PRESS BURIES AMWAY DEFEAT IN SATANIC CULT CASE

Starting in the early 1980's a group of Amway distributors spread the falsehood that competitor Procter & Gamble Co. donated part of its profits to satanic cults.  As evidence they claimed that the Fortune 500 company's man-in-the-moon logo was a symbol of satanism.  These distributors began circulating their tales of P&G's links to satanism to customers via voice mail in 1995.  P&G responded by filing suit against the Amway Corporation and the rumor-mongering distributors under a federal law that prohibits false advertising.  The case was heard at the U.S. district court in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Amway was eventually dismissed from the suit, but twelve years later a jury awarded P&G a judgment of $19.25 million against the distributors.

The Grand Rapids Press buried the climax of this long-running story on E4 of the business section, the very last page of yesterday's newspaper.  While the projects that Amway's owners are pitching get puff pieces on the front page, for instance the expansion of the Van Andel Institute, the bad news doesn't seem to make it there.  If nothing else, sticking the story on the back page certainly helped to keep under wraps the Press's lack of scrutiny of Amway's ludicrous response to the adverse court decision.  A miffed flack from the company's public relations department denounced P&G for "destroying" the lives of these now-former distributors.  However, the flack didn't actually say that these ex-distributors hadn't done what the jury said they had, nor was any explanation forthcoming as to why they are now ex-distributors.  Granted, you'd expect Amway's mouthpiece to make self-serving statements.  It just that you'd also expect a reporter to question them.

But then you're looking at this from the perspective of the man in the street.  You need to consider the matter from Amway's angle.  Burying an unfavorable story without any critical reporting is just the kind of favor you'd expect from the daily rag when the publisher is a friend of the company's owners.

Comments

[Phyllis Jennings]

This latest incident isn't surprising. Remember - This is the same publisher who refused to let my family run a PAID memorial obituary in honor of my deceased father. The memorial ad didn't even mention where my father had died - Spectrum Health-Kent Community. What kind of so-called "publisher" would do that to a family? Maybe it's time that people in this community asked Danny Gaydou to pack up his bags and leave town.

[internet troll]

Nice headline. You seem to know know the company was excluded when the judge determined that Amway took the necessary steps to stop the slander when management found out it was happening....yet you call this an AMWAY Defeat, thereby implying that AMWAY did something wrong.

Ever since this story broke 12 years ago, Amway has been held to scruitiny for the actions of a small group of independant distributors. Whenever the story comes up, it doesnt name the distributors, it brings up the big name...even though it wasn't AMWAY management or owners that had anything to do with this suit.

I never heard the voicemail messages circulated about P&G, nor am I aware of the actual wording or intent in those messages. I will go out on a limb and say, none of you heard it either. For all you know, it was in the same spirit as all those email jokes that people circulate just to be funny....with no actual intent...yet someone hears it and files a lawsuit.

I am trying to understand why you think the end of this lawsuit is anything other than yesterdays news.

If you have some reson to think Amway/Alticor is doing something wrong, have at it. The fact that they are trying to distance themselves from a story that has no relevance today isn't a mystery. From their end, the people responsible for the lawsiut are not affiliated with the company anymore, and they have made their stance clear on the topic that started the lawsuit in the first place.

[ibofightback]

Huh? What are you talking about? Amway wasn't "defeated". The suite no longer had anything to do with amway. The court agreed they had nothing to do with it years ago. The suite continued against four independent Amway distributors. Four out of what - a million? The courts seem to have no trouble understanding this. The media has no trouble understanding this. You apparently do.

[The Executive Director]

Well, Troll & IBO, posting an article about Amway and its sleazy distributors is never complete until we get the usual anonymous and pointless remarks from the minions of America's favorite pyramid scheme.

Regards,
Bill Tingley
Executive Director, L.A.W.

[ibofightback]

Leaving aside your ad hominems and further falsehoods, care to explain how a post pointing out your subject title is completely false is "pointless"? As you say in your article itself - Amway was dismissed from the case.

Then again, I apologize, you were right. Pointing out your title is completely false (dare I call it a lie?) was pointless. You don't bother fixing it, you just resort to abuse. Pointless indeed.