When tobacco-lawyer-turned-McLawsuit-advisor John Banzhaf told CNN on September 2 that the lawsuit filed against four fast-food chains by the rotund Caesar Barber “is gone” and “no longer applies,” he apparently forgot to check with the case’s attorney of record.
>A defiant Samuel Hirsch, who was representing Mr. Barber just fine, thank you, for weeks before Banzhaf muscled his way into the national spotlight, told Advertising Age on September 16: “I don’t believe it’s dead at all.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution claims this morning that Banzhaf is now back on script, attributing to him a comment that “Barber’s suit is still snaking its way through the court system.”
Meanwhile, The Columbus Dispatch weighed in on Tuesday with an editorial chiding Banzhaf and Hirsch for assuming that Big Food will follow in the footsteps of Big Tobacco. “Everyone knows that fast food is fattening,” says the Dispatch, “but it isn’t physically addictive.”
