Charlotte's Web

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<h2 style=" font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(248, 247, 246);">CCF & green baiting</h2>

<p style=" font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(248, 247, 246);"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lobbyist" title="Lobbyist">Lobbyists</a> have taken out full page, anonymous ads in the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_York_Times" title="New York Times">New York Times</a> and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a>, labeling animal rights activists as "terrorists" for being a little too successful and knocking <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Huntingdon_Life_Sciences" title="Huntingdon Life Sciences">Huntingdon Life Sciences</a> (HLS) from the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_York_Stock_Exchange" title="New York Stock Exchange">New York Stock Exchange</a>. HLS is a contract research facility (CRO) with a long history of gross animal welfare violations.

See also <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Huntingdon_Life_Sciences" title="Huntingdon Life Sciences">Huntingdon Life Sciences</a>.

Even children's movies are subject to relentless green baiting and guilt by association. For example, the best selling book and popular movie "Hoot", was labeled "soft-core eco-terrorism" because teenage protagonists tried to save an endangered owl from developers. According to CCF, the movie remake of Charlotte’s Web also promoted "animal rights extremism". <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Berman_cares_about_animals:_clients_exposed#cite_note-39" title="">[40]</a>

The only attempted murder in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement was coordinated by corporate provocateurs.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Berman_cares_about_animals:_clients_exposed#cite_note-40" title="">[41]</a>

Between 1977 and January 2007, there were over 13,000 incidents targeting abortion clinics and doctors, including 7 murders. There have been over 2,100 acts of union violence between 1991 and 2001, including bombings, shootings and near fatal injuries. In 2004 alone, there were over 4,500 racially motivated incidents in the U.S. There were 1,480 incidents based on religious bias and another 1,460 based on sexual orientation. Animal and environmental groups have committed far fewer acts, yet are labeled "terrorists", while those who shoot abortion doctors or burn down synagogues are perceived only as felons.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Berman_cares_about_animals:_clients_exposed#cite_note-41" title="">[42]</a>

See also <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=AETA" title="AETA" class="mw-redirect">AETA</a>, section 7.

...

<div class="thumbcaption">A Center for Consumer Freedom<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_ad" title="Print ad" class="mw-redirect">print ad</a> which criticizes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PETA" title="PETA" class="mw-redirect">PETA</a>President's statement opposing animal research to cure AIDS, terming it an "extremist agenda."</div>

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<p style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The group defines its mission as fighting against "a growing cabal of food cops, health care enforcers, militant activists, meddling bureaucrats, and violent radicals who think they know what's best for you, [who] are pushing against our basic freedoms."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-CF-7">[8]</a>

The CCF has argued against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban" title="Smoking ban">smoking bans</a> and for keeping the legal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood-alcohol_level" title="Blood-alcohol level" class="mw-redirect">blood-alcohol level</a> for drivers at 0.10. It questions the dangers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_meat" title="Red meat">red meat</a> consumption and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticides" title="Pesticides" class="mw-redirect">pesticides</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-9">[10]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-10">[11]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-11">[12]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-12">[13]</a>

In a 1999 interview with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_Leader" title="Chain Leader">Chain Leader</a>, a trade publication for restaurant chains, Berman said his organization attacks activists more aggressively than other lobbyists. "We always have a knife in our teeth," he said. Claiming that activists "drive consumer behavior on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat" title="Meat">meat</a>, alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine," his strategy is "to shoot the messenger... We've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-13">[14]</a>

In 2002 CCF spokesman John Doyle described nationwide radio ads put out by the group as efforts to attract people to their website and "draw attention to our enemies: just about every consumer and environmental group, chef, legislator or doctor who raises objections to things like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide" title="Pesticide">pesticide</a> use, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering" title="Genetic engineering">genetic engineering</a> of crops or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic" title="Antibiotic" class="mw-redirect">antibiotic</a>use in beef and poultry."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-14">[15]</a>

CCF gives out annual "Tarnished Halo" awards to so-called "animal-rights zealots, celebrity busybodies, environmental scaremongers, self-appointed "public interest" advocates, trial lawyers, and other food activists",<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-15">[16]</a> and its Guest Choice Network affiliate gives out the "Nanny Awards" to "food cops, anti-biotech activists, vegetarian scolds and meddling bureaucrats".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-16">[17]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-17">[18]</a>

The CCF had posted a number of videos to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube" title="YouTube" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">YouTube</a> until June, 2010, when its 'consumerfreedom' account was suspended for undisclosed Terms of Service violations.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-18">[19]</a>It posted the trailer for the children's movie Charlotte's Web, claiming that the movie "encourages kids to 'say no to bacon' and print out stickers reading 'Tofu Rulez'" and links to groups it states are "extremist," such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humane_Society_of_the_United_States" title="Humane Society of the United States">Humane Society of the United States</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-19">[20]</a>

The CCF criticizes statistics used by nutrition groups to describe a global "obesity epidemic," and in 2005, it filed a series of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_%28United_States%29" title="Freedom of Information Act (United States)">Freedom of Information Act</a> requests against the U.S. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention" title="Centers for Disease Control and Prevention">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> in response to a CDC study claiming that 400,000 Americans die each year as a consequence of being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obese" title="Obese" class="mw-redirect">obese</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-20">[21]</a> After the CCF campaign CDC reduced its estimates to 112,000 annual deaths, leading the CCF to advertise widely that it had discredited the study.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_note-Mayer-1">[2]</a>