brmn2

3/14 see main category

roberts grist
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There was a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?r=0" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">story in The New York Times</a> last October that didn’t get the attention it deserved. It was about a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/31/us/politics/31lobbyist-docs.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">speech</a> given last June in Colorado Springs to a bunch of energy executives by “Dr. Evil,” i.e., <a href="http://bermanexposed.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Richard Berman</a>, the guy who does PR for pretty much every nasty industry you can name.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Berman is notorious. <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/05/18/corporations-anonymously-fund-attacks-and-influence-washington-policy-through-nonprofit-groups/qyaJIFcv7yYOsQvya6ykAK/story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">This Boston Globe investigation</a> is probably the best single-serving account of his history and tactics, but you can find similarly damning stories in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/us/politics/18berman.html?pagewanted=all" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/hidden-interests-dr-evils-payday" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Mother Jones</a>, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-rick-berman-aka-dr-evil/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">60 Minutes</a>, and many other outlets. And you can peruse <a href="http://bermanexposed.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Berman Exposed</a>, a project of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Berman’s genius lies in exploiting what is legal. If a business or industry wants to fight off a public-interest campaign — against corn syrup, say, or against fracking — it can hire PR firms itself. But that leaves it open to negative public opinion. No business wants to be the face of a controversial campaign.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What Berman does is start nonprofit “educational” groups as a thin front for his business. The <a href="http://bermanexposed.org/center-for-consumer-freedom/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Center for Consumer Freedom</a> works to discredit anti-obesity campaigns. The <a href="http://bermanexposed.org/employment-policies-institute/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">Employment Policies Institute</a> battles campaigns to raise the minimum wage. And so on. (He’s got dozens). These groups often have no address but that of Berman and Company, no employees but Berman, and no one on their boards but industry reps and current and former Berman and Company employees.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The nonprofits then hire Berman and Company to run PR campaigns. The beauty of this arrangement, from industry’s perspective, is that nonprofits don’t have to disclose their donors. So industries can funnel money to Berman without being identified with it. And he can say and do things they would never, ever be publicly associated with. The nonprofit groups serve, effectively, as money laundering/anonymizing operations.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What’s more, the media is very often too lazy to check into legit-sounding nonprofits, so these front groups get op-eds placed, representatives on news shows, and “studies” reported to the public, all without being identified as agents of industry. It’s quite the racket.<figure id="attachment_280570" class="grist-img-container alignright" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 5px 0px 0px 15px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 0.875rem; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; border: none; float: right; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); width: 330px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><img class="size-medium wp-image-280570" src="https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/mckibben.jpg?w=330&h=245" alt="Bill McKibben, pondering how best to strangle your puppies." width="330" height="245" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; vertical-align: middle; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /><figcaption class="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin-right: 0.8em;">Bill McKibben, pondering how best to strangle your puppies.</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Berman’s latest target is greens. He’s got front groups going after <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/23/lobbyist-dubbed-dr-evil-behind-front-groups-attacking-obama-power-rules" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">EPA power plant rules</a>, the <a href="http://prwatch.org/news/2015/02/12732/richard-berman-goes-after-350org-and-global-divestment-day" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">fossil-fuel divestment movement</a>, and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/10/31/oil-and-gas-industry-s-endless-war-fracking-critics-revealed-rick-berman" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">anti-fracking activists</a>. For a taste, you can check out his BigGreenRadicals.com, which is worth your time if only to appreciate the hilariously evil-looking picture of Bill McKibben they dug up.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is all quite lamentable and has been lamented at length, many times. I mean, Berman is so scummy his own son has <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/silver-jew-strikes-back" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">publicly and vociferously denounced him</a>. But he doesn’t care.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And that’s why it’s worth listening to him, and worth reading the transcript of that<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/31/us/politics/31lobbyist-docs.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">speech</a> he gave energy execs. It’s a fascinating discourse on how to shape public opinion by someone who is a) very good at it and b) utterly unburdened by scruples. This is how to win when you don’t care about decency or honesty or the opinion of your peers. This is how to win when you only care about winning.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My impression, when I hear liberals discussing public opinion and communications, is that they often conflate what will work with what is good or righteous or honest. Their goal is to change public opinion, yes, but they are also keenly interested in being viewed a certain way, in being perceived as honest or objective or nonpartisan. They confuse strategies that appeal to them, their own values and worldview, with strategies that produce desired outcomes.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Berman doesn’t have that problem. Everyone sees him as an evil turd and he doesn’t care, at all. He really only cares about moving the needle, defending his corporate clients, and fighting off the “nanny state.” He only cares about winning. It lends a certain clarity to his thinking.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With that in mind, let’s look briefly at what he says in that speech, along with some illustrative videos of his work.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1. Always be on the offensive.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The key is to shape public judgment. “If you want public judgment on your side, you have to start the conversation,” Berman says. “You’re on defense if you’re responding to somebody else.”..... The best offense is ad hominem.
Berman is explicit and unapologetic that going on the offensive means “shooting the messenger,” i.e., discrediting opponents, depriving them of moral authority. “The logic of the offense campaign,” Berman says, “is diminishing the other side’s ability to capture people’s imagination and to become credible.”
He goes after the people and groups running public-interest campaigns and tries to “reposition” them in the public’s mind as unelected, greedy, meddlesome nanny-staters. He’s done it to the Humane Society, unions, and now green activists.
The value of this strategy is that trust undergirds all factual disputes. If you stop trusting, say, the Humane Society, if you start viewing it as a money-making bureaucracy, then it doesn’t matter what the Humane Society says about any specific issue, or the facts it marshals. You’ve made a judgment about them.


3. Being first, establishing common knowledge, is half the game.
“You know the guy that gets to make the first opinion, the first impression, has a huge advantage,” Berman notes, “because people don’t want to admit they were wrong the first time.” Getting out first and broadly helps create what he calls “common knowledge,” i.e., the kinds of things that “everybody knows,” even though most people can’t tell you where they heard it.
His example: Everybody knows that driving is more dangerous than flying. In most cases people can’t tell you exactly where they heard that, or cite any statistics, but they just … know it. It’s out there.
Once something becomes common knowledge, it is extremely difficult to dislodge it. This is part of the brilliance of the right-wing media machine. It surrounds conservatives with dozens of voices, all saying the same thing, which leads to the strong impression that, hey, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. This is how all conservatives “know” Obamacare is failing, even though it is succeeding beyond expectations.


4. A tie is a win for the status quo.
When you are defending the status quo, you don’t necessarily need to convince the public that your side is right. You just need to confuse the issue. If you make people doubt the other side’s messengers and fill the air with a bunch of contradictory statistics and facts, most people won’t have the wherewithal to dig through it all. They will simply tune out:
You get in people’s mind a tie. They don’t know who is right. … People are not prepared to get aggressive in moving one way or another. I’ll take a tie any day if I’m trying to preserve the status quo.
This is one reason why preventing change is easier than generating it.


5. Humor works. (And so does scorn.)
Berman:
We like to use humor because humor doesn’t offend people and at the same time they get the message. … Wherever possible I like to use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side.


6. Emotion works better than facts; negative emotions linger longer.
Berman doesn’t get into this in the energy speech, but he has touched on it elsewhere. Here’s a bit from the Globe story:
Berman gave one of his most revealing talks about his strategy in a locale far from his Washington office. Meeting with a group of Nebraska farmers in 2010, he told them it was more effective to “hit people in their heart rather than their head,” according to a report on the talk by Nebraska Farm Bureau News. “Emotional understanding is very different — it stays with you. Intellectual understanding is a fact and facts trump other facts. When I understand something in my gut, you’ve got me in a very different way.”
Berman then explained why he believes such attacks work. “People remember negative stuff,” Berman said. “They don’t like hearing it, but they remember it … We can use fear and anger — it stays with people longer than love and sympathy.”


7. “If you want a video to go viral, have kids or animals.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I’ll leave you with a series of questions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A) Could you, or would you, behave like Dr. Evil on behalf of clean energy or climate mitigation?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">B) If there were a Dr. Evil of clean energy or climate mitigation, would you hire him?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">C) Would you give money to a nonprofit front group that funneled money to him, if you knew the donation would never be disclosed?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">D) Would you publicly denounce him if his tactics came to light?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My strong suspicion is that if a Dr. Evil did pop up fighting for progressive causes, liberals would line up to disown him, thus demonstrating their precious independence and moral superiority. My further suspicion is that, of the vast amount of money being spent by left-leaning foundations, green NGOs, and clean energy industry groups to shape public opinion about climate change, approximately zero of it is being deployed with the same ruthless, unscrupulous ferocity that Berman brings to defending the status quo. Is that a good thing?<a href="http://grist.org/politics/dr-evil-is-defending-big-oil-is-anyone-defending-climate-the-same-way/">http://grist.org/politics/dr-evil-is-defending-big-oil-is-anyone-defending-climate-the-same-way/</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—–<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.6; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Next post: <a href="http://grist.org/politics/what-we-can-learn-from-dr-evils-attack-on-obamas-carbon-rules/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(191, 115, 64); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; background: transparent;">What we can learn from Dr. Evil’s attack on Obama’s carbon rules</a>http://www.alternet.org/dr-evil-behind-attacks-obamaTo Washington insiders he is <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-rick-berman-aka-dr-evil/" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Dr Evil:</a> the hidden orchestrator of industry campaigns against the Humane Society, Mothers against Drunk Driving, and other seemingly uncontroversial groups.Now Richard Berman, a one-time lobbyist turned industry strategist, has zeroed in on another target: <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/02/obama-rules-coal-climate-change" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Barack Obama’s new power plant rules</a>.Over the last year, Berman has secretly routed funding for at least 16 studies and launched at least five front groups attacking Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting carbon dioxide from power plants, the Guardian has learned.<div class="in_content_ad_container ad_3" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="div-gpt-ad-1420251685282-0" style="width: 300px; height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/1010624/New_AlterNet_300x250_STORY_EMBED_1_0container" style="border: 0pt none; display: inline-block; width: 300px; height: 250px;">The rules, the centre-piece of Obama’s climate agenda, are due to be finalised in mid-summer. They have come under sustained assault from industry and Republican-controlled Congress – and Berman is right at the heart of it.The attacks may be gaining traction. The EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, suggested in a speech this week the rules were likely to change in response to public comment.From the offices of Berman’s PR firm in Washington, at least five new front groups have launched attack ads against the EPA, environmental groups, fishermen and sportsmen, and green building organisations. The groups all use Berman’s address.Meanwhile, the<a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="https://www.epionline.org/" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;"> Employment Policies Institute</a>, a tax-exempt organisation headed by Berman and operating out of his office according to tax filings, funded a series of reports by an ultra-conservative thinktank, the <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://www.beaconhill.org/" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Beacon Hill Institute</a>.The reports, claiming the power plant rules would lead to rolling blackouts, send electricity prices skyrocketing, and devastate local economies, are being published in 16 states by a network of pro-corporate and ultra-conservative thinktanks.All of the reports were funded by EPI, according to Suffolk University, the host institution for Beacon Hill. Suffolk released a <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http//www.suffolk.edu/documents/ORSP/orsp_news_may_2014.pdf" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">list of such grants.</a>Berman did not respond to requests for comment. However, a spokesman, Jordan Bruneau, confirmed that EPI was funding the analyses of the EPA regulations.“Currently IPA is working with economists to determine the effects of certain EPA regulations on particular states,” he said in an email. He said the research was entirely funded by foundations but refused to identify those funders.Those familiar with Berman say he is a prime example of a new industry strategy of bypassing traditional lobbying organisations, and using thinktanks, foundations, experts, and social media to shape the public conversation and – ultimately – legislation.“Richard Berman is very well known for certain front groups and for taking money from anonymous sources to fund aggressive campaigns in the interests of the individuals and the corporations who fund him with the understanding that that funding will be kept secret,” said Nick Surgey, research director of the Center for Media and Democracy.<div class="in_content_ad_container ad_13" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="div-gpt-ad-1420251685282-1" style="width: 300px; height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/1010624/New_AlterNet_300x250_STORY_EMBED_2_0container" style="border: 0pt none; display: inline-block; width: 300px; height: 250px;">Indeed, Berman claims his ability to hide the funding sources for such campaigns as a particular expertise.“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’” Berman told a conference of energy executives last year. The talk was <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http//www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?r=1" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">secretly recorded</a> and leaked to the New York Times.“We run all of this stuff through non-profit organisations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us,” Berman told the energy executives.He claimed at the time to have already collected six-figure sums from some of the companies in the room – and solicited $3m more to defeat opponents of fracking.On such a scale, the funding for an economic study taking down the EPA rules appears relatively economical. Beacon Hill received $41,500 from the Employment Policies Institute for a study of the EPA rules, according to the grants list maintained by Suffolk University.The funds were allocated to produce reports on the impact of the EPA rules in 16 states including: Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Washington Ohio, Alaska and Utah, a spokesman for Suffolk University said.The university spokesman said in an email that the grants followed university protocol. “Suffolk does not accept research funds from unknown sources,” the spokesman said in an email.Beacon Hill is associated with a network of ultra-conservative groups working with the American Legislative Exchange Council and funded by patrons of anti-government causes such as the Koch brothers and Searle Freedom Trust.Its director, David Tuerck, appears on the roster of experts at the Heartland Institute, which adopts an extreme-sceptic position on the existence of human-caused climate change. Tuerck has also featured as a keynote speaker at Heartland’s climate conferences.He told the Guardian he had mixed views on climate change. “I am not certain that those emissions are significant enough to offset other factor changing the climate,” he said. But he was categorical that efforts to cut emissions were “a waste of time”.<div class="in_content_ad_container ad_23" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="div-gpt-ad-1420251685282-2" style="width: 300px; height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/1010624/New_AlterNet_300x250_STORY_EMBED_3_0container" style="border: 0pt none; display: inline-block; width: 300px; height: 250px;">“We are just heaping unnecessary costs on the American economy,” he said. “It’s as obvious as the nose on anybody’s face these EPA regulations are inevitably going to drive up electricity rates.”Over the years, BHI has been accused of using discredited economic models to exaggerate the costs and downplay the benefits of government regulations.“I think what is dangerous about BHI is that on the face of it appears to be an academic institute producing independent reports but when you peel back the first layer of the onion you find that Beacon Hill often skews reports in favour of their funders,” Surgey said.In 2013, Suffolk University <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http//www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/host-university-research-group-climate-suffolk-university" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">publicly repudiated Beacon Hill </a>after the Guardian reported the organisation told prospective funders its studies could undermine a regional climate change initiative. The claim did not follow Suffolk University rules for grant proposals, the university said.Jay Duffy, a legal fellow at the Clean Air Task Force, said the current BHI analysis of the EPA rules did not meet the usual academic standards. “BHI’s interpretation of EPA’s analysis just doesn’t hold up,” he said. “BHI has skewed timelines, underestimated the social cost of carbon, and overestimated the effect on electricity prices. As a result, their study badly inflates the costs and minimises the benefits of EPA’s draft rules.”BHI defended the study. “Our costs are within the broad range of costs that the EPA produces,” said Paul Bachman, who directly oversaw the study. “It’s just that we don’t include – we exclude – what they call the co-benefits of the proposal.”Berman’s other forays into the environmental arena this year have been hard-hitting.One prime example was the Environmental Policy Alliance – a mirror image of the government agency – which, according to the website, is “devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups and exploring the intersection between activists and government agencies”.The group oversees four projects aimed at discrediting the government agency and environmental and conservation groups.In a full page ad in Politico last year, one of the projects, <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://https//epafacts.com" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">EPA Facts</a>, asked: “What would you call a radical organisation that threatens to shut down 25% of our electrical grid?” The ad crossed off responses including anarchist, terrorist and militia before coming to Obama’s EPA.<div class="in_content_ad_container ad_33" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="div-gpt-ad-1420251685282-3" style="width: 300px; height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe/1010624/New_AlterNet_300x250_STORY_EMBED_4_0container" style="border: 0pt none; display: inline-block; width: 300px; height: 250px;">Another Berman creation <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http/https://www.biggreenradicals.com" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Big Green Radicals</a> claims environmental groups are funded by Russian oil interests close to Vladimir Putin, put up billboards on the Pennsylvania turnpike attacking Lady Gaga, Robert Redford and other <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://https//www.biggreenradicals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Robert-Redford-Billboard.jpg" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">celebrities who oppose fracking</a>, and sent a poison Valentine to the <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http//350.org/breaking-up-with-fossil-fuels-is-easy-to-do/" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">fossil fuel divestment campaign.</a><a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://%20https//www.greendecoys.com" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Green Decoys </a>takes on sportsmen and fishermen who support the power plant rules. <a data-component="in-body-link" data-link="" href="http://http//www.leedexposed.com/" name="in body link" id="in body link" style="color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Leed Exposed</a> opposes green building codes.The outrageous claims are a key part of the strategy, Berman has claimed. “Berman and Company isn’t your average PR firm,” his company website said. “We don’t just change the debate. If necessary, we start the debate.”
==

anti union zones http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12720/ALEC-Wisconsin-Milwaukee

berman superbowl ad ~ union

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12721/union-busting-front-group-run-super-bowl-ad

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/pr-firm-advise-new-york-oil-gas-group-win-ugly">http://www.alternet.org/print/pr-firm-advise-new-york-oil-gas-group-win-ugly</a>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Berman" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Rick Berman</a>, the king of corporate front groups and propaganda, has been caught on tape detailing his attacks on public interest groups in the labor and environmental movements, including on efforts to increase the minimum wage for workers.

As noted in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">new story</a> by Eric Lipton at The New York Times, Berman met with energy company executives at the posh Broadmoor Hotel earlier this year to raise money from them to attack groups representing citizens concerned about clean water, clean air, and the future of the planet. But Berman's "win ugly" tactics apparently did not persuade all of his prospective clients for his lucrative business of creating tax-exempt non-profit front groups that then contract with his for-profit PR firm to give corporations cover for his attacks on their opponents. The way Berman profits from this arrangement has spawned a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11886/web-berman-front-groups-subject-irs-complaint" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">legal complaint</a> to the IRS.

An audio tape of Berman and his associate, Jack Hubbard, has been provided by a person at the Broadmoor event to the Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes PRWatch and has long tracked Berman's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rick_Berman" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">deceptive PR operations</a>.

Readers can <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/c/cb/Berman_presentation.mp3" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">listen to the full tape here</a> and <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/berman_transcript.pdf" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">read the transcript here</a>.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.25; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Berman Explains His Playbook</h2>

Preaching to his audience, Berman's remarks reveal a kind of Ten Commandments from the Dr. Evil playbook:

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Screw" your enemy. Berman boasted about his obsession with unions and his attack on their efforts to raise the minimum wage for American workers: "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/2/21/Rick_Berman_Screw_with_your_enemy.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">"Marginalize" your opponents. Berman described his tactics against public interest groups: "wherever possible I like to use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/0/0d/Rick_Berman_Minimize_or_marginalize.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">"Demolish the moral authority" of powerful public interest voices: "I got George McGovern to come out and say that unions were wrong. I represent some alcohol companies, I got Candy Lightner, who started Mothers Against Drunk Driving, to come out and say that MADD was overreaching and that she endorsed our position, our client position, rather than the MADD position. That is a demolishing of moral authority." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/a/ae/Rick_Berman_Demolish_the_moral_authority.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Make it personal." Berman's associate Hubbard described how they go after concerned citizens who dare to challenge their clients: "we do have a section on every single activist. Their rap sheets, their criminal records they have. We're really making this personal. We're trying to make it so they don't have any credibility with the public, with the media, or with the legislators." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/4/4f/Rick_Berman_Make_it_personal.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Brand" whole movements as "not credible." Berman & Co. detailed their game plan to try to marginalize people concerned about fracking, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-30/fracking-advocates-urged-to-win-ugly-by-discrediting-foes.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">as noted by Bloomberg</a> media: "what we wanted to do is that we wanted to brand the entire movement behind this as not being credible, and anti-science." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/d/db/Rick_Berman_Brand_movements_not_credible.mp3" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Being "nasty" wins. Berman shakes off concerns that his activities are too nasty or aggressive, saying "you can either win ugly or lose pretty." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/3/31/RIck_Berman_Win_ugly_lose_pretty.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Push "fear and anger." Berman talked about pushing people's emotional buttons on fear, love, anger, greed, and sympathy, stating: "you could not get into people's heads and convince them to do something as easily as you could get into their hearts or into their gut to convince to do something. Because, emotions drive people much better than intellectual epiphanies." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/5/50/Rick_Berman_Push_fear_and_anger.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Treat public policy as "endless war." Berman recognized that the public interest groups are appealing to the American people: "If you think about it these groups, the Sierra Club, who is the natural enemy of the Sierra Club? Who is the enemy of Greenpeace? You know at the surface, you would love to be a group like that because everyone should be in favor of you, who could be against you? That's very difficult to over come and they play on that, and they trade on that, and that's our opportunity and also our challenge. So it is an endless war." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/f/fa/Rick_Berman_Endless_war.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Give corporate cash "total anonymity." Berman reassured his audience that he can keep their role in these tactics secret: "We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don't know who supports us. We've been doing this for 20 something years in this regard. And to the degree to anybody is concerned about that I will tell you there are all sorts of ways, all sorts of firewalls that have been established to get this done on an anonymous basis." He added: "I am religious about not allowing company names to ever get used. At least I'm not going to allow them to get used. And I don't want companies to ever admit that because it does give the other side a way to diminish our message." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/8/8c/RIck_Berman_Total_anonymity.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

<li style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tear down celebrities who speak out. Berman's associate Hubbard noted that taking down celebrities who speak up is a key part of their strategy because: "the problem is that the public really does have a celebrity worship culture. But the good news is that there is nothing the public likes more than tearing down celebrities and playing up the hypocrisy angle." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/c/cc/Rick_Berman_Tear_down_celebrities.mp3" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">Listen to this clip here.</a></li>

</ol>

Meanwhile, Berman and Co. attack public interest groups for their donors and try to label opponents as "hypocrites" whenever possible even as he goes to great lengths to hide the money trail between him and some of the dirtiest industries on the planet.

The tape reveals more about Berman's targets beyond Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and unions, such as Food and Water Watch, the Park Foundation, the Humane Society, and Rep. Jared Polis. But they are in good company as Berman's targets alongside activist leaders like Robert Redford, Randi Weingarten who leads the American Federation of Teachers, and Tom Steyer, who is publicly known for funding efforts to protect the environment. Other Berman celebrity targets include Lady Gaga and Yoko Ono. (CMD--which launched ALECexposed.org and publishes PRWatch.org, SourceWatch.org, KochExposed.org, OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org, NFIBexposed.org, and other investigative sites--is also one of the groups targeted by Berman and his buddies in recent months.)

Undoubtedly, there will be more to come on Berman's tactics and operations.

</div>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Corporations</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/democracy" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Democracy</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/energy" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Energy</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Environment</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment/global-warming" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Climate Change</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment/fracking" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Fracking</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/ethics" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Ethics</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/labor" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Labor</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/lobbying" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Lobbying</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/marketing" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Marketing</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/marketing/advertising" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Advertising</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/propaganda" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Propaganda</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Public Relations</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/astroturf" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Astroturf</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/crisis-management" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Crisis Management</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/front-groups" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Front Groups</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/issue-management" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Issue Management</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/third-party-technique" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Third Party Technique</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/rhetoric" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Rhetoric</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/science" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Science</a></li>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/secrecy" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Secrecy</a></li>

<li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/women" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Women</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12646#sthash.5p9nejYm.dpuf

nyt

INGTON — If the oil and gas industry wants to prevent its opponents from slowing its efforts to drill in more places, it must be prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits about environmentalists and liberal celebrities, a veteran Washington political consultant told a room full of industry executives in a speech that was secretly recorded.

The blunt advice from the consultant, Richard Berman, the founder and chief executive of the Washington-based Berman & Company consulting firm, came as Mr. Berman solicited up to $3 million from oil and gas industry executives to finance an advertising and public relations campaign called Big Green Radicals.

The company executives, Mr. Berman said in his speech, must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should not worry about offending the general public because “you can either win ugly or lose pretty,” he said.

Think of this as an endless war,” Mr. Berman <a title="A transcript of the talk." href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1349204/berman-at-western-energy-alliance-june-2014-doc.pdf" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">told the crowd</a> at the June event in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the Western Energy Alliance, a group whose members include Devon Energy, Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum, which specialize in extracting oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. “And you have to budget for it.”

What Mr. Berman did not know — and what could now complicate his task of marginalizing environmental groups that want to impose limits on fracking — is that one of the energy industry executives recorded his remarks and was offended by them.

“That you have to play dirty to win,” said the executive, who provided a copy of the recording and the meeting agenda to The New York Times under the condition that his identity not be revealed. “It just left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Mr. Berman had flown to Colorado with Jack Hubbard, a vice president at Berman & Company, to discuss their newest public relations campaign, Big Green Radicals, which has already placed a series of intentionally controversial <a href="http://www.biggreenradicals.com/ads-media/" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">advertisements </a>in Pennsylvania and Colorado, two states where the debate over fracking has been intense. It has also paid to place the media campaign on websites serving national and Washington audiences.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Berman confirmed that he gave the speech, but said he would have no comment on its contents.

Mr. Berman is well known in Washington for his technique of creating nonprofit groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom that secretly collect corporate donations to finance the aggressive, often satirical media campaigns his team conceives. They are intended to undermine his opponents, like labor unions or animal rights groups that have tried to spotlight the treatment of animals at meatpacking plants.

“I get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions — that’s my offense,” Mr. Berman said in his speech to the Western Energy Alliance. “I am just trying to figure out how I am going to reduce their brand.”

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<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="54" data-total-count="3117" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-4" style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em 135px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mr. Berman offered several pointers from his playbook.

“If you want a video to go viral, have kids or animals,” he said, and then he showed a spot his company had prepared using schoolchildren as participants in a mock union election — to suggest that union bosses do not have real elections.

“Use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side,” he added.

“There is nothing the public likes more than tearing down celebrities and playing up the hypocrisy angle,” his colleague Mr. Hubbard said, citing<a href="http://www.biggreenradicals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Robert-Redford-Billboard.jpg" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">billboard advertisements</a> planned for Pennsylvania that featured Robert Redford. “Demands green living,” they read. “Flies on private jets.”

Mr. Hubbard also discussed how he had done detailed research on the personal histories of members of the boards of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to try to find information that could be used to embarrass them.

<aside class="marginalia comments-marginalia selected-comment-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" data-skip-to-para-id="story-continues-6" style=" border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 300px; float: right; clear: right; margin: 0px 0px 45px 7px; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="visually-hidden" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=5&assetType=nyt_now#story-continues-6" style=" border: 0px; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">Continue reading the main story</a>

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<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="292" data-total-count="4268" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-6" style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em 135px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the speech, given in June at the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort, where the Western Energy Alliance held its 2014 annual meeting, could end up bringing a new round of scrutiny to Mr. Berman and the vast network of nonprofit groups and think tanks he runs out of his downtown Washington office.

Mr. Berman repeatedly boasted about how he could take checks from the oil and gas industry executives — he said he had already collected six-figure contributions from some of the executives in the room — and then hide their role in funding his campaigns.

“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’ ” Mr. Berman told the crowd. “We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us.”

What is unclear is if the hardball tactics that Mr. Berman has pitched will succeed in places like Colorado. Already, The Denver Post editorial page, generally supportive of the oil and gas industry, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_26217999/flat-earth-ad-is-cheap-shot-at-fracking" style=" color: rgb(50, 104, 145);">has criticized</a> Mr. Berman’s tactics, calling one video spot — featuring fictitious environmentalists who debate if the moon is made of cheese before calling for a ban on fracking — “a cheap shot at fracking foes.”

In fact, at least one of the major oil and gas companies that had executives at the event — Anadarko, a Texas-based company that operates 13,000 wells in the Rocky Mountain region — now says that it did not agree with the suggestions that Mr. Berman offered on how to combat criticism of oil and gas drilling techniques.

“Anadarko did not support Mr. Berman’s approach and did not to participate in his work because it does not align with our values,” John Christiansen, a company spokesman, said.

Mr. Berman probably appreciates the criticism. As he explained in his remarks, what matters is increasing the number of people who see his work, which is part of the reason he intentionally tries to offend people in his media campaigns.

“They characterize us in a campaign as being the guys with the black helicopters,” he explained. “And to some degree, that’s true. We’re doing stuff to diminish the other sides’ ability to operate.”

wockner

The Oct. 30 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">New York Times</a> ran a story about how the oil and gas industry and its high-priced lobbyist/publicist Richard Berman are personally targeting Colorado activists who are working in anti-<a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/fracking-2/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">fracking</a> campaigns. The story is based on a <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/31/richard-berman-fracking-industry-plays-dirty/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; transition: color 0.2s linear; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">secretly recorded speech given by Berman</a> and his colleague to industry officials in Colorado Springs in 2014 during which he described how the industry was going hard negative and using personal attacks against activists and how the industry must prepare for an “endless war” against environmentalists about fracking.

I am one of the activists targeted by Berman. If you go to the website Berman highlighted in his speech, <a href="http://www.biggreenradicals.com/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">BigGreenRadicals.org</a>, then click on “Colorado,” then click on “<a href="http://www.biggreenradicals.com/?post_type=activist&p=384" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Gary Wockner</a>,” you’ll see Berman’s hit job (it’s not very accurate or insightful). I’m in good company there, joined by my Congressman Jared Polis, Yoko Ono, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/author/mruffalo/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Mark Ruffalo</a> and other local Colorado activists with whom I’ve been proud to work over the past couple of years.

A few environmental leaders are taking Berman and industry to task for their tactics targeting me and others. After reading the story in the Times, Sierra Club Executive Director <a href="http://ecowatch.com/author/mbrune/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Michael Brune</a> said, “You know <a href="http://ecowatch.com/search/?q=climate+deniers" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">climate deniers</a> and big polluters are desperate when they turn to the tired old tactics of the tobacco industry to try and save themselves.” <a href="http://ecowatch.com/author/bkennedy/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.</a>called Berman “The Oil Reich’s Minister of Propaganda” in this tweet:

By the time the BigGreenRadicals.org website appeared in 2014, these personal attacks were old news in Colorado. The industry had been ramping up the negative rhetoric for over a year using <a href="http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/10/big-money-and-radical-activists-lurk-behind-fracking-bans-across-front-range/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Berman’s surrogate organizations</a>, especially before and after the industry lost the four local ballot initiatives in Fort Collins, Broomfield, Lafayette, and Boulder in <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/06/huge-election-victories-colorados-anti-fracking-movement/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">November of 2013</a>which banned or put a long-term moratorium on fracking. At one point during the election, they made door-hangers with that hit-job against me (including my photo) and hung them on thousands of doors in Broomfield (it didn’t work; we won the election anyway).

The <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/25/oil-gas-industry-buys-colorado-fracking-election/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">fracking wars in Colorado</a> are intense. I’ve chosen to be a <a href="http://garywockner.com/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">visible public face, campaign organizer and spokesperson</a> fighting against fracking. I chose to do this because <a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">climate change</a>is real and is made worse by fracking for oil and gas, and because fracking causes severe negative impacts to public health, wildlife and landscapes, air and water, and to Colorado citizens’ property values. Further, I believe we need to switch to a <a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">renewable energy</a>, no-carbon economy as soon as possible to mitigate and avert the worst impacts of climate change.

Mr. Berman has been doing negative personal attacks for a long time—in 2007, CBS’s 60 minutes described him as “<a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/10/30/fracking-advocates-urged-to-win-ugly-by-discrediting-foes/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Dr. Evil</a>” for his past work attacking unions and animal rights groups. Now, the oil and gas industry has hired him to attack environmental activists in Colorado, thus solidifying the industry’s role here as a propaganda machine that will pretty much say and do anything to anyone to maximize their short-term profit at the complete expense of the public’s and environment’s long-term health. Perhaps this is a fight of good vs. evil, and so perhaps they’ve hired the right man.

Why are they attacking environmental activists? Because we are making a difference.

What can you do? Join us.

<a href="http://garywockner.com/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Gary Wockner</a>, PhD, is an environmental activist living Colorado.

--

hit job on activists, TCO defunct? <a href="http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/10/big-money-and-radical-activists-lurk-behind-fracking-bans-across-front-range/"> http://thecoloradoobserver.com/2013/10/big-money-and-radical-activists-lurk-behind-fracking-bans-across-front-range/</a>

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/the-colorado-observer-alters-quote_n_1432018.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/the-colorado-observer-alters-quote_n_1432018.html</a>

==

10/14

busted:

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/31/richard-berman-fracking-industry-plays-dirty">http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/31/richard-berman-fracking-industry-plays-dirty</a>

Secret Tape Exposes Fracking Industry Playing Dirty

Anastasia Pantsios | October 31, 2014 10:38 am | Comments

Right-wing public relations consultant/astroturf king Richard Berman probably wasn’t very happy when he saw yesterday’s New York Times. Like the now infamous American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Berman’s success depends in large part on anonymity. He is known for his use of what’s called “astroturf” groups—organizations that appear to be community or citizen advocacy groups with names like “Center for Consumer Freedom” but are really shell groups for untraceable corporate donations—to attack labor unions, environmental laws, attempts to regulate the food industry and anti-smoking measures. Lately, he’s been a conduit for fossil fuel interests with his Big Green Radicals campaign, based on the mockery and personal destruction of those who advocate for the environment.

At the secretly taped presentation, Richard Berman and Jack Hubbard laid out their strategy of playing dirty, saying “You can win ugly or lose pretty.” Photo credit: Oil Change International

But one industry executive had enough. The anonymous executive leaked a tape to the New York Times of a June event in Colorado Springs at which Berman and Jack Hubbard, a vice president at Berman & Company, were soliciting money from oil and gas executives for the Big Green Radicals effort, telling them that they needed to exploit fear, greed and anger, and to stoke resentment against environmentally-minded celebrities. The executive told the New York Times the presentation left a bad taste in his mouth.

Last spring, that campaign placed billboards in a pair of states where the explosive growth of fracking has raised community opposition and demands for more regulation or banning the process altogether—Pennsylvania and Colorado. They mocked celebrities who had records of environmental advocacy such as Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono and Robert Redford. “Demands green living. Flies on private jets,” said the Redford Billboard.” “Would you take energy advice from a woman who wears a meat dress?” said the Lady Gaga billboard. The head-scratching billboard featuring Yoko Ono said, “Would you take energy advice from a woman who broke up the Beatles?”

At the secretly taped presentation, Berman and Hubbard laid out their strategy of playing dirty, saying “You can win ugly or lose pretty.”

Winning ugly is what he specializes in. The BigGreenRadicals website attacks big environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch and the Natural Resources Defense Council, saying these organizations “have morphed into multi-million dollar lobbying machines that use questionable tactics to scare the American public and policymakers into supporting unnecessary and unreasonable policies.”

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. chimed in on this one:

And Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement:

“You know climate deniers and big polluters are desperate when they turn to the tired old tactics of the tobacco industry to try and save themselves. Whether it’s cigarettes or dirty fuels, toxic products are on their way out, and their proponents are left scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not going to work—dirty tricks won’t save dirty fuels.”

Berman told the executives at the June meeting that he had researched the personal histories of board members of these groups, looking for information that could be used to embarrass and discredit them. He emphasized to them how they could operate anonymously through his company, shoveling six-figure donations to his front groups without their involvement being revealed.

“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’” Berman said. “We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us.”

They’re starting to learn, and that probably won’t work to Berman’s benefit.