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CNN Live Saturday

Proposed Consumer Protection Chief Stirs Controversy

Aired June 02, 2001 - 17:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Howard Beales is a business professor who has, in the past, worked for the tobacco industry, and even defended cigarette-advertising icon Joe Camel. Now the Bush administration wants Beales to be its Consumer Protection Chief, others are questioning the choice.

CNN financial correspondent Tim O'Brien has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Howard Beales was making the rounds at the Federal Trade Commission this week, where his appointment as Consumer Protection Chief is now imminent, much to the dismay of some consumer groups.

MATTHEW MYERS, CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO FREE KIDS: This is a man who has represented the tobacco industry and whose views are so far out of the mainstream that he concluded that not even Joe Camel justified federal regulation.

O'BRIEN: Beales is now an associate professor of business at George Washington University. But eight years ago, as a paid consultant to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, he drafted a study defending the Joe Camel tobacco ads against charges they encouraged minors to smoke. The FTC disagreed with him on the impact of the ads by a close four to three vote.

A devotee of free markets, Beales' skepticism of government regulation is also a source of concern to some.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, PUBLIC CITIZEN: He opposes most regulation. So he doesn't come into this office with any confidence from the consumer movement. I'll tell you that.

JIM RILL, FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think he's a skeptic of unnecessary regulation, as we all should be.

O'BRIEN: Jim Rill, who headed the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in the late '80s, later hired Beales to help in tobacco litigation.

RILL: He is as straightforward a guy. He's candid. He will call them as he sees them. And he will call them on the basis of the evidence in front of him and appropriately represent the public interest.

O'BRIEN: Beales' appointment does not need any Senate confirmation just an affirmative vote of the FTC, which is all but certain.

(on camera): Beales' friends at the Commission are confident he is pro-consumer and that one of the first steps he'll take to prove it will be to announce he will not participate in any matters involving his former employers in the tobacco industry.

Tim O'Brien, CNN Financial News, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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