Baltimore biz columnist threatened by company

Baltimore Sun business columnist Jay Hancock writes Tuesday about how he called the vice president of global marketing at Abbott Laboratories after e-mails the executive sent with a threat to Hancock were subpoenaed by the Senate Finance Committee and published Monday in a report.

“Don’t you have connections in Baltimore?????” Pacitti e-mailed a subordinate regarding a January column Hancock wrote on heart-artery stents. “Someone needs to take this writer outside and kick his ass! Do I need to send in the Philly mob?”

Hancock writes, “Pacitti didn’t return my phone calls, but an Abbott flack got in touch on Monday.

“‘We sincerely apologize if this caused you any concern or distress,’ the company spokesman said. Pacitti’s comment, he said, ‘wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.’

“Yeah, that’s what King Henry II said after they whacked Thomas Becket.”

Read more here.