Chiquita Brands International
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Chiquita Brands International Inc. Template:Nyse is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based producer and distributor of bananas and other produce, under a variety of subsidiary brand names, collectively known as Chiquita. Chiquita is the successor to the United Fruit Company and is the leading distributor of bananas in the United States. The company also owns a German produce distribution company, Atlanta AG, which it acquired in 2003. Chiquita was formerly controlled by by Cincinnati millionaire Carl H. Lindner, Jr., his majority ownership of the company ended as a result of Chiquita Brands International exiting a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 19, 2002.
On May 3, 1998, The Cincinnati Enquirer published an eighteen-page section, "Chiquita Secrets Revealed" on Chiquita. The articles, written by Enquirer investigative reporters Michael Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter, charged the company with mistreating the workers on its Central American plantations, polluting the environment, allowing cocaine to be brought to America on its ships, bribing foreign officials, evading foreign nations' laws on land ownership, forcibly preventing its workers from unionizing, and a host of other misdeeds.
Chiquita denied all the allegations, suing after it was revealed the newspaper's reporters had hacked into Chiquita's voice-mail system. A special prosecutor was appointed to investigate—the elected prosecutor having ties to Lindner. On June 28, 1998, the Enquirer retracted the entire series of stories, published a front-page apology, and paid the company a multi-million-dollar settlement. (The Columbia Journalism Review would report both $14 million and $50 million for the amount.) One of the reporters, Gallagher, would be fired and prosecuted and the paper's editor, Lawrence K. Beaupre, would be transferred to the Gannett's headquarters amid allegations that he ignored the paper's usual procedures on fact-checking in order to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Bibliography
- Nicholas Bender. "Banana Report." Columbia Journalism Review. May/June 2001.
- Douglas Frantz. "After Apology, Issues Raised In Chiquita Articles Remain." The New York Times. July 17, 1998. p. A1, A14
- Douglas Frantz. "Mysteries Behind Story's Publication." The New York Times. July 17, 1998. p. A14.
- Nicholas Stein. "Banana Peel." Columbia Journalism Review. September/October 1998.