{{Short description|American lobbyist (born 1949)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Tom Griscom |image = Tom Griscom 1987.jpg |office = [[White House Communications Director]] |president = [[Ronald Reagan]] |term_start = April 2, 1987 |term_end = July 1, 1988 |predecessor = [[Jack Koehler]] |successor = [[Mari Maseng Will|Mari Maseng]] |birth_date = {{birth year and age|1949}} |birth_place = [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]], [[Tennessee]], U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] |education = [[University of Tennessee at Chattanooga]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]) }} '''Thomas Cecil Griscom''' (born 1949) served as Director of White House Communications under President [[Ronald Reagan]], was a top aide and adviser for a decade to [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] [[Howard Baker]] of Tennessee, and was the [[executive editor]] and [[publisher]] of the ''[[Chattanooga Times Free Press]]'' from October 1999 to June 30, 2010.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://timesfreepress.com/epaper/templates/contact.asp |title=Chattanooga Times Free Press Masthead|publisher=[[Chattanooga Times Free Press]] |year=1999 |accessdate =March 18, 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312013254/http://www.timesfreepress.com/epaper/templates/contact.asp|archivedate=March 12, 2007}}</ref>
Griscom served in the 1990s as the executive vice president for external relations for the [[R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company|RJ Reynolds Tobacco company]], as an employee of [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s [[News Ltd]]; and as a [[public relations]] [[consultant]] with Powell-Tate.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1042 |title=Jumping the Fence|publisher=American Journalism Review |year=1999 |accessdate=March 18, 2007}}</ref>
In December 1998, ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine's "The Power of 25: the influence merchants" named Griscom, along with other ex-White House staff, ex-politicians and sons-of-politicians, as a key [[lobbyist]] in Washington.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=vsw27d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=The Power 25 the Influence Merchants (vsw27d00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
Griscom is a graduate of [[Brainerd High School (Tennessee)|Brainerd High School]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hcde.org/newsroom/i_am_hamilton_-_tom_griscom__grad_of_brainerd_high |title=I Am Hamilton - Tom Griscom, grad of Brainerd High - Hamilton County Schools |website=www.hcde.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620100534/https://www.hcde.org/newsroom/i_am_hamilton_-_tom_griscom__grad_of_brainerd_high |archive-date=2020-06-20}} </ref> and the [[University of Tennessee at Chattanooga]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tn.gov/education/tennessee-charter-school-commission/thomas-griscom.html |title=Thomas Griscom |website=www.tn.gov |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123173611/https://www.tn.gov/education/tennessee-charter-school-commission/thomas-griscom.html |archive-date=2020-01-23}} </ref>
==Life and career==
===Politics=== In 1978 Griscom joined the staff of Senator Baker and served as press secretary. In 1985-86, after Baker's retirement from the Senate, Griscom served as the executive director of the [[National Republican Senatorial Committee]] (NRSC), and was charged with the task of overseeing the re-election efforts of the Republican majority in the Senate. He later became part of the Reagan administration in 1987, while Baker was [[White House Chief of Staff|chief of staff]]. As Baker's senior staff person, he essentially ran day-to-day operations at the [[White House]], and he maintained the strong links between the administration and the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=mhh43d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results |title=Smokers Insurance. (mhh43d00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
His most notable claim during this period was that, in 1987, as communications director at the White House, he approved and promoted (against diplomatic advice) [[Peter Robinson (speechwriter)|Peter Robinson]]'s draft speech made at the [[Berlin Wall]], where President Reagan demanded that Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] "[[tear down this wall]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3550602.html |title=Hoover Institution - Hoover Digest - Tearing Down That Wall |website=www.hoover.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214044845/http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3550602.html |archive-date=2007-02-14}} </ref>
===Reynolds Tobacco=== In 1990, he joined Reynolds Tobacco as head of its external relations program, and over the next 10 years he was responsible for the company's strategic operations against the growing anti-smoking forces. He also administered and organized the company's involvement in the many cooperative campaigns conducted with [[Philip Morris USA|Philip Morris]] and the [[Tobacco Institute]] in lobbying the [[United States Congress]] to block [[anti-smoking legislation]]. RJR also took a lead role at this time in conducting [[misinformation]] campaigns for media and public consumption—especially in the promotion of the idea that health regulations were largely the product of [[junk science]].
Not long after joining RJR, Griscom became a key director on the management committee of the Tobacco Institute, responsible for secretly funding friendly [[think tanks]] and other organizations, and for organizing scientists, lawyers and other business allies to attack regulatory measures that blocked [[cigarette advertising]], or those that introduced environmental and health regulations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=wtz58c00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=Minutes of the Management Committee (wtz58c00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
[[Steve Milloy]], who ran the fake "scientific grassroots" organisation known as the [[Advancement of Sound Science Center|Advancement of Sound Science Coalition]] (TASSC) and its [[junk science]] website for Philip Morris on behalf of the [[tobacco industry]], was transferred in mid-1996 to the control of Reynolds under Griscom <ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=syq70d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=ACTIVITY REPORT. R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO C... (syq70d00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref> when TASSC and the junkscience.com links with Philip Morris were exposed.
Griscom subcontracted the administration of this "sound-science" operation to [[Jody Powell]] (ex-press secretary to President [[Jimmy Carter]]) and [[Sheila Tate]] (First Lady [[Nancy Reagan]]'s adviser) at Powell-Tate. RJR and Powell-Tate also handled the distribution of Milloy's book, ''Science without Sense'', supposedly published by the [[Cato Institute]] (which was itself funded by tobacco interests).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=ryq70d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title = Industry Documents Library}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=vaw72a00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=CATO INSTITUTE. (vaw72a00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref> Similar books were commissioned and payment [[Money laundering|laundered]] through think tanks for academic authors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=ist03a00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=This Letter Summarizes our Discussion on... (ist03a00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
One other "successful" program run at this time was to characterise relatively harmless substances as "potentially cancerous" as part of the industry's "sound-science" campaign. Griscom's PR staff attempted to both promote and ridicule the idea that coffee could cause cancer via Milloy's junk-science web pages and op-ed articles planted in newspapers. This created the [[straw-man]] idea that everything enjoyable could be classed as potentially dangerous (to counter fears about passive smoking) and no one could live without taking the normal risks associated with living.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=oyq70d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=Enclosed are April Invoices and an AC... (oyq70d00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
Griscom's communications and media division of RJR also hired state and federal lobbyists, planted [[Ghostwriter|ghost-written]] articles and letters to the editor in major newspapers and magazines<ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=yev60d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=FDA PROJECT IDEAS. (yev60d00)|publisher=}}</ref> and promoted seemingly normal tours by comedians, musicians, artists, etc. who were all carefully trained and contracted to promote the pro-smoking message.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=qnd13a00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=Comedy Tour and the Comedy Tour A... (qnd13a00) |accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=toa13a00&fmt=pdf&ref=results|title=Weekly Report. NC Contributions. (toa13a00)|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref>
In 1997-98, Griscom represented R.J. Reynolds on a long series of [[tobacco industry]] negotiations with the State Attorneys-General, the Justices Department, the White House and its agencies. This led to a February 1998 [[Master Settlement Agreement]], in which the tobacco industry agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for [[Medicaid]] costs associated with smoking to avoid charges under the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]] (RICO).{{cn|date=September 2022}}
He left R.J. Reynolds in the later half of 1999 and returned to [[Chattanooga]] "to help shape the overall identity"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1042|title=American Journalism Review|publisher=}}</ref> of the city's now single daily print newspaper, formed after [[WEHCO Media]] bought and merged the fiercely competitive afternoon ''Free Press'' and the morning ''[[The Chattanooga Times]]'' to create the ''[[Chattanooga Times Free Press]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?rel=ajrfarhisept99.html|title=American Journalism Review|accessdate=June 26, 2019}}</ref> On May 26, 2010, Griscom announced he would resign from the newspaper June 30, 2010.{{cn|date=September 2022}}
==Personal life== Griscom is married to the former Marion Dobbins.{{cn|date=September 2022}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *{{C-SPAN|559}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=[[Jack Koehler]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[White House Communications Director]]|years=1987–1988}} {{s-aft|after=[[Mari Maseng Will]]}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Griscom, Tom}} [[Category:1950 births]] [[Category:American lobbyists]] [[Category:American newspaper editors]] [[Category:American newspaper publishers (people)]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Chattanooga, Tennessee]] [[Category:Reagan administration personnel]] [[Category:Tennessee Republicans]] [[Category:University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumni]] [[Category:White House communications directors]]