My Sources

Cogswell, Ron. 2/2012. https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/6780998674

1. Announcement Video 

• This video is from CVS. It is, thus very biased towards the company's decision being the right one and also the company being progressive and caring.
• Larry J Merlo, the president and CEO of CVS delivers the speech in the video. This is the first appearance the public sees of Merlo. While the speech is certainly scripted, it still provides quotes from Merlo.
• This is the video released that was made to officiate CVS's campaign to quit tobacco products. It was released on February 5th, 2014.
• I wanted to measure any possible change in the explained views of the company, and will use this video as a base mark for articles to come in regards to statements released from the company and if their views change based on the reaction from the public at the sight of the controversy.

2. "Deep Breath" Commercial

• The first source is the announcement commercial from CVS that is their official public statement that they would be stopping the sales of tobacco products. I chose this source because it shows the side that CVS wanted to portray to the people and the media.
• CVS created this commercial, so it is a direct release from the company behind the decision.
• The commercial was released on February 5th, 2014. It made such big headlines because it was a decision that came out of the blue.
•  I know this source will be biased and geared towards putting a good image out for the public, but that was an important reason for me to choose it. It clearly outlines CVS's point of view (or at least what they would like everyone to believe) on the situation and their goals for the future.

3. CNN 

• The story was covered by CNN. This company is a very popular news station.
•  This specific story was covered by Elizabeth Landau, who is a Princeton University Graduate. Landau shows she is a qualified writer in her experience. She has been writing professionally since 2008 and has worked for CNN, various scientific journals, and currently writes for NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• Landau's article actually came out that same day that CVS announced their decision because it was considered such breaking news.
• I chose this story because it shows the immediate reaction of the public (media) to the event and attempts to hypothesize how this will affect the other stakeholders involved (e.g. the consumers and the tobacco companies) in the future as CVS's plans are carried out.

4. Satirical Blog

• The Nattering Nabobs also covered this surprising event in an entirely satirical article. It is expected that there are false and/or exaggerated identities on the article.
• The author of this source remains anonymous for protection on his/her satirical works, but is the author of the blog, The Nattering Nabobs. 
• This piece was released on May 2nd, 2015, which was a little over a year since the company had revealed its decision. 
• I chose this piece because it shows the absolute ridiculousness to the whole debate, and the fact that the debate is being covered at all. It really adds a lot of lightheartedness to the story, but actually also provided some useful facts that I was anticipating having to find elsewhere. I was really just looking for an article to say what we were all thinking, "Seriously? Why is this being covered?"

5. Business Insider

• The story was also covered from a business standpoint by the online newspaper, Business Insider. 
• This article was written by Lauren Friedman, who, according to Business Insider, not only writes articles relating to science, but also oversees the entire site's health coverage. Other noteworthy experience points would be that Friedman has also written for four exclusively scientific journals and newspapers.
• This piece of coverage came out on September 4th, 2014, two days after the successful removal of tobacco products in CVS stores around the country.
• I wanted a source that really focused on how CVS would be later affected by their decision from business oriented point of view. This source also provides coverage along the event's timeline from the point when all of the tobacco products were officially out of stores.

6. The Good And Growth in Quitting - TedTalk

• This TedTalk comes from CVS's website. We can then assume that the information presented will shine a positive light on the company. 
• The presenter of the video is Larry Merlo, the president and CEO of CVS Pharmacy. Merlo was also a previous smoker himself, and thus has experience on talking about this topic. Since the initial event occurred, Merlo has been much more present in the media. This means that he will likely have experience with what to say and what not to say to his audience to illustrate the points that he wants.
• The TedTalk was released a full year from CVS's initial date that it would stop selling cigarettes. Specifically, the video was filmed on February 15th, 2015. At this point, CVS has made the transformed their company into the organization of health that they had initially pictured.
• Merlo uses this TedTalk to state facts on smoking in America in the present day, and to discuss his motivations behind quitting for himself, and his motivations behind having his company quit, as well. This source allows me to get direct quotes from the CEO of the company from the time after the event had occurred and likely received backlash.

7. Slate

• This article is from Slate, a self described blog about business and economics. Again, this article was initially chosen for the use of providing information on the controversy between CVS and the tobacco companies it used to work with.
• Jordan Weissmann is Slate's senior business and economics correspondent, and is the author of this article. He has worked for Slate for the past two years, but has been reporting professionally since 2008.
• Weissmann's article (September 3rd, 2014) was written the day after the official date that CVS had stopped selling tobacco products, which was still nearly a month earlier than expected.
• This article really approached the story from the transformation of the company, starting with this event and expanding with the fact that CVS is taking on new names, new logos, etc. The article also covered a very important stakeholder, though. The employees. This article has a lot of quotes and embedded links where the employees of the company have shared thoughts.

8. TIME

• This source comes from TIME online magazine. TIME has always been a trusted source for facts on important news stories like this one. I wanted to hear what they had to say on the outcome of the company after its decision was made.
• Laura Stampler is the author of this article. Stampler is a Stanford graduate and her past qualifications include writing for Business Insider, Huffington Post, New Republic, Nation, and the Miami Herald. 
• November 4th, 2014 was the release date for this article. At this point in time, CVS had already been tobacco free for two months and have thus seen the effects of the lack of their presence in sales.
• Stampler not only covers the facts on profits of the pharmacy company, but also provides crucial coverage on possible ulterior motivations of the company for taking the stance they did on this controversial topic.

9. Hot Air

• Hot Air is a website that covers news stories but is known for adding a satirical twist. Thus, the information is likely to be accurate (and will be fact checked) but also puts CVS in a reality check.
• Ed Morrissey is the author of this article. Morrissey is now exclusively blogging for Hot Air and has been reporting as a motivational speaker, writer, and talk show host since 2003.
• The release date of this article was February 5th, 2014. This shows an immediate reaction from the media and general public.
• I wanted to use this story to, again, feature the perspective of the public stakeholder and the fact that this story was blown way out of proportion in terms of proposed media coverage to actual purpose.

10. Health Affairs Blog

• This blog on Health Affairs covers the story from a very detached point of view. The blog has many embedded links to cite its sources and thus proves it is a credible source for factual information.
• This article was written by Andrew Sussman M.D., who is the president of MinuteClinic and senior vice president and associate chief medical officer of CVS Caremark (now CVS Health). This makes him undoubtedly biased towards the company's decision but also extremely qualified to be writing on the event.
• Sussman's article was published on February 26th, 2015. This means he evaluated the debate and its outcomes over a year before publishing the article.
• I chose to use this blog simply because of the vast amount of information provided. I anticipated using this blog for a lot of the meat of my quick reference guide. This article used a lot of Sussman's inside knowledge but also provided a lot of external sources for the reader to obtain facts about the event from other perspectives.