Tobacco Firm Seeks Depositions From ‘60 Minutes’ Staff Members

The CBS tobacco wars have begun to heat up.

Brown & Williamson, the Louisville, Ky.-based tobacco giant, is seeking depositions from CBS News staffers, including Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, as well as company officers concerning an interview with a former B&W executive who claims that a former company chairman lied to Congress about the addictive nature of nicotine.

The interview was to have aired on “60 Minutes” last year but was held when CBS feared a costly legal action.

CBS will air the full interview with Jeffrey Wigand, the former B&W chief researcher who was fired in 1993, on Sunday’s “60 Minutes.” The updated piece will also report that B&W has attempted to discredit Wigand, sources said.

CBS decided to air the Wigand interview only after the Wall Street Journal published excerpts from the deposition he gave in November.

In addition to seeking sworn statements from Wallace and Safer, the tobacco company has sought depositions from Lowell Bergmann, who produced the piece, “60 Minutes” Executive Producer Don Hewitt, CBS President Peter Lund, former CBS News President Eric Ober and attorneys Jonathan Sternberg and Ellen Oran Kaden.

CBS had no comment on B&W’s effort to seek the depositions, which were granted by a Kentucky judge just before Monday’s “Evening News” aired a Wallace piece on how the Justice Department is investigating whether former B&W Chairman Thomas Sandefur lied under oath to Congress.

B&W is suing Wigand for theft, fraud, breach of contract and alleged violations of a confidentiality agreement.