Fighting the proposed ban

Newark Star-Ledger: Newport-brand cigarettes have a long-standing, deep-rooted tradition of sleaze. It dates back to the 1950s, when the brand deliberately tried to entice black children into smoking by handing them free samples.

And it continues today. Lorillard Inc., which makes Newport — the country’s most popular brand of menthol cigarettes — is engaged in an all-out war to prevent the feds from banning menthol cigarettes.

The company has already bought up Internet domain names like MentholKillsMinorities.com, in an effort to pre-empt health advocates. Even sneakier is its use of an African-American public relations consultant, Charlotte Roy. Her firm is paid by Lorillard, but she doesn’t feel a need to mention that when she contacts media outlets, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Roy arranged for Niger Innis, national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, to speak out against a menthol ban. He told Chicago radio listeners it could result in an underground market and would be “taking away a legal preference and choice for African Americans.”

What bunk, says Reginald Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey.