Ctr for Consumer Freedom CCF

note color below

berman tag corrupted with this title?; new is bermn

SEE Extensive Berman file

exposed, so rebranded Center for Organizational Research and Education

tim miller am rising oppo research

htmlNeoconservatism bak 4 22

topics:

Summary

* Founded in 1995 as the Guest Choice Network

* Phillip Morris provided $600,000 in seed money for the organization

* Restaurant, tobacco company funds were used to fight restaurant smoking bans

* Over 40% of expenses funneled to Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) founder Rick Berman’s lobbying shop

* Payments to Berman lobbying firm led Charity Navigator to post donor advisory against CCF

* TIME: Attacks on Humane Society “a low blow”

Center for Consumer Freedom Originally Funded by Tobacco and Restaurant Industries to Fight Bans on Smoking in Restaurants

According to the Washington Post, the Center for Consumer Freedom – then named the Guest Choice Network – was originally funded with “tobacco-company and restaurant money to fight smoking curbs in restaurants.”

The Post reported that “Philip Morris USA Inc. pledged $600,000 — most of the seed money — for Berman’s group in 1995. The company said it needed a consultant who was both a ‘hospitality industry insider as well as a legislatively astute individual,’ according to documents collected as part of the multi-state lawsuit against tobacco companies.” [*Washington Post*, 4/27/05]

TIME reported in 2013 that the group was funded by money from Philip Morris, and was created to promote “smokers’ rights” in the restaurant and hospitality industries. [*TIME*, 8/12/13]

Since Tobacco-Funded Roots, CCF Has Expanded to Other Dubious Areas of Interest

Following its name change to the Center for Consumer Freedom in 2001, the Washington Post reported that “it shifted its focus to food and beverage issues, raised by concerns about obesity, mad cow disease and genetically modified products.” [*Washington Post*, 4/27/05]

TIME reported in 2013 that CCF had expanded to promote meatconsumption, and countering scientific evidence on the dangers of mercury and high fructose corn syrup. [*TIME*, 8/12/13]

Over 40% of CCF’s Expenses Went to Berman and Company from 2002-2012

The table below details both CCF’s total expenses and compensation paid by CCF to Berman and Company from the 2002 tax year through the 2012 tax year.

During that period, over 40% of all CCF expenses went to Berman and Company, and in five of those years (2002, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011) more than half of CCF’s expenses went to Berman and Company.

TaxYear	TotalExpenses	Compensation to Berman and Company	% of Expenses toBerman and Company

2012	$1,024,582	$246,874	24.10%
2011	$2,121,780	$1,294,488	61.01%
2010	$2,640,780	$1,682,126	63.70%
2009	$8,831,659	$1,461,597	16.55%
2008	$1,594,299	$1,043,604	65.46%
2007	$1,951,753	$1,562,280	80.04%
2006	$3,291,050	$1,190,512	36.17%
2005	$3,818,769	$1,623,186	42.51%
2004	$3,246,452	$1,435,056	44.20%
2003	$2,752,519	$1,252,344	45.50%
2002	$1,970,803	$1,044,553	53.00%
TOTAL	$33,244,446	$13,836,620	41.62%

[CCF IRS Form 990 filings]

CCF’s Excessive Payments to Berman Led Charity Navigator to Issue a Donor Advisory

Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator, currently has a Donor Advisory regarding CCF.

In the advisory, Charity Navigator stated that their analysis of CCF’s 2011 IRS Form 990 revealed that the majority of CCF’s expenses were paid to Berman and Company, and that “we find the practice of a charity contracting for management services with a business owned by that charity’s CEO atypical as compared to how other charities operate.” [Charity Navigator donor advisory]

A Long History of Making False Attacks against Respected Organizations

The Center for Consumer Freedom has a long history of making false and outlandish attacks against respected organizations, including the Humane Society, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and even Trout Unlimited.

Berman has claimed that such groups have “a violent side to them.” [*Washington Post*, 4/27/05]

TIME: Attacks on Humane Society a “Low Blow”

In August 2013, TIME reported on CCF’s funding of ads attacking the Humane Society.

The ads claimed that only 1% of Humane Society revenue went to local shelters, an attack TIME called a “low blow.” [*TIME*, 8/12/13]

Hall of Shame, Food For Thought

huffpo

W YORK -- A front group for Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm Berman & Company is back with new targets: green buildings, green groups and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Berman & Co., helmed by Rick Berman (**who was once called "Dr. Evil"** by CBS' "60 Minutes"), has a long history of running campaigns on behalf of the food and beverage industry under the banner of the **Center for Consumer Freedom**. Earlier this year, CCF changed its name to the Center for Organizational Research & Education,according to documents filed with the Government of the District of Columbia and the North Carolina Secretary of State's Office, which were obtained by The Huffington Post. The group also recently launched the cleverly named Environmental Policy Alliance, or EPA for short, a group "devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups."

An Environmental Policy Alliance spokesperson told HuffPost that the name change is part of a "restructuring" to "broaden the work that we're doing." The CCF will continue to exist, but alongside the "EPA" under the umbrella of the Center for Organizational Research & Education.

The new Environmental Policy Alliance appears to be one of Berman's first major forays into energy and environmental policy. The new "EPA" targets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which it deems "America's most powerful environmental activist."

Berman's "EPA Facts" site suggests that the connection between rising greenhouse gas emissions and warming temperatures is "still unclear," despite the fact that scientists have a solid understanding of the correlation. The group also argues that there are flaws in the work of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, citing reports from two well-known climate change-denying groups, the Heartland Institute and the George C. Marshall Institute.

CCF's Environmental Policy Alliance also launched a campaign called "LEED Exposed" last week, which critiques the usefulness of the U.S. Green Building Council's rating system for sustainability and efficiency of buildings. The group's "research" purports to show that "LEED-certified buildings use more energy and are more expensive" than uncertified buildings.

"This latest data release only confirms what we already knew: LEED certification is little more than a fancy plaque displayed by these 'green' buildings," Berman staffer Anastasia Swearingen said in a press release announcing the launch of the campaign on Feb. 28.

Swearingen also wrote an anti-LEED op-ed for Forbes in December 2013, arguing, "we're clearly not spending that money wisely."

A closer look at LEED Exposed's methodology reveals a significant omission. The report concludes that, as a whole, LEED-certified buildings in Washington, D.C., use more energy than buildings without the certification. But the analysis only looks at the energy use of buildings relative to size, or what is known asenergy use intensity.

EUI is only one of several recognized benchmarks used by building professionals to assess a building's efficiency, and looking at it in isolation ignores the importance of building density. Thus a large, abandoned building would score well for EUI, because its energy use is quite low relative to size.

"Their goal is just to confuse you," Scot Horst, the senior vice president of LEED at the U.S. Green Building Council, told HuffPost. Most Americans are unfamiliar with terms like energy use intensity, he explained, and may not fully grasp the complexities of assessing efficiency. EUI is "only a very partial snapshot of what's happening," according to Horst, and ignoring other measurements "leads to very unfair comparisons."

Groups like the American Chemistry Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represent the wood, plastics and vinyl industries, have bashed LEED in the past.

Swearingen told HuffPost that the alliance doesn't solely represent business interests, arguing that all Americans have a vested interest in affordable energy.

"Berman makes his money as a corporate hired gun, setting up front groups to denigrate public interest organizations that threaten his clients' bottom lines," Melanie Sloan, executive director for the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told HuffPost. "I'm not surprised he's attacking groups and agencies focused on the environment, given the deep pockets of those interested in paying to stop climate change legislation and regulation."

"These methods of attack rely on the way people read media," Horst added. "They rely on creating confusion."

Manufacturing doubt around scientific issues and sowing confusion through the media is a well-documented industry strategy -- one that Berman has often employed.

Berman & Co. has previously attacked organizations like the Humane Society of the United States and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and campaigned against minimum-wage increases and unionization.

The Environmental Policy Alliance also ran a full-page ad in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, claiming that the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Food & Water Watch "are using scare tactics and junk science to push policies that increase the cost of energy."

"This feeble attempt at a smear campaign is a good reminder to always consider the source," an NRDC spokesperson told HuffPost. "As opposed to this newly re-named front group, we've been around for decades. We cite our research. We sign our names on our materials. And we don't lurk in the shadows because there's no reason to hide our good work to protect our air, our water and our communities."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/environmental-policy-alliance-berman_n_4913303.html?ir=Green&utm_campaign=030714&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-green&utm_content=Title

sw funding:

Center for Consumer Freedom funding

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is registered as tax-exempt nonprofit organization and is required to disclose some financial information to the Internal Revenue Service which is publicly available by inspecting their IRS Form 990s. Like Berman's other front groups, it does not disclose the identity of its funders, but some information about it has become publicly available thanks to the 1998 attorney generals' settlement with the tobacco industry, which required tobacco companies to release millions of pages of previously secret company documents.

CCF claims to represent "more than 30,000 U.S. restaurants and tavern operators." However, the IRS Form 990 which it filed for the the six-month period from July to December 1999 (under the name of "Guest Choice Network") shows that almost all of its financial support came from a handful of anonymous sources. Its total income for that period was $111,642, of which $105,000 came from six unnamed donors. It received no income from membership dues. Some of its funding apparently came from one of Berman's other organizations, the American Beverage Institute, which "contributes monthly amounts to the Guest Choice Network to assist with media expenses."

The Guest Choice Network did not report paying salaries to any of its employees, who were presumably paid by Berman & Co. CCF's Form 990 for the year 2000 showed total income of $514,321, almost all of which ($492,500) came from seven unnamed donors. Once again, it received no income from membership dues and did not report paying salaries to any employees. However, it did list $256,077 in compensation paid to Berman and Co., Inc., for "management services."

In 2004, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that CCF violated its nonprofit, tax-exempt status. IRS law prohibits private individuals from benefiting from nonprofit organizations, but CREW alleges that Rick Berman and his for-profit lobbying and public relations firm have received nearly $2 million from CCF and its predecessor organization since 1999.^[1] Tax-exempt organizations must have a charitable purpose, but CREW notes that CCF lobbies exclusively on behalf of food producers and the restaurant and tobacco industries.

Funding from Right-Wing Bradley Foundation in Wisconsin

The right-wing Lynde and Harry **Bradley**Foundation, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and "doled out nearly as much money as the seven Koch and Scaife foundations combined" from 2001 to 2009, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,^[2] has given at least $375,000 (from 2009 to 2012) to CCF. The Bradley Foundation gave CCF $200,000 in 2009,^[3] $50,000 in 2010,^[4] and $125,000 in 2012,^[5] according to the foundation's IRS tax filings for those years. See Contributions of the Bradley Foundation for more.

Funding from GMO Company J.R. Simplot

The J.R. Simplot Company Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) run by the J.R. Simplot Company -- a privately-owned agriculturalgenetic engineering company describing itself as "one of the largest privately held food and agribusiness companies in the nation"^[6] -- gave $20,000 to CCF in 2010.^[7]

2011 Finances

In 2011, The Center for Consumer Freedom reported $1,402,807 in total revenue in 2011 on its 990 tax return, and $2,121,780 in expenses.^[8]

CCF reported spending $1,294,488 on its own president's consulting company, Richard Berman And Company, Inc.. It also spent $128,859 advertising on Fox News.

CFC received a total of $15,500,073 in gifts, grants and contributions from 2007-2011. It gave fellow Berman front group The Center for Union Facts a $22,000 cash grant in 2011.^[9]

2005 Finances

CCF's Form 990 for the year 2005 listed total revenue of $3.67 million. ^[10] Of its expenditure of $3.82 million in 2005, $2.19 million was for a series of major advertisements, $856,699 was for running a series of websites and distributring a daily emnail newsletter to "approximately 30,000 subscribers" and a further $214,000 on maintaining a "database of foundations grants and funding sources of organizations dealing with food and beverage issues."^[11]

Of the group's $3.82 million of expenditure in 2005, $1.62 million was paid as compensation to Berman & Co., representating approximately 42% of the group's total expenditure.^[12]

CCF contributions table

The Center for Media and Democracy obtained the following information on corporate contributions to the Guest Choice Network/CCF through documents obtained from a whistleblower:

Contributors| Corporation | Pre-2001 | 2001 | 2002 | Total |

Coca-Cola Company		$200,000		$200,000
Excel/Cargill		$100,000	$100,000	$200,000
Monsanto		$200,000		$200,000
Tyson Foods		$100,000	$100,000	$200,000
Wendy's International, Inc.		$200,000		$200,000
Outback Steakhouse		$164,600		$164,600
Pilgrim's Pride Corp.		$100,000		$100,000
HMS Host Corporation		$50,000	$25,000	$75,000
RTM, Inc.			$64,872	$64,872
White Castle System		$43,872		$43,872
Perdue Farms, Inc.			$40,000	$40,000
Hatfield Quality Meats		$33,700		$33,700
Brinker International			$25,000	$25,000
Quantum Foods		$18,000		$18,000
Standard Meat	$17,500			$17,500
Applebee's International, Inc.		$15,000		$15,000
Coldwater Seafood		$15,000		$15,000
P.F. Chang's China Bistro		$15,000		$15,000
Performance Food Group		$15,000		$15,000
Rare Hospitality		$15,000		$15,000
Marie Callendar Pie Shops		$11,900		$11,900
Advantica Restaurant Group	$10,000			$10,000
National Steak and Poultry		$10,000		$10,000
Packaging Corporation of America		$10,000		$10,000
T. Marzetti Company		$10,000		$10,000
Trinchero Family Estates	$10,000			$10,000
King and Prince Seafood		$9,200		$9,200
Paradise Tomato Kitchens, Inc.			$7,500	$7,500
Michigan Turkey Producers Cooperative			$7,000	$7,000
Fired Up		$6,000		$6,000
Restaurant Concepts		$6,000		$6,000
Rosemount Estates (Southcorp Wines)		$5,300		$5,300
TriOak Foods		$5,100		$5,100
Armour-Swift Eckrich	$5,000			$5,000
Darifair Foods			$5,000	$5,000
Dean Foods Company			$5,000	$5,000
Ken's Foods Inc.			$5,000	$5,000
Simmons Foods, Inc.			$5,000	$5,000
Sugar Foods Corporation		$5,000		$5,000
Casual Restaurant Concepts		$3,300		$3,300
LTP Management Group		$3,250		$3,250
Anton's Airfoods, Inc.		$3,000		$3,000
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants		$1,250	$1,250	$2,500
Chart House Enterprises	$2,500			$2,500
Max & Erma's Restaurants, Inc.	$2,500			$2,500
Royal Cup		$1,000	$1,500	$2,500
Pro Edge		$2,400		$2,400
Comarco Products	$2,000			$2,000
Save-on Seafood		$2,000		$2,000
Sun Orchard, Inc.			$2,000	$2,000
Custom Cuts		$1,500		$1,500
Good Humor/Breyer's Ice Cream			$1,500	$1,500
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.	$1,500			$1,500
Pro Clean			$1,500	$1,500
Worldwide Restaurants Concepts		$1,500		$1,500
Bestfoods Foodservice	$1,250			$1,250
Kagome, Inc.		$1,086		$1,086
Campagna-Turano Bakery, Inc.		$,500	$,500	$1,000
Carlson Hospitality Worldwide	$1,000			$1,000
Country Kitchen International	$1,000			$1,000
Daisy Brand		$1,000		$1,000
Eli's Cheesecake Company			$1,000	$1,000
Jeff's Gourmet Pies		$1,000		$1,000
John Soules Foods			$1,000	$1,000
KPR Foods		$1,000		$1,000
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers		$1,000		$1,000
Revolution, Inc.			$1,000	$1,000
Ruth's Chris Steak House, Inc.	$1,000			$1,000
John R. Daily Company		$,750		$,750
Mexican Restaurants		$,750		$,750
Not Your Average Joe's		$,347	$,347	$,694
Buca, Inc.	$,500			$,500
Louise's Trattoria	$,500			$,500
National Everclean Service			$,500	$,500
North American Enterprises		$,500		$,500
Real Food Marketing		$,500		$,500
Ruby Tuesday, Inc.	$,500			$,500
Syracuse's Italian Sausage			$,500	$,500
China Mist			$,400	$,400
KorBert, Inc.		$,300		$,300
Crystal's International		$,252		$,252
4 B's Restaurants	$,200			$,200
North American Provisioners		$,150		$,150
Coffee Reserve, Inc.			$,140	$,140
Total	$56,950	$1392,007	$402,509	$1851,466

References

:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ Michele Simon Appetite for Profit pg 61
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ Barbara Miner, Wisconsin's Progressive Tradition at Stake in the Recall Election, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 14, 2012.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ Center for Consumer Freedom, 2009 Form 990, organizational annual IRS filing, November 11, 2010.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ Center for Consumer Freedom, 2010 Form 990, organizational annual IRS filing, November 14, 2011.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ Center for Consumer Freedom, 2012 Form 990, organizational annual IRS filing, November 12, 2013.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ ,J.R. Simplot, Corporate Overview, corporate website, accessed July 8, 2013.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ J.R. Simplot Company Foundation, Inc., 2010 Form 990, foundation annual IRS form, February 13, 2012.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, 2011 990 tax return, organizational document, accessed May 8, 2013
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, 2011 990 tax return, organizational document, accessed May 8, 2013
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ "The Center for Consumer Freedom", Form 990, 2005, p.1.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ "The Center for Consumer Freedom", Form 990, 2005, p.3.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:↑ "The Center for Consumer Freedom", Form 990, 2005, p.5.

Categories:

===

Ur TP The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is another example of a Tea Party-related organisation with strong roots in the tobacco industry. In 2002, Guest Choice Network became the CCF to oppose efforts by ‘the anti-consumer forces [to] expand their reach beyond the restaurants and taverns, going into your communities and even your homes.’153 Lobbyist Richard Berman created Guest Choice Network in 1995, with US$600 000 in startup funds,154 as well as continued funding from Philip Morris.155–157 It was meant to appear as ‘a restaurant-driven programme’ to oppose smoke-free restaurants that was not ‘owned’ by Philip Morris.158

...Another example of broader corporate support for a Tea Party-related organisation is through the CCF (figure 1), which has received funding from the food, restaurant and agribusiness industries, including Coca-Cola, Monsanto and Wendy's International.173 This organisation has opposed the Institute of Medicine's strategies to prevent obesity, including taxing sweetened beverages, incentivising opening grocery stores in ‘food deserts’ and implementing restaurant zoning laws.174 In June 2012, the CCF ran a full-page advertisement in the New York Times opposing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to end the sale of super-sized sugary drinks in New York City as a policy to fight childhood obesity. Echoing rhetoric used years earlier to oppose smoke-free restaurants, the headline proclaimed, ‘The nanny: you only thought you lived in the land of the free.’175

---

David Martosko is Executive Editor of The Daily Caller, a news organization in Washington, D.C.

He was previously director of research for Berman & Company. He has testified before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee and the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy & Poultry. He has also spoken before FDA and USDA panels on seafood, obesity and animal agriculture, and addressed foreign police agencies on the topic of criminality in the animal rights movement.

srcwartch:

CCF is an industry-funded organization and front group for the restaurant, and other industries. It is registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization under the IRS code 501(c)(3). Over 40% of the group's 2005 expenditure was paid to Rick Berman's public relations company, Berman & Co. for "management services". ^[1]

Contents [hide]

1 Articles & sources

Articles & sources

Sourcewatch articles

References

↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, Form 990, 2005, p.3.

External articles

:{Testimony of Jerry:(style="background-color:#f8f7f6;"):}::{ Vlasik, :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{M.D.: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (“SHAC”) Eco-terrorism:(style="background-color:#f8f7f6;"):}:, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, October 26, 2005. (Includes comments on Martosko's May 2005 testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works).
"...

V. About the Animal Liberation Movement

By their accusations against SHAC and the ALF, some are trying to disguise where the real violence exists, and not the violence of extensional self-defense, but the real violence, of Huntingdon laboratories. Other activists watch all this, and become embittered and frustrated until they begin utilizing more radical

IV. CCF

When it met in May of this year to discuss “animal enterprise terrorism”, this committee heard from David Martosko, director of research for a lobbyist group called Center for Consumer Freedom(CCF).

The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by one Richard Berman with a $600,000 “donation” from tobacco company Philip Morris. Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into non-profit societies of which he is the executive director. He then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit groups. Of the millions of dollars “donated” by Philip Morris between the years 1995 and 1998, 49 percent to 79 percent went directly to Berman or Berman & Co.

On November 16, 2004, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that CCF has violated its tax exempt status. The complaint alleges that CCF engaged in prohibited electioneering, made substantial payments to the founder of the organization, Richard Berman, and to Berman's wholly owned for profit entity Berman & Co., and engaged in activities with no charitable purpose. CREW executive director Melanie Sloan told Forbes magazine, "It doesn't seem to me that someone should get a tax deduction while they're writing public relations memos about how people should be able to smoke in restaurants."

VII. Summation

Each of the witnesses that have testified before me have their own financial interests at stake in the continued oppression, torture and murder of non-human animals by HLS.

HLS is only one representative of the Global Vivisection Complex, an outdated, inefficient and wasteful entity whose time has come and gone. What are the major medical breakthroughs in the areas of cancer research, HIV/AIDS treatments, Parkinson's or other debilitating diseases has LSR's work been at the forefront of?..."

Articles & testimony by David Martosko

David Martosko, :{Gourmet activists:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{: Food for thought:(style="background-color:#f8f7f6;"):}:, Chicago Tribune, February 6, 2009
David Martosko, ":{**Mercury**:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{ Risk? Scares mislead American consumers:(style="background-color:#f8f7f6;"):}:", Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 14, 2006.
David Martosko Label ruling for milk doesn't make sense, (Letter to the editor arguing against labeling hormone free milk), Columbus Dispatch, February 20, 2008
Testimony of David Martosko: Environmental and Animal-Rights Terrorism and Its Above-Ground Support System, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, May 18, 2005

External resources

Memo To PETA: Set Your TiVo, Center for Consumer Freedom March 16, 2004

Categories:

Lobbyists-Loot Dot Con: Berman Flees, Martosko Plays Dumb

by John Stauber — May 4, 2006 - 8:23a

Mark Matthews, reporter for KGO, the ABC TV affiliate in San Francisco, traveled to Washington, DC, to investigate Rick Berman, the booze, food and tobacco lobbyist behind ActivistCash.com and many other front groups. Reports Matthews, "Berman set up the Center for Consumer Freedom and a number of other tax exempt educational organizations. And those educational non-profits all seem to support messages that dove tail nicely with the food beverage and tobacco industries that have hired Richard Berman. ... When we tried to ask Rick Berman himself about that, he ducked out of our interview. ... Berman wouldn't talk with us about how his non-profits are connected financially to his lobbying business, and his research director (David Martosko) didn't tell us. 'I don't know the firms that send the Center for Consumer Freedom money. I don't want to know. It's not my business to know.' ... The most recent available tax records for the Center for Consumer Freedom show in 2004 Berman and Co. took in a million-and-a-half dollars from the Center for Consumer Freedom. ... Representative Pete Stark of Fremont, calls Berman's operation an abuse."

Main Source:

KGO TV, San Francisco, May 3, 2006

Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society

by Anne Landman [1] — February 17, 2010 - 11:39am

Topics: Animal Rights [2], Corporations [3], Propaganda [4]

Front group [6] man extraordinaire Rick Berman [7] and his attack group, the Center for Consumer Freedom [8] (CCF), have launched [9] a new Web site, HumaneWatch.org, to harass the Humane Society of the United States [10] (HSUS), the country's largest animal welfare organization. In pursuing its mission of stopping animal cruelty, HSUS has apparently run afoul of some large, wealthy business interests, and now it is getting some major pushback.

The Humane Society [11] works to stop egregious, ongoing animal abuse, particularly in money-making enterprises like puppy mills [12], factory farming [13], dogfighting [14], cockfighting [15], and unsporting hunting practices like "canned hunts," [16] where hunters pay to shoot at captive, domestically-raised, exotic animals. While this is a laudable goal, it pits HSUS against a significant number of wealthy, powerful businesses that engage in animal cruelty practices, like meat and egg producers, factory farmers, canned hunting businesses, contract research labs that do animal testing [17] for big corporations and pharmaceutical companies that exploit animals to manufacture drugs like Premarin, which is used to treat the symptoms of menopause. Premarin is made from pregnant mares' urine and is marketed by Wyeth [18] Pharmacueticals, one of the world's largest drug companies.

People Love Animals

HumaneWatch.org may have a hard time trying to build public animosity towards the Humane Society, since most of civil society cannot countenance the extreme cruelty against animals that occurs in these facilities. (There are now a number of videos showing such treatment posted at SourceWatch.org [19]). At present, Berman's site, HumaneWatch.org, is trying to generate outrage against HSUS by ridiculing the group's recent activities, like raising funds for animal relief in Haiti and marketing its own brand of cruelty-free, all-natural dry dog food that does not support the factory farming industry. HumaneWatch is also trying to hurt and embarrass businesses that donate to HSUS, like the Yellow Tail Wine [20] company, which recently donated $100,000 to HSUS's Animal Rescue Team [21]. To target Yellow Tail, HumaneWatch.org posted a video of a cowboy standing in a manure-filled pen surrounded by cows, and pouring a bottle of Yellow Tail wine on the ground, while explaining that he is doing it to retaliate against the company for supporting the Humane Society. The video makes you want to donate to HSUS and go out and buy Yellow Tail wine to thank them for caring about animals.

Who is Funding HumaneWatch.org?

Berman typically sets up his front groups as 501(c)4 organizations and then carries out his attacks through these groups to avoid disclosing his donors, so we have no way of knowing which industries or companies are funding Berman's attack on the Humane Society. We can probably get a good idea, though. Just determine which businesses profit most from animal cruelty, and you'll likely find the funders among them.

One thing we can be certain about: the Humane Society must be doing a decent job of lobbying on behalf of animal welfare, or it wouldn't have found itself in Berman's crosshairs.

Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714

Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/02/8894/rick-berman-attacks-humane-society

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/5684/anne-landman

[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/animal-rights

[3] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations

[4] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/propaganda

[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2010%2F02%2F8894%2Frick-berman-attacks-humane-society&linkname=Rick%20Berman%20Attacks%20the%20Humane%20Society

[6] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups

[7] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Berman

[8] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom

[9] http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/4106-humanewatch-proudly-launching-tomorrow

[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Humane_Society_of_the_United_States

[11] http://www.humanesociety.org/

[12] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=puppy_mills

[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/factory_farming

[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_fighting

[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockfight

[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_hunt

[17] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=animal_testing

[18] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wyeth

[19] http://www.sourcewatch.org

[20] http://www.yellowtailwine.com/

[21] http://www.humanesociety.org/about/corporate_sponsors/yellow_tail_.html

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/02/8894/rick-berman-attacks-humane-society

AETA:

Even before the SHAC7 conviction, industry groups pushed for expansions of “animal enterprise terrorism” legislation both federally and at the state level. The convictions of Justin Samuel, Peter Young, and now the SHAC defendants, have only whetted their appetites. As David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry lobby group, said after the conviction: “This is just the starting gun.” (Toronto Star, 3/13/06, “U.S. terror hunt targets animal activists,” Walkom).

charlotte's web eco-terror

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) (formerly called the "Guest Choice Network (GCN)") is a front group for the restaurant, alcohol, tobacco and other industries. It runs media campaigns which oppose the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, animal advocates, environmentalists and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, calling them "the Nanny Culture -- the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, anti-meat activists, and meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you.'"

CCF is registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization under the IRS code 501(c)(3). Its advisory board is comprised mainly of representatives from the restaurant, meat and alcoholic beverage industries.

Contents[hide]

Overview & history

CCF is one of the more active of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman. Based in Washington, D.C., Berman & Co. represents the tobacco industry as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains. Hotels, motels, restaurants, bars and taverns together comprise the "hospitality industry," which has long been cultivated by the tobacco industry as a third party to help slow or stop the progression of smoke free laws. CCF actively opposes smoking bans and lowering the legal blood-alcohol level, while targeting studies on the dangers of meat & dairy, processed food, fatty foods, soda pop, pharmaceuticals, animal testing, overfishing and pesticides. Each year they give out the "nanny awards" to groups who, according to them, try to tell consumers how to live their lives. Anyone who criticizes any of the above is likely to come under attack from CCF.

Its enemies listhas included such diverse groups and individuals as the Alliance of American Insurers; the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons; the American Medical Association (AMA); the Arthritis Foundation; the Consumer Federation of America; New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; the Harvard School of Public Health; the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems; the National Association of High School Principals; the National Safety Council; the National Transportation Safety Board; the Office of Highway Safety for the state of Georgia; Ralph Nader's group, Public Citizen; the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Over 40 % of the group's 2005 expenditure was paid to Rick Berman's public relations company, Berman & Co. for "management services. ^[1] As part of its operations, CCF runs a series of attack websites, including ConsumerFreedom.com, ActivistCash.com, CSPIscam.com (attacking the Center for Science in the Public Interest), Animal-Scam.com, FishScam.com, ObesityMyths.com, Sweetscam.com, PhysiciansScam.com and PetaKillsAnimals.com. ^[2]

Starting out smoking

Mr. Berman launched the Guest Choice Network in 1995. Its initial funding came entirely from the Philip Morris (PM) tobacco company. GCN was formed so as to appear not to be "owned" by PM; address restaurant owners lack of interest in PM's "Accommodation Program" and broaden industry appeal. According to a September of 1995 letter from Mr. Berman to Barbara Trach, PM's Sr. Program Manager for Public Affairs, GCN was designed to:

"Create an aggressive mentality by (restaurant) operators (to oppose) government smoking bans."

He proposed that PM form an aggressive front group to motivate restaurant owners to aggressively fight bans, while appearing to be acting on their own:

"...if you want to gain more ground quickly for the smokers' rights issue, the (Guest Choice) program must create a proactive, aggressive mentality by (restaurant) operators regarding government smoking bans..."

He described how hiding PM's involvement would allow the group take more aggressive action:

"Additional benefit -- if externally perceived as driven by restaurant interests, there will be more flexibility and creativity allowed than if it is 'owned' by Philip Morris. The American Beverage Institute, which opposes overly aggressive DWI laws, enjoys this profile."^[3]

According to a December 11, 1995 letter to Barbara Trach:

"I'd like to propose to Philip Morris the establishment of the Guest Choice Network. ...The concept is to unite the restaurant and hospitality industries in a campaign to defend their consumers and marketing programs against attacks from anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-meat, etc. activists. ... I would like to solicit Philip Morris for an initial contribution of $600,000." ^[4]

The purpose of GCN, as Berman explained in a separate planning document, would be to enlist operators of "restaurants, hotels, casinos, bowling alleys, taverns, stadiums, and university hospitality educators" to "support mentality of 'smokers rights' by encouraging responsibility to protect 'guest choice.'" According to a year end budget, Guest Choice planned to spend $1.5 million during its first 13 months of operation, including $390,000 for "membership marketing/materials development," $430,000 to establish a communication center and newsletter (which Berman promised would have a "60% to 70% smoking focus", $110,000 to create a "multi-industry advisory council," and $345,000 for "grassroots network development/operation."^[5], ^[6]

PM complied with Berman's initial funding request for $600,000 and pitched in another $300,000 early the following year:

"As of this writing, PM USA is still the only contributor, though Berman continues to promise others any day now," wrote Philip Morris attorney Marty Barrington in an internal company memorandum dated March 28, 1996. ^[7]

Aside from PM, there were no other publicly-known funders of Guest Choice until its public launch two years later in April 1998. ^[8]

Tactics

Personal responsibility

While most food lobbyists rely on the rhetoric of "personal responsibility" to blame the obesity problem on the failure of people to act sensibly, CCF, in contrast, denies the problem altogether. Their position is to "defend" the very notion of personal responsibility by tying it closely to the All-American values of choice, freedom, and rugged individualism against the food police, militant radicals, and government bureaucrats who want to keep you from enjoying your God-given right to Big Macs, Marlboros, and Budweiser.

"Free to choose"

One of CCF's favorite strategies is to align the interests of food companies with those of the consumers. It portrays these two groups as "allies" and the besieged "victims" of government regulators, nonprofits, parents, and other food-industry critics.[9] By "consumer freedom," CCF means the "right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves."^[10] The free-to-choose argument implies that advocates of sound nutrition policy are diametrically opposed to the interests of everyone else and that they are killjoys with no interest in enjoying food.

A related salvo is CCF's argument that nutrition advocates and other food-industry critics are infantilizing people when they give dietary advice. CCF produced a television commercial showing people trying to enjoy all-American pleasures such as ice cream, hot dogs and beer, only to be foiled by a hand that swoops down and commandeers the offending items. A voice-over inveighs:

"Everywhere you turn, someone's telling us what we can't eat. It's getting harder just to enjoy a beer on a night out. Do you always feel like you're being told what to do? Find out who is driving thefood police at ConsumerFreedom.com.^[11]

Marginalizing advocates

Part of CCF's method is to direct attention away from the substantive issues and to keep the focus on the messenger rather than the message. For example, CCF has created a website known as CSPIscam, whose sole purpose is to discredit and defame the Center for Science in the Public Interest. CCF dismisses CSPI's work as media driven and reliant on junk science to scare people into believing that the group is trying to take away their right to eat whatever they want.^[12]

CCF explains its mission as fighting back against "self-anointed "food police," health campaigners, trial lawyers, personal-finance do-gooders, animal rights misanthropes, and meddling bureaucrats."^[13] An important aspect of such rhetoric is to set advocates apart from the mainstream. These labels are meant to conjure up caricatured images of 1960s-style activism, complete with flag burning, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.^[14] CCf has also developed a website called ActivistCash that claims to "expose" the funding sources of various environmental and public health organizations. The site includes a list of "key players" in nutrition advocacy, including New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle, who is described as "one of the country's most hystieral anti-food-industry fanatics," a food cop with "radical goals."^[15]

Implicit in CCF's food cop rhetoric is the idea that people who advocate for eating a healthy diet are motivated by personal agendas. They maintain a long list of people operating under supposed "hidden agendas." CCF is also accuses pro-vegetarian organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) of hiding behind an "animal rights agenda", though these groups are visibly and vocally trying to protect animals and readily acknowledge such. ^[16]

Selected campaigns (subsection)

CCF & anti-animal rights/welfare

Richard Berman Cares About Animals: Clients Exposed. Richard Berman dedicates funding from clients in the tobacco, processed food, meat & dairy, pharmaceutical and animal testing industries to 'exposing inconsistencies' of 'malicious animal rights activists'.

Contents[hide]

Overview & clients

PetaKillsAnimals.com was created in July of 2004 by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). According to it's website, they also "stand up to the food police, environmental scaremongers, neo-prohibitionists, meddling bureaucrats, and other self-anointed saints who claim to know what's best for you". They even feature a "Daily Headlines" service which provides "valuable information" about "these activists, and analysis of their activities." They "welcome your support" and "financial contribution".^[1]

PETA has since created a response site, PETA Saves, which discusses Richard Berman and the CCF’s smear campaign.

CCF is an industry-funded organization and front group for the restaurant, alcohol, tobacco and other industries. It is registered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization under the IRS code 501(c)(3). Over 40% of the group's 2005 expenditure was paid to Rick Berman's public relations company, Berman & Co. for "management services". ^[2]

CCF provides virtually no referencing, yet their statements are circulated by other industry groups, animal breeders and brokers, news wires and even some media outlets. CCF does not link back to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), nor any sites of groups or individuals purportedly being "exposed". Richard Berman and CCF clients have included Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Tyson Foods, Dean Foods and Coca Cola. Tyson is also a major supplier of restaurant chains, including Kentucky Fried Chicken ^[3] and McDonalds. ^[4] Monsanto contracts product toxicity testing on animals out to Huntingdon Life Sciences. ^[5] All of these corporations, as well as Phillip Morris contract laboratory Covance Laboratories, have subjects of campaigns and investigations by PETA and/or other groups.

Clients & investigations

PETA has convinced numerous corporations to cease cruel product testing on animals, including Coca-Cola. It has conducted investigations on some of the worst offenders for animal welfare violations.

Altria (Phillip Morris)

PETA investigation of Covance Laboratories, Vienna, VA. - April 2004 - March 2005

In 2005, PETA filed a shareholder resolution at Altria requesting they cease animal testing of of tobacco products. PETA pointed out that animals respond very differently from humans to exposure to tobacco smoke. After decades of of testing, animals do not develop lung cancer; even when hooked up around-the-clock to smoke ventilation machines. Claiming ownership of 114 shares of common stock, PETA submitted a shareholder proposal to eliminate animal testing for the company's tobacco products. Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have placed limits or bans on the testing of tobacco products on animals. A PETA representative attended Altria]´s April 28, 2005, annual meeting in East Hanover, New Jersey on April 28, 2005 to present the resolution, which failed to pass.^[10] The Altria Group is a client of Covance Laboratories. ^[11]

Covance Laboratories

Covance Laboratories is an international contract research organization (CRO) and laboratory animal breeding company. Firms hire CROs to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins. Covance is the largest importer of primates in the United States and the world's largest breeder of laboratory dogs. Under its former name of Hazleton Laboratories, Covance provided animal data favorable to the tobacco industry and contributed to the continued marketing of cigarettes. In the 1990s, Covance performed studies sponsored by the tobacco industry claiming that even extreme exposure to secondhand smoke was safe for humans. ^[12]

For a 6 month period from April 26, 2004, to March 11, 2005, an undercover investigator from PETA videotaped systematic abuse of animals at Covance Laboratories' facility in Vienna, Virginia. ^[13] Covance has amassed a history of gross animal welfare violations in the United States and Europe.

Huntingdon Life Sciences

U.S. & European investigations of Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in Europe. HLS provides full programs for agrochemicals like pesticides, herbicides, weed-killers and fertilizers. They also test detergents, tanning lotions, diet pills, food wrapping plastic, food additives, cosmetics and some pharmaceuticals. Viagra was tested at HLS. Olestra was a "fat free oil" that was found to be safe in animal tests but caused anal leakage in humans. HLS also tests controversial genetically modified organisms and has performed Xenotransplantation experiments. ^[14] An estimated 12,800 animals were killed in the process of testing Splenda. ^[15]

Senate hearings focusing on HLS issues

According to Dr. Jerry Vlasik's October 10th, 2005 address to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works:

"Huntingdon Life Sciences has been infiltrated and exposed 5 times in recent years by journalists, animal rights campaigners and members of the public; each time evidence of animal abuse and staff incompetence has been uncovered. A 1999 inspection of their Occold (UK) facility by the Good Laboratory Practice Monitoring Authority revealed 41 deficiencies, including errors in standard operating procedures, training issues, record keeping, quality assurance, equipment, labeling and facilities. 520 violations of the UK Good Laboratory Practices Act were documented in an expose by the Daily Press (UK) in 2000. They are the only UK laboratory to ever have their license revoked by the government. ...Each of the witnesses that have testified before me have their own financial interests at stake in the continued oppression, torture and murder of non-human animals by HLS." ^[17]

Dr. Vlasik is a trauma surgeon, former vivisector and Press Officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. He was the only activist invited to attend these hearings. A previous hearing in May featured statements from David Martosko of CCF. ^[18]

Tyson Foods

PETA investigation of Tyson Foods. - 2007

In separate investigations in 2007, PETA documented Tyson Foods workers urinating in the "live hang" area and on the conveyor belt that carried birds to slaughter. Other abuses included breaking legs and wings, throwing birds against shackles, breaking a chickens back by beating it on a rail, stabbing birds in the neck and shackling birds by the neck instead of the legs. The investigation also documented supervisors who were either directly involved or refused to enforce animal welfare policies. For example, a supervisor was recorded telling the investigator that ripping the heads off live birds was acceptable. Another refused to intervene when after birds became trapped at the end of the conveyor belt and when birds were cut at the body (instead of the throat). Abuse was was documented at both the Georgia and Tennessee plants. ^[19] Tyson is also a major supplier of restaurant chains, including McDonalds ^[20] and Kentucky Fried Chicken. ^[21] Tyson also has a history of human rights abuses which include safety violations, workplace fatalities, substandard wages and benefits and harassment and physical assaults on striking workers.

Dean Foods

In September of 2009, PETA revealed footage from a five-month undercover investigation of a Pennsylvania dairy CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) that supplies milk to Dean Foods label, Land O' Lakes. Land O' Lakes is the largest seller of branded butter in the U.S. The footage documented abuse and neglect of cows and calves at the facility. Cows in pain and unable to stand were electro-shocked and stabbed with a pocket knife. Sick and injured cows were left to languish in their own waste for days and even weeks, without veterinary care. In one case, workers were told to wrap an elastic band around a cow's gangrenous, infected teat to "amputate" it. The cow deteriorated for 11 days before she died. ^[22]

CCF & puppy mills

Corporate concern

According to CCF:

"PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects." ^[23]

PETA campaigns against charities which fund animal testing, such as the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and Muscular Dystrophy Association. ^[24]

American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society (ACS) is the largest non-religious charity in the world. As of the fiscal year ending in August of 2007, the ACS had a net revenue 1.17 billion dollars. ^[25] ACS's daily expenditures exceed one million dollars with 16% going into patient cancer programs. The rest is funneled into expensive research and bureaucratic overhead. Meager prevention programs are designed not to offend the industry. The average American diagnosed with cancer spend upwards of $25,000 of their savings on cures. Claims of progress include people with benign diseases. Those in remission longer than 5 years are declared cured, although many will die from either cancer or treatment after five years. ^[26] More is spent on cancer than any other medical problem. There are more people living off of cancer than cancer sufferers. Millions of laboratory animals, including rats, mice, monkeys, guinea pigs, cats and dogs have been injected with cancerous material or implanted with malignancies. ^[27], ^[28] According to leading cancer researcher, Robert Weinberg:

"The preclinical (animal) models of human cancer, in large part, stink… Hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted every year by drug companies using these models." ^[29]

March of Dimes

Human studies have clearly demonstrated the negative effects of tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse on pregnancy. Never-the less, the March of Dimes continues to fund cruel, painful studies on animals and their infants. They have funneled millions into nicotine, alcohol and cocaine addiction experiments, sensory deprivation and transplanting organs from one species to another. ^[30]

PETA Kids

According to CCF:

"PETA brags that its messages reach over 1.2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision." ^[33]

PETA's departments include Peta Kids, which is geared to children and contains age appropriate material.

PETA, ALF & ELF

In October of 2000, Ingrid Newkirk, the director and co-founder of PETA, published a book about the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) entitled "Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front". ^[34] According to an interview with David Shankbone in an HBO documentary about her life, she understands but does not support arson.

"I do support getting animals out in the same way I would have supported getting human slaves out, child labor, sex slaves, the whole lot. But I don’t support burning. I don’t support arson." ^[35]

During the 1995 trial of Rodney Coronado for the arson of Michigan State University (MSU), U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer "alleged" that Ingrid Newkirk arranged to have Coronado send her stolen documents and a videotape. ^[36], ^[37] According to David Martosko's written testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works in May of 2005, pages from PETA's IRS documents from 1994 show "disbursements to the Rodney Coronado Support Committee" and a loan to his father. According to the same testimony, their IRS documents from 2000 show a disbursement to Earth Liberation Front (ELF). ^[38] ELF is an organization with no official membership and is similar to that of ALF. ^[39]

So, a lawyer for the prosecution "alleged" prior knowledge. Donations were public record and included in IRS statements (independently audited and available upon request). There was even a committee set up for donations to Rodney Coronado. Ms. Newkirk's book about ALF was published in 2000 and sells on Amazon. She has also discussed ALF in an HBO documentary and an episode of 20/20. According to David Martosko's testimony, PETA has published interviews with ALF activists. This is hardly the clandestine arrangement characterized by CCF.

CCF & green baiting

Lobbyists have taken out full page, anonymous ads in the New York Times and the Washington Post, labeling animal rights activists as "terrorists" for being a little too successful and knocking Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) from the New York Stock Exchange. HLS is a contract research facility (CRO) with a long history of gross animal welfare violations.

Animal activists who have been injured or killed

However, there have been a number of incidents involving victimized animal activists who have been injured or killed.

PETA's local programs in Virginia & North Carolina

According to CCF:

"Hypocrisy is the mother of all credibility problems, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has it in spades. While loudly complaining about the "unethical" treatment of animals by restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans, the group has its own dirty little secret. PETA kills animals. By the thousands. "^[43]

CCF does not advocate for "restaurant owners, grocers, farmers, scientists, anglers, and countless other Americans", but large corporations with histories of gross animal welfare violations, human rights, health and environmental abuses as well as puppy mills.

PETA administers humane euthanasia services for at least four shelters (where animals might otherwise by shot or gassed). Also, due to lack of facility space from area "no-kill" shelters; other "unadoptable", homeless and/ or owner surrenders are often dumped on the premises or into the care of staff members. However, the fact that VA and NC permit this organization to take responsibility for animals (who would otherwise be left to fend for themselves or killed inhumanely) does not alter the fact that PETA is an advocacy organization, not a shelter. They make no such claim to their members or anyone else. For complete statistics, see also Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) On-line Animal Reporting.^[44]

According to CCF:

"PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters." ^[45]

National organizations conduct research, public education, outreach and assist local shelters. However, PETA also answers emergency calls for strays, abused, neglected and homeless animals and animals turned away from shelters. For example, the local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Norfolk, Virginia has a "selective admission" policy. In 2004, it took in only 1.7 percent of all homeless animals, or 765 out of 45,450. ^[46] They do not operate an animal shelter other than two small, cageless rooms set aside for animals surrendered to their organization.

NC shelters & gas chambers

In 2000, PETA was contacted by a police officer who was appalled by the terrible suffering of animals in local North Carolina shelters. Some "shelters" were nothing more than exposed, unheated or cooled shacks that left animals to either drown or freeze, depending on the weather. PETA became involved in assisting shelters with cleaning, adoptions, training, staff, providing supplies, conducting cruelty investigations and providing adequate shelter to animals. PETA has spent over $300,000 on services to NC shelters in the last few years. Many pounds in the area had no adoption programs or even operating hours. Unwanted animals were either shot, gassed in windowless metal boxes or injected with a paralytic agent that caused them to slowly die of suffocation. These practices were carried out for decades until PETA began providing humane euthanasia. Although veterinary services for lethal injection were secured for one of the four pounds they discovered, animals at the other shelters would have been gassed, shot or died of suffocation had they not been picked up by PETA staff for euthanasia.

Although some of the animals have been adopted out, most of the dogs and cats from NC shelters have suffered from various debilitating conditions. These include Parvo, heart worms, mange, Lyme disease, untreated injuries, embedded collars, broken and exposed bones and severe parasitic infestations. ^[47], ^[48]

NC gas chambers, stats & local services

Over 250,000 homeless animals are killed in North Carolina shelters annually. In NC, over 20 county shelters still use gas chambers and other inhumane methods. Animals gasp for breath while they slowly suffocate. Witnesses have seen animals struggling and wailing for up to ten minutes before succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning. In their panic, some bite themselves and each other and beat their heads against the walls while they choke and vomit. Groups of up to 25 animals are gassed together and some will not die the first time. At least 3 NC gas chambers have exploded and four government employees who operate gas chambers have died from heart and lung problems in recent years.^[49]

PETA provides free services to local animal shelters, constructs shelters and provides free local spay/neuter services. They also advocate for chained and "backyard dogs. ^[50] They have spent over $300,000 on services to NC shelters in the past few years. ^[51]

PETA overview, financial statement & salaries

According to CCF:

"PETA kills animals. Because it has other financial priorities. PETA rakes in nearly $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals." ^[52]

PETA is an international animal advocacy organization. Members are not under the false impression that they are an animal shelter. They are kept informed via email and member publications and may participate in campaigns. According to PETA's (independently audited and available upon request) statement for the fiscal year ending July 31 2008: 83.66% of funding went directly into programs. 12.16% was spent on fund raising and 4.18% on administration and operations. 29% of PETA's staff earn $19,000 to to $29,999; 45% earn $30,000 to $39,999 and 26% earn over $39,999. President Ingrid Newkirk earned 35,462 dollars in 2008. ^[53]

Organizations like CCF not only represent multi-billion dollar corporations, but industries which are heavily subsidized by tax payers.

Other targeted organizations

According to CCF:

"(PETA)'s 'Holocaust on Your Plate' campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals." ^[54]

Groups like Farm Sanctuary and United Poultry Concerns (who do run sanctuaries) are also CCF targets. Another CCF target is Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM). FARM was founded by Dr. Alex Hershaft, a child survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. ^[55] According to Isaac Bashevis Singer:

"As a son of Holocaust survivors and grandson of nonsurvivors, to me such 'moral equivalence' is neither a diminishment of nor an insult to the memory of the Holocaust’s human victims. ...the dehumanization and persecution by the Nazis of their victims should (to quote Einstein) 'widen our circle of compassion' to include the dreadfully analogous mass objectification and brutalization of our fellow animals." ^[56]

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

↑ About, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, Form 990, 2005, p.3.
↑ Tortured by Tyson, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed June 2009
↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007
↑ Inside Customers, SHAC.net, accessed December 2009
↑ The Animal Care Program and the USDA's Authority Under the AWA: Q & A, U.S. Department of Agriculture, APHIS Fact Sheet, July 2005, page 2
↑ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Stopanimaltests.com, accessed February 2009
↑ Harding, A. More compounds failing phase I. FDA chief warns that high drug attrition rate is pushing up the cost of drug development. The Scientist, August 6th 2004
↑ NHP Study: Evidence from Europeans for Medical Progress and Antidote-Europe, Safer Medicines Campaign, pg 1, accessed February 2009
↑ Altria Stock Holder Proposals: Proposal 1 – Eliminate Animal Testing for Tobacco Products, pdf, pg, 44, 45, 2005
↑ Proposal 5 — Animal Welfare Policy, Altria Group, Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders, April 2007
↑ John J. Pippin, M.D. Covance Gets an 'F' in Social Responsibility Test, Chandler Republic', August 2006
↑ Inside Covance U.S., PETA.org, accessed February 2009
↑ PETA Names the 10 Worst CEOs for Animals in Laboratories, PETA.org, accessed December 2009
↑ Mike Hamilton Sweetener Slaughter: 12,800 animals die for no-calorie pills, Daily Mirror, August 2001
↑ Huntingdon Life Sciences Group Plc Business Information, Profile, and History, Jrank.org, accessed June 2009
↑ Dr. Jerry Vlasik Testimony of Jerry Vlasik, M.D.: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (“SHAC”) Eco-terrorism, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, October 2005
↑ David Martosko Testimony of David Martosko: Environmental and Animal-Rights Terrorism and Its Above-Ground Support System, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, May 2005
↑ Tyson Workers Caught Torturing Birds, Urinating on Slaughter Line, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007
↑ Tortured by Tyson, PETA.org, accessed June 2009
↑ Alisa Mullins Land O'Lakes Supplier's Owners Charged With Cruelty, PETA files, September 2009
↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ Animal Rights Uncompromised: Life-Taking Charities, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
↑ American Cancer Society, Inc., Hoovers, accessed February 2009
↑ Katy Schiel The war on cancer is a fraud: The 'Cancer Establishment' is lying to you., Disinformation, July 2002
↑ Cancer, Information for Transformation, accessed February 2009
↑ Patricia Haight, Ph.D., Shaynie Aero The Failed Research of Micheal Berens, Liberation Magazine, accessed February 2009
↑ A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation: A. Selected Diseases: 1. Cancer, Medical Research Modernization Committee, 2006
↑ March of Crimes: March of Dimes, PETA.org, accessed June 2009
↑ Peter Montaque Birth Defects: Part 1, Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly, #410, October 1994
↑ The March Of Dimes' Crimes Against Animals, PETA.org, accessed June 2009
↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ Ingrid Newkirk Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front, Lantern Books, October 2000, ISBN 978-1930051225
↑ Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of PETA, on animal rights and the film about her life, WikiNews.org, November 2007
↑ Government sentencing memorandum of U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer in USA v. Rodney Coronado, July 31, 1995, pp. 8-10
↑ Ingrid Newkirk, Wikipedia, accessed June 2009
↑ David Martosko Testimony of David Martosko: Environmental and Animal-Rights Terrorism and Its Above-Ground Support System, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, May 2005
↑ The Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, accessed June 2009
↑ Will Potter What is the Green Scare?, Greenisthenewred.com, September 2008
↑ Will Potter How Corporate Provacateurs Made Fran Trutt an “Animal Rights Terrorist”, Mar 25th, 2009
↑ Charlotte Laws, PhD, AETA and the New Green Scare: Are You the Terrorist Next Door?, Counterpunch, January 2007
↑ PETA's Dirty Secret, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services On-line Animal Reporting, PETA, 2008
↑ Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ Behind the Numbers: ‘Turn-Away Shelters’, helping animals.com, February 2009
↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in North Carolina, helpinganimals.com, accessed February 2009
↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in NC: Adopted animals, helpinganimals.com, accessed January 2010
↑ Cruel Killing, Funded By Your Taxes, NC Commission for Humane Euthanasia, accessed February 2010
↑ The Cruel, Dangerous Practice of Chaining Dogs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed February 2009
↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in North Carolina, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
↑ PETA's Dirty Secret, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ About: Financial Reports, PETA.org, accessed June 2009
↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009
↑ Alex Hershaft, Founder, FARM, Farm Animal Reform Movement, Animals Voice, accessed June 2009
↑ Syd Baumel Book Review of Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson, Winnipeg Vegetarian, 2002

External resources

Berman Exposed: Richard Berman's Front Groups and Projects, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, accessed January 2010
What Is the Center for Consumer Freedom, and Why Is It Attacking PETA?, Consumer Deception.com, accessed January 2010

CCF & puppy mills

List of targeted organizations

Affiliated organizations & websites

In addition to CCF, Berman & Co. sponsors several other organizations and web sites. These include the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) and the American Beverage Institute (ABI). EPI is dedicated to keeping minimum wage low and opposing mandatory employee health insurance and ABI opposes drinking and driving restrictions.

Quotable & notable

In a 1999 interview with the Chain Leader, a trade publication for restaurant chains, Richard Berman boasted that he attacks activists more aggressively than other lobbyists:

"We always have a knife in our teeth. Since activists "drive consumer behavior on meat, alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine," his strategy is "to shoot the messenger. ... We've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons." ^[17]

In November 2001, the Guest Choice Network launched a separate web site, ActivistCash.com, which purports to expose the "hidden funding" of various activist groups that support animal rights, food safety and smoking prevention. In January 2002, the Guest Choice Network renamed itself the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). In a May 11, 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article, CCF spokesman John Doyle responded to questions about nationwide radio ads put out by the group. He said the ads were meant 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 pesticide use, genetic engineering of crops or antibiotic use in beef and poultry."^[18]

On November 16, 2004, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleging that CCF had violated its tax exempt status. According to the complaint, CCF engaged in prohibited electioneering; made substantial payments to Richard Berman and his wholly owned, for-profit Berman & Co. and was generally engaged in non-charitable activities. ^[19] According to CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan to Forbes:

"It doesn't seem to me that someone should get a tax deduction while they're writing public relations memos about how people should be able to smoke in restaurants."^[20]

Mr. Berman set up CCF and a number of other tax exempt groups, which all seem to support messages which dove tail nicely with his industry lobbying. However, according to David Martosko in a May of 2006 interview with ABC News, this is simply "the way things tend to be done" in Washington. Furthermore, he has no idea, nor does he want to know, who funds CCF:

"I don't know the firms that send the Center for Consumer Freedom money. I don't want to know. It's not my business to know." ^[21]

Funding (subsection)

Contributors to CCF have included the Coca-Cola Company, Cargill, Inc., Monsanto, Tyson Foods, Outback Steakhouse, Wendy's, Brinker International and Dean Foods. See also CCF funding.

Personnel

Officers

The IRS Form 990 filed for 2005 lists the following officers:

Richard Berman - Executive Director
John Doyle - Secretary, Treasurer & Director, (roles which it states take one hour a week)
Jacon Dweck - Director
David Browne - Director
Lane Cardwell - Director

Advisory panel

CCF also has an advisory panel. In 1998 it included the following individuals:

Dave Albright - National Steak & Poultry
Jane Innes - Perkins Family Restaurants, L.P.
Steve Bartlett - Meridian Products Corporation
Robert Basham - Outback Steakhouse, Inc.
John F. Berglund - Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association
Lou Chatey - Sebastiani Vineyards
H.A. "Andy" Divine - University of Denver
Timothy J. Doke - Brinker International, Inc.
Richard Fisher - Tetley USA, Inc.
William L. Hyde, Jr. - Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
James Spector - Philip Morris, USA
Michael Middleton - Cargill Processed Meat Products
Daniel J. Popeo - Washington Legal Foundation
Richard G. Scalise - Armour Swift-Eckrich
Daniel Timm - the Bruss Company
Carl Vogt, Fulbright & Jaworski
Richard Walsh - Darden Restaurants, Inc.
Terry Wheatley - Sutter Home Winery

Media

Mike Burita - Worked for the Frontiers of Freedom, Brent Bozell's Media Research Center, Phyllis Schlafly & a variety of conservative causes and republican election campaigns.
John Doyle- Communications director, Berman & Co., Spokesman for CCF, the Employment Policies Institute & American Beverage Institute.

Former personnel

The IRS Form 990 filed for the the six-month period from July to December 1999 by CCF (then calling itself the Guest Choice Network), listed, in addition to Berman, the following officers:

Ray Kraftson - Director
Dixie L. Berman - Secretary/Treasurer
Dan Popeo - Director, Chairman of the Washington Legal Foundation, a corporate-funded right-wing think tank which paid him $301,593 in salary and benefits in 2000.
Allison Whitesides- Director - Ms. Whitesides has also worked as a public relations representative for Coca-Cola North America and Outback Steakhouse. In November 2001, she went to work as a legislative representative for the National Restaurant Association.

Contact

Like other Berman & Co. front groups, CCF is headquartered at:

Berman & Co.

1775 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 1200

Washington, DC 20006

Phone: (202) 463-7110

FAX: (202) 463-7107

Email: rberman@new-reality.com

Web address: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

BIG TOBACCO'S PLAYBOOK

Although food and beverage companies say they are making dramatic strides in self-regulation, their critics say they are moving too slowly and trying to influence public opinion by using some of the same approaches that tobacco companies used to defend their products.

Kraft Foods, the nation's largest food company, was owned by Philip Morris, the nation's largest tobacco company, from 1988-2007. Philip Morris makes Marlboro cigarettes.

Brownell and Kenneth E. Warner, a professor and former dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, have written papers comparing Big Food to Big Tobacco.

Both industries dispute links between their products and ill health, Brownell said -- tobacco companies claiming cigarettes don't cause cancer and food companies saying there is no proof that sugar causes obesity. Both have rewritten product labels without making major changes, he said. And both emphasize self-regulation -- to Brownell, an effort to preempt government standards.

"I can't think of a single thing the food industry is doing that the tobacco industry hasn't done," Brownell said.

Both industries also have relied on marketing to kids, he said, and both use what Brownell called "front groups" with consumer-oriented names that would not show their industry connections.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit group led by Washington lawyer and public relations executive Rick Berman. Formerly known as Guest Choice Network, it was founded in 1995 with a $600,000 pledge from tobacco giant Philip Morris. Today, the center attacks "food radicals" and runs websites including obesitymyths.com. The group says it is funded by food and restaurant companies but declines to name specific benefactors.

A group called Americans Against Food Taxes, calling itself a "coalition of concerned citizens," was formed in 2007 and has been financed by sugary beverage makers to fight soda taxes. It bought a 30-second ad during the 2011 Super Bowl.

Spokesmen for the food and beverage industries say comparing their tactics to tobacco's is unfair.

wikipedia

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), formerly the Guest Choice Network, is an American non-profit firm that lobbies on behalf of the fast food, meat, alcohol and tobacco industries. It describes itself as "dedicated to protecting consumer choices and promoting common sense,"^[2] and defending "the right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves."^[1]

CCF was set up in 1995 by Richard Berman, executive director of the public affairs firm Berman and Company, with $600,000 from the Philip Morris tobacco company to fight smoking curbs in restaurants. Berman told The Washington Post that CCF is now funded by a coalition of restaurant and food companies as well as some individuals;^[2] according to the group's website it is supported by over 100 companies and thousands of individual consumers.^[1] Sponsors are reported to include Brinker International, RTM Restaurant Group (the owner of Arby's), Tyson Foods, HMSHost Corp, and Wendy's.^[2]

CCF has campaigned against a number of organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and :{Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicin:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{e:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:, and maintains several websites devoted to criticizing them.^[2] The CCF state that "despite their innocent-sounding names, many of these organizations are financial Goliaths that use junk science, intimidation tactics, and even threats of violence to push their radical agenda".^[2] Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has responded "If you are in the business of putting veal or beef on the tables of America, and slaughtering more than a million animals per hour, and making an awful lot of money at it, you are going to try to neutralize PETA or other animal-rights groups"^[3]

Contents

Background

Guest Choice Network

The forerunner to the CCF was the Guest Choice Network, which was organized in 1995 by Berman with money from Philip Morris,^[2] "to unite the restaurant and hospitality industries in a campaign to defend their consumers and marketing programs against attacks from anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-meat, etc. activists ..." According to Berman, the mission was to encourage operators of "restaurants, hotels, casinos, bowling alleys, taverns, stadiums, and university hospitality educators" to "support [the] mentality of 'smokers rights' by encouraging responsibility to protect 'guest choice.'"^[4] In November 2001, the group launched a website, ActivistCash.com, which compiled information gathered from IRS documents and media reports, describing the funding and activities of groups it opposed, and listed key activists and celebrity links. In January 2002 the Guest Choice Network became the Center for Consumer Freedom, a change of name the group said reflected that "the anti-consumer forces [were] expanding their reach beyond restaurants and taverns [and] going into your communities and even your homes."^[5]

Governance

The CCF's director of research is David Martosko, a former radio talk show producer.^[6] Its other directors are Richard Berman, Jacob Dweck, David Browne, and Lane Cardwell.^[citation ^needed] Its senior research analyst is Justin Wilson.^[7] The group is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and as such does not disclose the identity of its funders.^[8] IRS records show that in 2007 the CCF paid more than $1.5 million to Berman and Company for research, communications, and other services.^[9]

Activities

A Center for Consumer Freedom print ad which criticizes the PETA President's statement opposing animal research to cure AIDS, terming it an "extremist agenda."

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."^[8]

The CCF has argued against smoking bans and for keeping the legal blood-alcohol level for drivers at 0.10. It questions the dangers of red meat consumption and pesticides.^{[10][11][12][13]}

In a 1999 interview with the Chain Leader, 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 meat, alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine," his strategy is "to shoot the messenger... We've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons."^[14]

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 pesticide use, genetic engineering of crops or antibiotic use in beef and poultry."^[15]

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",^[16] and its Guest Choice Network affiliate gives out the "Nanny Awards" to "food cops, anti-biotech activists, vegetarian scolds and meddling bureaucrats".^[17][18]

The CCF had posted a number of videos to YouTube until June, 2010, when its 'consumerfreedom' account was suspended for undisclosed Terms of Service violations.^[19] 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 Humane Society of the United States.^[20]

The CCF criticizes statistics used by nutrition groups to describe a global "obesity epidemic," and in 2005, it filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to a CDC study claiming that 400,000 Americans die each year as a consequence of being obese.^[21] 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.^[2]

Activism websites

PETA is a frequent target of CCF advertising and publicity.^[22] The Center for Consumer Freedom is publisher of the website PetaKillsAnimals.com,^[23] which alleges People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals unnecessarily euthanizes animals in its care.^[24]

The CCF runs ActivistCash.com, a website that states it "provides the public and media with in-depth profiles of anti-consumer activist groups, along with information about the sources of what is called their exorbitant funding."^[25] The site features generally negative profiles of various groups it believes oppose consumer freedom, such as Greenpeace, PETA and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It also hosts "biographies" offering negative portrayals of key activists and celebrity supporters for various groups. The site reports what it states are links between profiled groups and extremism, and argues, in general, that the groups profiled hold extreme views that are contrary to the public interest. It states to have examined 500,000 IRS documents in its profiling, listing for each group major donors, income and expenditure, key supporters and connections with other groups.

The CCF operates a number of other websites aside from its own, including PhysicianScam.com, Trans-FatFacts.com, Animalscam.com, Obesitymyths.com, and CSPIScam.com. MercuryFacts.com and FishScam.com contain a mercury calculator that offers an alternative calculation of amount of a fish that can be eaten before getting an unsafe dose of mercury, calculated as ten times the reference dose recommended by the EPA.

The CCF has also claimed (counter to research findings) that dieting and meal tracking do not lead to weight loss,^[26] and it has been a critic of United Auto Workers,^[27] and the American Federation of Teachers,^[28] among others.

Funding

Initial funding for the original Guest Choice Network organization came from Philip Morris, with the initial donation of $600,000 followed by a $300,000 donation the following year. Philip Morris attorney Marty Barrington wrote in a 1996 internal company memorandum: "As of this writing, PM USA is still the only contributor, though Berman continues to promise others any day now."^[29] By December, 1996, supporters consisted of Alliance Gaming (slot machines), Anheuser-Busch (beer), Bruss Company (steaks and chops), Cargill Processed Meat Products, Davidoff (cigars), Harrah's (casinos), Overhill Farms (frozen foods), Philip Morris, and Standard Meat Company (steaks). The group's advisory panel comprised representatives from most of these companies, plus further representatives from the restaurant industry, including former Senator George McGovern, and Carl Vogt of law firm Fulbright & Jaworski.^[30]

Form 990s for the Center for Consumer Freedom are available for years 2002-2005 on the GuideStar website.^{[31][32][33][34]} For the last available year, 2005, revenues were $3.7 million, while expenses reached $3.8 million.

Experts on non-profit law questioned the group's non-profit status in an article that appeared in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.^[35] Acknowledged corporate donors to the CCF include Coca-Cola, Wendy's, Tyson Foods, Monsanto, and Pilgrim's Pride.^[2][36][37] As of 2005, the CCF reported more than 1,000 individual donors^[2][8] as well as approximately 100 corporate supporters.^[36]

Criticism

The CCF has drawn harsh criticism for having taken its startup funding from the Philip Morris tobacco company and for lobbying on behalf of the fast food, meat, and tobacco industries while saying it represents consumers.^{[2][38][39][40][41]}

According to The Washington Post, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group, asked the Internal Revenue Service in 2005 to revoke CCF's tax-exempt status, alleging that Berman and his company had used CCF to direct over $7 million charitable money to himself and his company since 1997, an allegation Berman rejects.^[2]

Some groups the CCF has targeted have questioned its ethics and legitimacy. The president of the American Federation of Teachers referred to the CCF's leader as "a shameless lobbyist who has shilled for pesticide, alcohol and tobacco companies." ^[28] A USA Today journalist said that they should change the name of their website to FatForProfit.com.^[42] Michael Pollan writes in his New York Times blog that the CCF is an astroturf organization that works on behalf of large food companies to protect their ability to sell junk food.^[43] It has also been criticized for its efforts to portray groups such as the Humane Society of the United States as "violent" and "extreme," and for its opposition to banning the use of trans fats.^{[44][45][46][47][48]} The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has also campaigned against the CCF's validity as a non-profit tax exempt charitable organization, filing an IRS complaint in 2004 attacking the CCF's states that its advocacy campaigns were "educational" in nature.^[2][49][50]

Some corporations, including PepsiCo and Kraft Foods, have declined to work with the CCF, saying they disagree with some of the group's arguments or with its approach to advocacy.^[36]

Following a CCF call for a retraction of a New York Times story about mercury levels in sushi as “bad science,” Newsweek senior editor Sharon Begley has criticized the CCF's interpretation of EPA statistics and implications of FDA restrictions on tuna and other fish.^[51]

References

^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-about_0-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-about_0-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-about_0-2) "About Us", Center for Consumer Freedom, accessed December 22, 2010.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-4) ^f(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-5) ^g(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-6) ^h(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-7) ⁱ(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-8) ^j(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-9) ^k(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-10) ^l(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-Mayer_1-11) Mayer, Caroline E. and Joyce, Amy. "The Escalating Obesity Wars Nonprofit's Tactics, Funding Sources Spark Controversy", The Washington Post, April 27, 2005.
^ Sharkey, Joe "Perennial Foes Meet Again in a Battle of the Snack Bar", The New York Times, November 23, 2004.
^ PR Watch: Letter from Rick Berman to Barbara Trach, April 11, 1995
^ Guest Choice Network January 24, 2002
^ Matthews, Mark. "Lobbyists Hide Behind Non-Profit Fronts", KGO-TV/ABC 7, May 3, 2006.
^ YouTube, retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-CF_7-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-CF_7-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-CF_7-2) "About Us". Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
^ Sargent, Greg. "Berman's Battle", The American Prospect. January 3, 2005.
^ Rick Berman (1998-06-01). "Food Cops Run Amok"publisher=Food Arts Magazine". Retrieved 2007-01-29.
^ "Don't Even Think About Having A Drink". Center for Consumer Freedom. 2001-10-02. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
^ “Latest Anti-Meat Study: The Real Story” Center for Consumer Freedom, January 12, 2005. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ "Scientists Denounce Scaremongering Activists". Center for Consumer Freedom. 2005-09-20. Retrieved 2007-01-30..
^ Bernstein, Charles. 1999. "The Zealot." *Chain Leader,* December. Retrieved May 4m 2001 by archive.org.
^ Ness, Carol. "Hand that feed bites back: Food industry forks over ad campaign to win hearts, stomachs" San Francisco Chronicle, May 11, 2002. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ "The Fifth Annual 'Tarnished Halo' Awards; PETA, California Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Among 'Best of the Worst'" (Press release). U.S. Newswire.. January 13, 2006.
^ "Food for Thought"< Center for Consumer Freedom, February 10, 2000, accessed June 16, 2010; also see Gardner, Marilyn. "Protecting us from ourselves", Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2000.
^ "The Guest Choice Network Presents the 3rd Annual 'Nanny' Awards" (Press release). PR Newswire. February 1, 2001.
^ YouTube videos
^ "Charlotte's (Tangled) Web" Center for Consumer Freedom, December 7, 2006. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ Rick Berman Newspaper: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2005-02-23). "Industry salivates over new cash cow". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
^ "Anti-PETA Ads Win Popular Acclaim". Center for Consumer Freedom. 2003-12-12. Retrieved 2007-02-12..
^ "About Us: Peta Kills Animals". Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
^ Saunders, Debra J. (2005-06-23). "Better dead than fed, PETA says". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
^ "activistcash.com". Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
^ Name of organizations can be deceiving
^ Beware of the man behind the screen
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-twt_27-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-twt_27-1) New Contest Seeks to Buy Out the Nation's 'Ten Worst Teachers'
^ PR Watch: Letter from Philip Morris attorney Marty Barrington citing initial funding for the CCF PR Watch, retrieved January 30, 2007.
^ The Guest Choice Network Supporters; The Guest Choice Network Advisory Panel, December 1, 1996.
^ 2002 IRS Form 990 for the Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ 2003 IRS Form 990 for the Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ 2004 IRS Form 990 for the Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ 2005 IRS Form 990 for the Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
^ [1]
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-FP_35-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-FP_35-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Consumer_Freedom#cite_ref-FP_35-2) Warner, Melanie. "Striking Back at the Food Police." New York Times. June 12, 2005. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
^ Barton, Paul. "Poultry firms side with lobbyist in PR battle with animal-welfare group." Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. September 22, 2003. Retrieved on February 12, 2007.
^ Verlyn Klinkenborg (2005-07-24). "The Story Behind a New York Billboard and the Interests It Serves". New York times. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
^ "Center for Consumer Freedom: Non-Profit or Corporate Shill?". Humane Society of the United States. 2005-07-01.
^ "Washington Report". Center for Science in the Public Interest. May, 2003. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
^ "Physicians' Group Responds to Smear Tactics by Tobacco, Meat Industry Front Group". Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. 2006-06-23. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
^ "What's in a name?". USA Today. May 4, 2005. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
^ Pollan, Michael (June 4, 2006). "Attacks on the ‘Food Police’". New York Times, the opinion pages.
^ No-smoke.org: Center for Consumer Freedom. Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ Unti, Bernard. "Center for Consumer Freedom: Non-Profit or Corporate Shill?" Humane Society of the United States. July 1, 2005. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ trans-fat FACTS.com Center for Consumer Freedom. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ Lamb, Gregory M. "Lead paint, cigarettes: Are trans fats next?" The Christian Science Monitor. October 12, 2006. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ PR Watch: "Trans Fat Spin Doctors Chart Legislative Risks" PR Watch. December 19, 2006. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ "CREW Files IRS Complaint Against The Center for Consumer Freedom Alleging Violations of Tax Exempt Status". Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. November 16, 2004. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.
^ Seth Lubove (2005-12-11). "Food Fight". Forbes. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
^ Would You Like Mercury With Your Sushi?

External links

ConsumerFreedom.com Official website

A visit to the ActivistCash.com web site. Like many corporate front groups, ActivistCash.com (a web site owned by lobbyist Rick Berman's misleadingly-named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF)) has received uncritical support from leading news media.

Contents[hide]

Wall Street Journal

TheWall Street Journal assisted the public launch of ActivistCash.com with a December 13, 2001 editorial column by :{Kimberley :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{Strassel:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:, entitled Activist, Inc. ^[1] Relying entirely on information provided by ActivistCash, Ms. Strassel made several claims for which she offered no evidence, some of which are demonstrably false:

"These days, most 'grassroots' groups are far better moneyed, networked and operated than many corporations and political lobbies."

Actually, grassroots groups only spend a tiny fraction of the money that corporations spend on lobbying and public relations. According to statistics compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, environmental organizations spent a total of $4.7 million on lobbying Congress in 1998. The sum total for all single-issue ideological groups combined, on all sides of the issues—including pro-choice feminists, anti-abortionists, human rights groups, consumer organizations, senior citizens, and a variety of other groups—was $76.2 million. During that same year, the agribusiness industry alone spent $119.3 million, and the lobbying expenditures of all industries combined added up to $11.2 billion.

"Companies — especially 'powerful' public ones — are required to keep their operations transparent and regularly make public their financial records. Activist groups, even though most receive non-profit status and must file with the IRS, have been reluctant to let anyone see their records."

Yet neither Ms. Strassel nor ActivistCash.com are able to cite any examples of activist groups "being reluctant to let anyone see their records." In fact, all of the information that appears on ActivistCash was provided to Berman's researchers by the activist groups themselves (with the exception of some false information that we detail below). As for the claim that corporations regularly make public their financial records, this is only true of publicly-traded corporations, and as the recent Enron scandal demonstrates, even this information can sometimes be limited and misleading. Moreover, corporations rarely disclose the details of their spending on PR campaigns designed to influence public opinion. Case in point: the ActivistCash.com itself does not provide any information about its corporate sponsors - nor do any of the other corporate front groups run by Rick Berman, the Washington, DC lobbyist who runs ActivistCash. Strassel also quoted John Doyle, Berman & Co.'s communications director:

"What we uncovered is an intricate, organized, well-funded web of what you might call the 'new left,' " Doyle said. "It allows a person to finally link the environmental activists with the animal rights activists with the anti-corporate activists, and see that they all operate together in the anti-choice arena."

To test these claims, PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton visited ActivistCash on December 18, 2001. The first thing he noticed was the site's preoccupation with a narrow list of organizations. Only 16 activist groups appeared in its database. A year later, in January 2003, the number had grown to only 33. By June 2004 the tally had only inched up to 39. In contrast, the Capital Research Center, another tobacco-funded think tank that purports to "expose" the funding sources of nonprofit organizations, had 2,879 groups as of January 2003. ^[2]

Targeted organizations

Organized by main area of interest, the groups listed on ActivistCash were:

Animal rights/animal testing/vegetarian

EarthSave International
Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM)
Farm Sanctuary
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) (See also Huntingdon Life Sciences)
United Poultry Concern

Anti-alcohol

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA)

Anti-tobacco

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

Environmentalism

Earth First!
Environmental Media Services
Environmental Working Group
Greenpeace USA
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Waterkeeper Alliance
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
SeaWeb

Food safety

Center for Food Safety (CFS)
Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
Chefs Collaborative
Mothers for Natural Law
Organic Consumers Association

News &media

Center for Media & Democracy, the publisher of PR Watch
Adbusters
Sustainable Agriculture/Family Farming
American Corn Growers Association
Dakota Resource Council
Dakota Rural Action
Idaho Rural Council
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Northern Plains Resource Council
Powder River Basin Resource Council
Turning Point Project
Western Organization of Resource Councils

Other

"Intricate web" & sinister "connections"

Of course there are many other groups that work on these issues, so ActivistCash is being very selective in its choice of targets. But do these groups really form an "intricate web"? Upon examination, it turns out that the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol groups (ASH,MADD and CASA) have no discernible connection whatsoever with any of the other groups on the list. The "connections" section of ActivistCash.com admits:

"We have not found ... networking connections with other organizations in our database at this time."

These groups appear to have been included simply because ActivistCash.com dislikes their stance on booze and cigarettes. Contrary to the claim that these activist groups all work in concert, they actually have different and sometimes opposing agendas. For example, has published lengthy articles criticizing Greenpeace ^[3] as well as shorter but pointed criticisms of the NRDC and CSPI. ActivistCash points to a number of allegedly sinister "connections" between some of the groups on its list, but upon examination, these connections actually turn out to be fairly obvious and innocuous. For example, ActivistCash.com says that Greenpeace is "connected" to PETA because one of its employees used to work for PETA. SeaWeb is connected to NRDC because it was originally a project of NRDC before spinning off to become a separate organization—true, but hardly a secret. The Center for Food Safety and the Organic Consumers Association are both connected to each through CMD director John Stauber, who serves on their advisory boards. EarthSave and PCRM are "connected" because some of their staff members have spoken at the same events. If this sort of thing constitutes an "intricate, organized web," then PR Watch is also "intricately organized" with Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores, the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and dozens of newspapers and radio stations throughout the United States that have chosen to interview its staff or invite them to speak. Moreover, ActivistCash sponsor Berman & Co. itself must be part of the conspiracy, because Berman employee John Doyle is the brother of Mary Beth Doyle, an environmental activist who once helped arrange a speaking tour of Michigan featuring PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton.

ActivistCash tries to deepen the sense of a wide-ranging conspiracy by listing 24 popular celebrities who support activist causes, including Pamela Anderson, Bob Barker, Kim Basinger, Harry Belafonte, David Duchovny, Danny Glover, Stephen King, Ann Landers, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Mary Tyler Moore. Once again, there is nothing particularly remarkable or secret about fact that celebrities have publicly endorsed various causes. These endorsements have all been widely publicized—which of course is the purpose of celebrity endorsements. Here too, ActivistCash seems to have done only superficial research. Former X-Files star David Duchovny is included on the ActivistCash list of celebrities, based solely on the fact that he and wife Tea Leoni once participated in a fundraiser in which they sold "butt paintings" to raise funds for an unnamed animal rights cause.

One of the "connections" that ActivistCash seems to have missed is the fact that PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton and David Duchovny both graduated in the same year from Princeton University. Even when the "truth is out there," ActivistCash apparently can't find it.

ActivistCash.com also provides some information about the funding sources for the activist groups in its database. However, the data actually undermines their claim that the groups are intricately connected. The 16 activist groups listed as of December 2001 received funding from 212 different foundations. If anything, this suggests that the activist groups draw their support from a diverse range of funders. To assess the degree of coordinated foundation giving, we looked at the first 50 foundations in the ActivistCash database in December 2001. Only 14 of the 50 had given grants to more than one of the activist groups listed, and none had given grants to more than three groups. Of the foundations which did give money to more than one group, most gave to groups with similar missions. For example, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation (established by one of the founders of the Hewlett-Packard Company) made grants to SeaWeb, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council—all environmental groups.

The giving history of the foundations listed on ActivistCash.com also undermines the claim that activist groups are rolling in cash these days. Most of the foundations listed give the majority of their money to non-activist groups and causes. The Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation, for example, is listed as a grantmaker to Greenpeace, PETA, and PCRM. Rosenthal's grants to these three groups total $22,000 over the course of three years—not much, considering that the Rosenthal Foundation gives away more than $500 million annually.

Misleading analysis of ASH

ActivistCash seems to find enormous significance in the funding that theF.M. Kirby Foundation has given money to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the anti-tobacco organization headed by law professor John Banzhaf III . It states:

"John Banzhaf has done a masterful job of fooling people into thinking that ASH is a grassroots effort. The group's web site even boasts that 'ASH is entirely supported by tax-deductible contributions from people like you concerned about smoking and protecting the rights of nonsmokers.' However, publicly available documents show grants totaling $330,000 from New Jersey's F.M. Kirby Foundation."

Kirby Foundation

Actually, this charge of deception is based on astraw man argument to begin with, as ASH does not really describe itself as a "grassroots" organization. A search of the ASH website in December 2001 turned up only 17 pages that contained the word "grassroots," none of which used that word in reference to ASH itself. Two of the pages, in fact, used the term to describe the tobacco industry's fake grassroots front organizations. When describing itself, ASH simply states that it is a "national antismoking organization which is entirely supported by tax-deductible contributions." Since the Kirby Foundation's grants fall into the category of "tax-deductible contributions," this claim is accurate. Moreover, the grants that ASH has received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation represent only a small part of the ASH budget. During fiscal year 2000, ASH received $60,000 from the Kirby Foundation—5.5% of its total revenues of $1,079,279. Kirby's grants to ASH are also small by Kirby Foundation standards, and represent only a tiny fraction of its overall giving. The Kirby Foundation—established by the late Fred M. Kirby, owner of variety stores including F.W. Woolworth—is the 82nd largest foundation in the United States, with assets of more than half a billion dollars. Administered today by Kirby's descendants, it gives grants to a wide range of nonprofit organizations. Recent examples include: a $2 million grant to support research on the brain; $5 million to fund construction of an addition to a business school in North Carolina; $2 million to create a neurobiology research chair at Rockefeller University; $1 million to the United Network for Organ Sharing; and $32.5 million to Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Ironically, theF.M. Kirby Foundation gives most of its "public policy" grants to right-wing organizations. Kirby has been a major funder of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), one of the most prominent conservative organizations on college campuses. ISI's annual budget of $5 million funds more than 60 conservative student newspapers and pays for prominent conservative speakers like Oliver North to speak at campuses across the country. Its 23-acre national headquarters in Delaware is called the "F.M. Kirby Campus" in recognition of the $1.5 million grant—the largest single grant in ISI's history—that the Kirby Foundation provided to pay for its purchase. Kirby is also a major funder of the Young America's Foundation (YAF), which also sponsors conservative activism on campus. YAF's annual budget is close to $9 million, and, like ISI, its national headquarters is named after the Kirby Foundation in appreciation of the grant that paid for it. The Kirby Foundation has also funded Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), one of the leading corporate-funded think tanks. According to budget documents obtained by Public Citizen, ^[4] CSE takes millions of dollars of year from corporate interests ^[5], including Exxon for projects related to global warming, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds for tobacco projects, and the Florida sugar growers' lobby to oppose a federal plan for Florida wetlands restoration. In 1998, CSE received $1,124,050 from tobacco companies at the same time that it was spearheading the opposition to new cigarette taxes. That same year, CSE received $22,500 in unrelated funding from the Kirby Foundation.

Members of the Kirby family are entitled to give their money away as they please. Some people would deplore the fact that they contribute to right-wing propaganda centers like the ISI, YAF and CSE. ActivistCash chooses to deplore the comparative pittance which the same foundation has given to a group that opposes smoking. If ActivistCash were honest, however, it should note that Kirby also provides funding to pro-tobacco groups. Moreover, ActivistCash should own up publicly to the fact that its own work is supported by tobacco money. Actually, Berman & Co. has taken more money from Philip Morris in a single year than ASH received from the Kirby Foundation during all of the years combined for which ActivistCash has bothered to collect data.

A comedy of errors

PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton also reviewed what ActivistCash.com has to say about PR Watch's own sponsoring organization, the Center for Media & Democracy and was struck by the number of demonstrably false claims that they managed to sandwich into a fairly brief profile:

ActivistCash says that the Center for Media & Democracy "seems to largely be a PR tool for selling John Stauber's books."

Wrong! CMD was founded in 1993. Rampton and Stauber's first book,Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, was not written until 1995. Moreover, no royalties or payments from any of Stauber and Rampton's books accrue to the authors. All rights are held by the Center, and all revenues from the sale of books go to the Center. Rampton and Stauber receive a salary from CMD, but most of CMD's revenues come from sources other than book sales.^[6]

ActivistCash claims that CMD has received $10,000 in grants from the John Merck Fund, $5,000 of which went to buy an advertisement in the New York Times for Rampton and Stauber's book, Mad Cow USA. Wrong! CMD to date has never received any funding from the John Merck Fund for any purpose.

David Merritt, another CMD board member, is listed as executive director of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), a Wisconsin consumer advocate that opposes utility rate increases. Wrong! Dave is a former executive director of CUB, but he has not worked for them since 1996.

ActivistCash claims that PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton:

"directed the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN)^[7] taking part in a project that he said 'channeled more than $7 million in loans to Nicaragua' while that nation was under Sandinista (Marxist) control."

Wrong! Sheldon Rampton has been active with WCCN for many years, including serving as a paid WCCN staff member from 1993-1997. He currently serves as a volunteer on the WCCN board of directors but has never been its executive director. The project that channeled "more than $7 million in loans to Nicaragua" was the Nicaraguan Credit Alternatives (NICA) Fund. ^[8] It offers loans to low-income Nicaraguans with no access to commercial credit in order to start their own small businesses. Typical borrowers are engaged in activities such as farming, ranching, retail, carpentry and making tortillas. It's a great project that continues to operate and has actually given out more than $10 million in loans to assist some of the poorest people in the western hemisphere. However, the NICA Fund did not channel money to Nicaragua during the years of the Sandinista government. It was not even started until 1992, two years after the Sandinistas lost the 1990 Nicaraguan elections

ActivistCash says that Rampton is a member of the CMD board of directors. Wrong! Rampton edits PR Watch, but he has never even been to a board meeting.

ActivistCash says that John Stauber is a member of the CMD board of directors. Wrong again! Stauber is the executive director of CMD, but he is not a board member.

Finally, ActivistCash says that CMD only has two staff members. Wrong yet again! At the time, CMD had three staff members. Anyone who visitied the PR Watch staff biographies page could see a nice color photograph of PR Watch associate editor Laura Miller. Starting in November 2003, the Center staff roster expanded to six people. ^[9] Although the errors were corrected in January of 2002, the site has not bothered to post a retraction or correct the false information (which continues to appear in its profile of CMD).

SourceWatch Articles

References

↑ Kimberley Strassel Activist Inc.: Professional agitators can't claim to be a "grassroots" movement anymore., Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2001
↑ Search Capital Research Center Database, Capital Research Center, 2007
↑ Flack Attack, PRWatch, 3rd quarter, 1999, Volume 6, No. 3
↑ Corporate Shill Enterprise: A Public Citizen Report on Citizens for a Sound Economy, a Corporate Lobbying Front Group, Public Citizen, October 2000
↑ Dan Morgan Think Tanks: Corporations' Quiet Weapon, Washington Post, January 2000
↑ Financial Supporters, PRWatch, accessed January 2010
↑ Working Capital for Community Needs (Formerly the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua), accessed January 2010
↑ The NICA Fund, Working Capital for Community Needs, accessed January 2010
↑ Staff Biographies, accessed January 2010 ===

----

weekly std

Wesley J. Smith is a conservative columnist and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute (D.I.), ^[1] a think tank and conservative political, policy, economic, religious and industry lobbying organization. It is best known as the driving force behind the Intelligent design movement. Mr. Smith promotes the Discovery Institute's positions through editorials featured on D.I. ^[2], ^[3] and other conservative publications.

Mr. Smith's wife, Debra J. Saunders, occasionally writes op-ed columns in the San Francisco Chronicle on issues which overlap with D.I's agenda, though she openly discloses her relationship with Smith and his role with D.I.^[4], ^[5] See also Debra J. Saunders.

Member organizations of D.I. include the Fur Commission. ^[6]

Contents [hide]

Terri Schiavo

Mr. Smith closely followed the Terri Schiavo case in 2005 and wrote frequent editorials on the topic. ^[7]

Quoting industry reps & targeting activists

Smith has criticized People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and animal rights in D.I. articles ^[8], ^[9] as well as other conservative publications. Some of Mr. Smith's editorials and blog reference industry reps such as David Martosko and the front group Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF):

"Doesn't the establishment of legal rights for these animals also debase humanity? At the end of the day, it is probably impossible to guarantee both "rights" for animals and disease cures for humans. I see siding with my own species as the only compassionate option. David Martosko" ^[10]

CCF does not advocate for "humanity". CCF sponsors have included Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Tyson Foods and Dean Foods. These corporations have a long history of gross animal welfare violations, human rights, health and environmental abuses. See also Richard Berman cares about animals: clients exposed.

According to an editorial in the National Review:

"In 2001, S. L. Davis of the Department of Animal Sciences at Oregon State University, Corvallis, wrote a paper claiming that the diet most likely to result in the deaths of the fewest animals would be beef, lamb, and dairy — not vegan. Davis found a study that measured mouse population density per hectare in grain fields both before and after harvest and estimated a harvest casualty rate of ten mice per hectare. Then, he multiplied that figure by 120 million hectares of farmland in the U.S.; meaning that 1.2 billion mice would die each year in food production if America became a wholly vegan country."^[11]

Livestock consumes 47% of the soy and 60% of the corn produced in the US. ^[12] According the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), livestock use 30 % of the earth’s entire land surface. 70% of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing. ^[13] Approximately 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food every year in the U.S. (over a million an hour).^[14]

See also meat & dairy industry, section 5 & animals raised & hunted for food.

Green baiting

According to another NR editorial :

"In the Netherlands, an animal-rights extremist allegedly assassinated a candidate for parliament, perhaps because he defended pig farming in a debate with animal-rights activists. ....You have to be especially dangerous and potentially violent to warrant attention from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Cofounded by renowned civil-rights attorney Morris Dees, the group is best known for its successful legal struggle against hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nation. One of the center's most useful projects is the respected SPLC Intelligence Report (IR), a quarterly magazine that offers in-depth analysis of political extremism in the United States. The Fall 2002 IR exposes the depth of the threat of ARL terrorism — earning ALF, ELF, and SHAC a level of infamy usually reserved for American extremist groups such as the KKK, Aryan Nation, and the American Nazi party." ^[15]

However, according to interviews:

"Pim Fortuyn had reasonable views on the bio-industry," Pigs in Need, an animal rights group, said in a statement. 'Fortuyn believed that new agricultural policy needed to be animal friendly.'"

According to a recent book by Pim Fortuyn:

"Animal welfare must be a priority and we need to switch to less industrial production methods." ^[16]

The assassination was attributed to Fortuyn's views on religion and immigration. ^[17], ^[18]

According to an editorial in the Weekly Standard:

"TERRORISM TAKES MANY FORMS. Recently, animal-rights terrorists have unleashed an organized campaign of violence and intimidation against animal industries and their service companies--such as banks, auditing companies, and insurance brokers. ...One of the most active of these groups is Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which is dedicated to driving Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) out of business because it tests drugs on animals. ..Law enforcement is on heightened alert to protect against animal-rights terrorism, and legislation (H.R. 4239) is wending its way through the House of Representatives to make such lawlessness more easily prosecuted. These are necessary steps." ^[19]

The only attempted murder in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement was coordinated by corporate provocateurs.^[20]

Animal activists who have been injured or killed

However, there have been a number of incidents involving victimized animal activists who have been injured or killed.

AETA (HR 4239)

HR 4239 or the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), became law on November 27, 2006 after receiving President Bush’s signature. ^[22]Critics have characterized this legislation as being designed to protect the financial interests of corporations, chill dissent and discourage legal activism. ^[23] AETA terrorism charges cannot be brought against someone whose target is "unaffiliated with an animal enterprise", which violate constitutional rights to equal legal protection. ^[24]

Huntingdon Life Sciences & SHAC campaign

Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in Europe. Firms hire CRO's to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins. HLS has a long history of gross animal welfare violations. They are the only laboratory in the United Kingdom ever to have their license revoked by the government.^[25] The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign is an international campaign with groups in the UK, USA, France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and many other countries who target HLS and the global corporations which support them. ^[26]

See also Huntingdon Life Sciences & animal testing, section 3 on product (toxicity) testing.

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

↑ Bioethics, Discovery Institute, accessed December 2008
↑ Wesley J. Smith Liberation Theology The twisted thinking motivating PETA Discovery Institute, August 4, 2005
↑ Wesley J. Smith The Most Tasteless PR Campaign Ever: PETA Outdoes Itself, Discovery Institute, March 2003
↑ Debra J. Saunders Better Dead than Fed, Discovery Institute, June 2005
↑ Debra J. Saunders, American Terrorist, Discovery Institute, June 2007
↑ What is Fur Commission USA?, Fur Commission, accessed June 2009
↑ Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith Condemn's Judge's Ruling in Schiavo Case, Discovery Institute News, March 2005
↑ Wesley J. Smith Liberation Theology The twisted thinking motivating PETA D.I., August 2005
↑ Wesley J. Smith The Most Tasteless PR Campaign Ever: PETA Outdoes Itself, D.I., March 2003
↑ Wesley J. Smith The Wisdom of David Martosko, Secondhand Smoke, April 2008
↑ Wesley J. Smith Veganism is Murder, National Review, July 2008
↑ The Issues: Corn and Soy, Sustainable Table, accessed December 2009
↑ Livestock a major threat to environment: Remedies urgently needed, United Nations, FAO Newsroom, Rome, November 2006.
↑ About Farm Animals and Factory Farming, Humane Society of the United States, 2005
↑ Wesley J. Smith Terrorists, Too Exposing animal-rights terrorism, National Review, October 2002
↑ Environmental Activist Charged in Dutch Politician's Assassination, Associated Press, May 2002
↑ Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Joan Clements Fortuyn killed 'to protect Muslims, Telegraph.co.uk, March 2003
↑ Andrew Osborn I shot Fortuyn for Dutch Muslims, says accused, Free Republic, March 2003
↑ Wesley J. Smith Animal Planet, Animal-rights terrorism is on the increase and animal-rights activists aren't doing enough to stop it., Weekly Standard, May 2006
↑ Will Potter How Corporate Provacateurs Made Fran Trutt an “Animal Rights Terrorist”, Mar 25th, 2009
↑ Charlotte Laws, PhD, AETA and the New Green Scare: Are You the Terrorist Next Door?, Counterpunch, January 2007
↑ Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Govtrack.us 109th Congress, 2005-2006
↑ Will Potter House Passes AETA With Little Discussion or Dissent: Notes from the House Floor “Debate”, Greenisthenewred.com, Nov 2006
↑ Charlotte Laws, PhD, AETA and the New Green Scare: Are You the Terrorist Next Door?, Counterpunch, January 2007
↑ Dr. Jerry Vlasik Testimony of Jerry Vlasik, M.D.: Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (“SHAC”) Eco-terrorism, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, October 2005
↑ Introduction to SHAC, SHAC.net, accessed May 2009

Categories:

Ctr for Consumer Freedom CCF

Most Used Categories

Archives

Summary

Center for Consumer Freedom Originally Funded by Tobacco and Restaurant Industries to Fight Bans on Smoking in Restaurants

Since Tobacco-Funded Roots, CCF Has Expanded to Other Dubious Areas of Interest

Over 40% of CCF’s Expenses Went to Berman and Company from 2002-2012

CCF’s Excessive Payments to Berman Led Charity Navigator to Issue a Donor Advisory

A Long History of Making False Attacks against Respected Organizations

TIME: Attacks on Humane Society a “Low Blow”

Center for Consumer Freedom funding

Funding from Right-Wing Bradley Foundation in Wisconsin

Funding from GMO Company J.R. Simplot

2011 Finances

2005 Finances

CCF contributions table

References

Articles & sources

Sourcewatch articles

References

External articles

Articles & testimony by David Martosko

External resources

Lobbyists-Loot Dot Con: Berman Flees, Martosko Plays Dumb

Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society

People Love Animals

Who is Funding HumaneWatch.org?

Overview & history

Starting out smoking

Tactics

Personal responsibility

"Free to choose"

Marginalizing advocates

Selected campaigns (subsection)

CCF & anti-animal rights/welfare

Overview & clients

Clients & investigations

Altria (Phillip Morris)

Covance Laboratories

Huntingdon Life Sciences

Senate hearings focusing on HLS issues

Tyson Foods

Dean Foods

CCF & puppy mills

Corporate concern

American Cancer Society

March of Dimes

PETA Kids

PETA, ALF & ELF

CCF & green baiting

Animal activists who have been injured or killed

PETA's local programs in Virginia & North Carolina

NC shelters & gas chambers

NC gas chambers, stats & local services

PETA overview, financial statement & salaries

Other targeted organizations

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

External resources

CCF & puppy mills

List of targeted organizations

Affiliated organizations & websites

Quotable & notable

Funding (subsection)

Personnel

Officers

Advisory panel

Media

Former personnel

Contact

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

External articles

External resources

Background

Guest Choice Network

Governance

Activities