anyone knows.

“Blah blah blah tobacco and Trani, so on and so forth, university research, backroom dealings, blabbity blab blab-a-da-bing,” all the articles pretty much say, each story basically a How-To Guide on the best way to beat a dead horse, all explaining the same old, same old. 

“Jibber jabber wocky, university integrity, [use of the brackets] from time to time to explain this nonsense,” the reports all continue.

The Times story - along with about a bajillion or so others like it that all are just so insanely difficult to follow - explain a whole lot, or quite possibly very little, in regards to some concern that people (or organizations, companies, other schools, ethicists or none of the aforementioned) have with research deals between VCU and one of the Richmond area’s largest employers, Philip Morris. 

The articles go on to imply, but never state directly, that Philip Morris makes a product that can kill people, and maybe VCU should have thought about that before entering into a deal with the company, if readers are supposed to understand that correctly.  The stories do not reference, however, the people who purchase and use those products by their own choosing. 

However, as the articles explain, several groups have spoken out on the matter, including the anti-tobacco groups, anti-corporate people, anti-Trani, anti-VCU, anti-school, anti-smart people and anti-Anti activists, as well as, for some reason, the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-anti-Big Tobacco, anti-death penalty organizations, and, lastly, this one local woman whose house had to be relocated when VCU expanded in 2006, claiming she had nowhere else to put her three cats. 

The activists have spoken against, or for - but mostly against - the dealings, which may or may not be bad, and could even be good, perhaps.

“These reports are very serious and highlight explicitly the controversial agreements between VCU and Big Tobacco, which could have severe negative implications for the school,” said University of Richmond sociology professor Claude Showalter.  “Unfortunately, many people, including myself and all of my colleagues, could not give a research-sponsoring shit in any way, shape or form whatsoever.”