Day 025 - 16 Sep 94 - Page 70
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What occurs to me, Mr. Rampton, is that
3 knowing how the world works it might not embarrass this
4 witness because it is just what happens.
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6 MR. RAMPTON: Of course, I accept that.
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8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It might be a question of whether it would
9 embarrass you if you personally had been totally
10 responsible for both its drafting and its going out.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: The references to the children in this press
13 release are there solely, are they not, to excite public
14 feeling against McDonald's? That is what they are for,
15 are they not?
16 A. No, I would say they were there to provide colour,
17 depth to the story to illustrate the point and to let the
18 public see that, in fact, it is not just the Attorney
19 General picking on McDonald's; in fact, there are other
20 citizens of the state that also feel McDonald's has done
21 wrong.
22
23 Q. Particularly the innocent youngsters who risk being
24 victims of being poisoned at McDonald's restaurants?
25 A. Reporters often ask me, and I presume they ask the
26 press office: "Can you give me examples? Can you tell me
27 people who have been harmed" by whatever practice they are
28 asking me about. I understand that from their standpoint
29 that also, just as it would if I were to bring the case to
30 court, I would want something more than the cold hard law
31 to deal with. It brings the case to light for the reading
32 public and, therefore, they want it and I would presume
33 that is why the office provided it. As I said, I do not
34 know why.
35
36 Q. It does not strike you as in any sense unfair; it is just
37 all part of the publicity game: Get your publicity in
38 first and use whatever colour or depth comes to hand to
39 make your point. That is all it is about, is it not? "Do
40 not wait for McDonald's response; put this out on the
41 public wire so that everybody should know about children
42 in Texas"?
43 A. Not using whatever comes to hand, but using whatever
44 is truthful and honest that illustrates the point. On the
45 question of not waiting for McDonald's, I can tell you
46 that it is quite frequent when enforcement action, whether
47 it is a letter, a cease and desist letter of this nature
48 or a law suit being filed, that the practice is relatively
49 rare to tell the other side what you are fixing to do, so
50 that they can marshal their forces against it, any more
51 than McDonald's advised us they were putting out a press
52 release.
53
54 Q. Exactly. I was just going to draw your attention to
55 that. It is on page 124. I think actually that is a
56 misprint. No, it is not. "McDonald's and several other
57 fast food chains reached agreements with Texas, California
58 and New York last summer to give customers nutritional
59 information on their food. McDonald's calculated move to
60 promote its food as nutritious is a giant step backwards
