BERMAN 322 CAPT

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">berman322</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">main </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see CCF and bermn sic tag 6/15</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">also BERMAN 2 for later (2nd berman tag fail?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE CRC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE NOT THE EPA ADVOCACY HIT SQUAD</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/16 i have no text on him</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cattle network</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shortly after my interview with Wayne Pacelle appeared, I received an email message from Allison Miller, Senior Media associate for the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF).  She wrote, “I read your 5 minutes piece with Wayne Pacelle today. I was hoping you might be interested in speaking with Rick Berman, the Center for Consumer Freedom’s Executive Director. There were several charges unfairly leveled against our organization and Rick personally by Pacelle. Rick would like the chance to set the record straight for your readers and directly respond to Pacelle’s false statements.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Pacelle did indeed say some harsh things about CCF and Mr. Berman. To fully understand the reasons behind Miller’s request, click here to read my interview with Mr. Pacelle.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Consumer Freedom is an interesting non-profit organization.  To understand it, here is some background information, courtesy of 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," 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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“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, HMS Host Corp, and Wendy's.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the interest of fairness, I thought it was important to offer Berman equal time and we conducted the interview using the same format.  I emailed the questions to him and I’m reproducing his answers exactly as he wrote them.  No editing on my part.  I’ll leave the decision about the validity of any statement made by Pacelle or Berman up to you.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I encourage you to read both interviews carefully and then leave your comments at the end of either column.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q.  A few weeks ago, I interviewed Wayne Pacelle and one of the major issues we discussed was a HumaneWatch news release about some alleged discrepancies in the HSUS tax return.  He dismissed HumaneWatch as a project of the “discredited Center for Consumer Freedom,” stating the Washington Post and USA Today had called you out as a shill for industry groups and 60 Minutes had called you ‘Dr. Evil.’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Would you talk about your business as well as respond to Pacelle’s charges?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. It’s always amusing listening to Wayne Pacelle struggle to twist the truth to fit his warped reality. 60 Minutes never dubbed me “Dr. Evil,” but simply reported that it’s a moniker my labor union detractors employed (my friends also use it jokingly). Wayne also claims we “oppose anti-drunk driving campaigns” when in fact we support tougher drunk-driving laws—just not as draconian as some of the laws being pushed by MADD or others. In fact, MADD’s founder worked with our public affairs firm after she left the group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The difference between Pacelle and a campaign like HumaneWatch is that all we do is shine a bright light on what’s already out there but not well known—like the fact that Pacelle has said “I don’t want to see another cat or dog born,” the fact that a number of his senior staffers were contributors to a terrorist-cheerleading magazine, </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">404 not wayback, all:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://web.archive.org/web//http://www.humanewatch.org/site/post/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">or the fact that so little of the money raised by HSUS goes to pet shelters, where Pacelle’s donors think it is going.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pacelle would lose an immense amount of support if his donors knew that HSUS was just PETA with a suit and tie, and he is desperate to tear down anyone who challenges his façade.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for my business, Berman and Co., we manage several free-market non-profits and a trade association and provide traditional advertising and public-relation services to outside clients. It’s not an unusual structure, and Berman and Company’s ability to secure good ad rates is one reason that on paper it looks like a lot of money goes from these non-profits to my company. It does, but it doesn’t stay there—it then largely goes out the door to newspapers and other media companies or to pay a staff of 30 people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pacelle regularly acts as if money coming through my company like this is some kind of personal enrichment scheme. He bizarrely has obsessed on the fact that—after 45 years of working in the business world— I have a nicer house than he does. He even hired a man to take pictures of my home and videotape my car. It’s erratic behavior, especially since Pacelle himself pulls in $300,000 a year in compensation (that we can trace). Wayne often makes these claims while at the same time complaining that we run millions in advertising against his organization—he can’t have it both ways.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. What can you tell me about the funding of HumaneWatch?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. HumaneWatch is a project of the Center for Consumer Freedom, which openly discloses support from foundations, restaurants, the food industry, and individual consumers. Like most non-profit groups, we don’t disclose individual donors. Melanie Sloan of CREW, a left-wing group that opposes us, attacks us for not disclosing our supporters Yet she herself says “I wouldn't have any donors if I revealed all my donors.”In fact we have a long list of anti-business groups that refuse to disclose donors. And you certainly won’t catch Wayne Pacelle revealing any sugar daddies of HSUS.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. About that tax return - talking about their donations to local animal shelters, Pacelle said “Let me underscore that HSUS is not a grant-making group or a foundation, just like the American Farm Bureau Federation or the National Rifle Association are not grant-making groups. Does the NRA just fund gun ranges, or the Farm Bureau fund farms, or the AARP fund senior citizen centers?” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Does he have a valid defense?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. As usual, it’s more flimflam from Wayne. This time he is comparing apples and oranges. There are hundreds if not thousands of groups with “humane society” in their name, whereas that’s not true about “rifle associations.” And the AFBF is indeedaffiliated with state-level Farm Bureaus. That’s not true for HSUS and local humane societies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Confusion among the public is vast and Pacelle surely knows it. He can try to talk around it, but that won’t change reality. We hired Opinion Research Corporation (CNN’s pollster) to survey the general public and found that 71 percent mistakenly believe that HSUS is an umbrella group for pet shelters. Even HSUS’s own donors are confused. We surveyed 1,000 self-identified donors and found that the vast majority gave to HSUS to support shelters or to reduce the pet euthanasia rate. A whopping 90 percent had no idea that HSUS gives only 1 percent of their donations to shelters, and 80 percent agreed that HSUS misleads people. And if they knew that Wayne was funding the executive pension plan at HSUS with millions more than the group has given to shelters, more than a few donors would be screaming for his head.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. The less than 1% donation to local animal shelters notwithstanding, would you go discuss the other items in the tax return that troubled you?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. HSUS devoted nearly 40 percent of its budget to fundraising-related expenses. That’s nearly $50 million, and it’s one reason HSUS is known in some circles as a “factory fundraiser.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Further, a good chunk of that money went into the pockets of a questionable organization called Quadriga Art. CNN exposed Quadriga recently for bilking veterans charities and Quadriga is reportedly under investigation in two states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’re not the only one taking note of this massive HSUS overhead. The nationally respected American Institute of Philanthropy gives HSUS an unflattering “D” grade and calculates that up to 50 percent of HSUS’s expenses are overhead. AIP’s executive director recently said of HSUS: “If you like getting those mailings and want to pay for more of them, support [HSUS]. If you want to give more for programs or services that benefit animals and advocate better rules and protections for animals, they are not a good target.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HSUS says that it is “approved” by the Better Business Bureau, but readers should know that this is more Wayne Pacelle misdirection. Last week, USA Today reported that the BBB’s charity rating system is under fire from experts for taking money from the very groups it rates, raising serious questions about conflict of interest. HSUS pays the BBB thousands of dollars a year. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) says this system “unquestionably” has implications regarding “credibility and possible conflicts of interest.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lastly, HSUS spent almost half its budget in 2011 on “advocacy and public policy.” This has caught the attention of U.S. Congressmen. In 2010, six Members of Congress wrote the IRS Inspector General citing this spending on advocacy and public policy as reason to believe HSUS may be violating its tax-exempt status.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We challenged Pacelle nearly three years ago to take the “50 percent pledge” and spend half of HSUS’s budget on pet shelters. We offered to close down HumaneWatch if he made good on that challenge. So far, we’ve heard nothing but silence from him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. Pacelle also defended the size of his organization, claiming it was close to 11,000,000 and shouldn’t be limited to the slightly more than half a million who subscribe to their magazine, “All Animals.”  There is no doubt that regardless of membership size, HSUS wields considerable political and social clout.  Given their influence, does its actual size matter?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. If HSUS is inflating its membership by 2,000 percent, then that certainly speaks to the lack of credibility of Wayne Pacelle and his minions. The difference between 500,000 and 11 million is considerable when it comes to walking into a legislator’s office.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Semantics aside, what does HSUS mean when it says its “constituency” is 11 million? We surfaced internal HSUS documents from the late 80s that show that about 34 percent of this figure was “prospects.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HSUS’s actual size only matters because it shows how large this scam has gotten. Given the well documented gap between what Wayne Pacelle wants—a vegan world—and what his donors think they’re funding, it’s a big education opportunity.  </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. I asked Pacelle about the HSUS relationship with Quadriga Art and Infocision Management, two organizations accused of questionable practices.  I was disappointed that he didn’t answer the question directly.  Let’s go into some detail here – what are the accusations leveled at these two companies and what is the impact HSUS?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. Wayne Pacelle didn’t respond directly to a question? I’m shocked.In all seriousness, this is yet another strike against the “factory fundraising” culture at HSUS.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg exposed InfoCision this fall. Essentially, charities apparently entered into telemarketing contracts whereby InfoCision would build donor lists for them but in the short term keep most or all of the money raised. However, authorities figured out that the donors were being misled about where their money was going.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HSUS appears to have engaged in this deception. According to government filings, one California telemarketer working for HSUS was only sending 2 percent of the money it raised to HSUS, yet according to the script was telling donors that it was 40-50 percent. (Since charities sign off on these scripts, they should be considered complicit.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for Quadriga, CNN’s Anderson Cooper exposed this consulting and direct-mail firm for taking in the vast majority of money raised by two veterans charities and ananimal organization. The Senate Finance Committee is apparently looking into this, as are the attorneys general of two states. HSUS paid Quadriga about $25 million in 2009-2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We combed through HSUS’s direct mail, telemarketing scripts, and TV ads and compiled what we found into a report titled “Deceptive Fundraising Practices of the Humane Society of the United States.” Read it and learn more examples of how HSUS deceives Americans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Q. Thousands of people read CattleNetwork.com.  What would you like to say to them?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A. To the farmers and ranchers: Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re vital to this country, and I doubt Wayne Pacelle has ever milked a cow or braved the Midwest winter at 5 a.m. to care for farm animals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To all: HSUS may seem tough, but remember that it’s a defendant in a federal racketeering lawsuit, has drawn the ire of Congressmen and state political leaders, and in 2011 the amount of money HSUS raised decreased almost 7 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stand strong, stand together, and stay on offense. These campaigns take time but as long as you don’t tire prematurely you will prevail.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chuck Jolley is a free lance writer, based in Kansas City, who covers a wide range of ag industry topics for Vance Publishing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NBCC's Op-Ed Campaign Follows Similar Attacks On The Clean Power Plan From Fossil Fuel Front Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Americans For Prosperity State Directors Are Running Op-Ed Campaign Attacking Clean Power Plan. At least 16 newspapers across the country have published nearly identical op-eds from state leaders of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which misleadingly cite statistics on electricity prices while calling for state legislatures to fight back against the Clean Power Plan. Every newspaper Media Matters reviewed except one failed to disclose the group's ties to the oil industry: AFP was founded, and continues to be largely funded, by the oil billionaire Koch brothers. [Media Matters, 3/25/15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beacon Hill Institute And State Policy Network Also Seeking To Undermine EPA Climate Plan With Op-Ed Campaign. The Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) partnered with members of the State Policy Network (SPN) to jointly produce sham studies and op-eds that dramatically inflate the Clean Power Plan's projected cost without even analyzing the EPA's actual proposal. As of April 13, 11 newspapers in four states had published op-eds written mostly by executives from SPN groups or state legislators, but none of the op-eds disclosed the fossil fuel industry funding behind them. Both BHI and SPN have financial ties to the Koch brothers, and the reports themselves were funded by a group run by Richard Berman, a corporate PR executive who has solicited millions in funding from the oil and gas industry. [Media Matters, 4/13/15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The values and voices of America's diverse communities are too often excluded from the news media. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">good news is that he's scared enough of tactic to steal it?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">guessing just provided stats?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">berman in cmd hit claim tobacco $;  30K in over $2 mil 1994? aclu AND wash legal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">explicit strategy to support liberal farm groups, presumably as a front (small family farms hurt vs giant agribiz)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tka13a00/pdf?search=%22economic%20policy%20institute%20dollar%22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To Washington insiders he is Dr Evil: [3] the hidden orchestrator of industry campaigns against the Humane Society, Mothers against Drunk Driving, and other seemingly uncontroversial groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Richard Berman, a one-time lobbyist turned industry strategist, has zeroed in on another target: Barack Obama’s new power plant rules [4].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the last year, Berman has secretly routed funding for at least 16 studies and launched at least five front groups attacking Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting carbon dioxide from power plants, the Guardian has learned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rules, the centre-piece of Obama’s climate agenda, are due to be finalised in mid-summer. They have come under sustained assault from industry and Republican-controlled Congress – and Berman is right at the heart of it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The attacks may be gaining traction. The EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, suggested in a speech this week the rules were likely to change in response to public comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the offices of Berman’s PR firm in Washington, at least five new front groups have launched attack ads against the EPA, environmental groups, fishermen and sportsmen, and green building organisations. The groups all use Berman’s address.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, the Employment Policies Institute [5], a tax-exempt organisation headed by Berman and operating out of his office according to tax filings, funded a series of reports by an ultra-conservative thinktank, the Beacon Hill Institute [6].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The reports, claiming the power plant rules would lead to rolling blackouts, send electricity prices skyrocketing, and devastate local economies, are being published in 16 states by a network of pro-corporate and ultra-conservative thinktanks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of the reports were funded by EPI, according to Suffolk University, the host institution for Beacon Hill. Suffolk released a list of such grants. [7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman did not respond to requests for comment. However, a spokesman, Jordan Bruneau, confirmed that EPI was funding the analyses of the EPA regulations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Currently IPA is working with economists [who?] to determine the effects of certain EPA regulations on particular states,” he said in an email. He said the research was entirely funded by foundations but refused to identify those funders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those familiar with Berman say he is a prime example of a new industry strategy of bypassing traditional lobbying organisations, and using thinktanks, foundations, experts, and social media to shape the public conversation and – ultimately – legislation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Richard Berman is very well known for certain front groups and for taking money from anonymous sources to fund aggressive campaigns in the interests of the individuals and the corporations who fund him with the understanding that that funding will be kept secret,” said Nick Surgey, research director of the Center for Media and Democracy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, Berman claims his ability to hide the funding sources for such campaigns as a particular expertise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’” Berman told a conference of energy executives last year. The talk was secretly recorded [8] and leaked to the New York Times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We run all of this stuff through non-profit organisations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us,” Berman told the energy executives.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He claimed at the time to have already collected six-figure sums from some of the companies in the room – and solicited $3m more to defeat opponents of fracking.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On such a scale, the funding for an economic study taking down the EPA rules appears relatively economical. Beacon Hill received $41,500 from the Employment Policies Institute for a study of the EPA rules, according to the grants list maintained by Suffolk University.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The funds were allocated to produce reports on the impact of the EPA rules in 16 states including: Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Washington Ohio, Alaska and Utah, a spokesman for Suffolk University said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The university spokesman said in an email that the grants followed university protocol. “Suffolk does not accept research funds from unknown sources,” the spokesman said in an email.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beacon Hill is associated with a network of ultra-conservative groups working with the American Legislative Exchange Council and funded by patrons of anti-government causes such as the Koch brothers and Searle Freedom Trust.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Its director, David Tuerck, appears on the roster of experts at the Heartland Institute, which adopts an extreme-sceptic position on the existence of human-caused climate change. Tuerck has also featured as a keynote speaker at Heartland’s climate conferences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He told the Guardian he had mixed views on climate change. “I am not certain that those emissions are significant enough to offset other factor changing the climate,” he said. But he was categorical that efforts to cut emissions were “a waste of time”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We are just heaping unnecessary costs on the American economy,” he said. “It’s as obvious as the nose on anybody’s face these EPA regulations are inevitably going to drive up electricity rates.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the years, BHI has been accused of using discredited economic models to exaggerate the costs and downplay the benefits of government regulations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think what is dangerous about BHI is that on the face of it appears to be an academic institute producing independent reports but when you peel back the first layer of the onion you find that Beacon Hill often skews reports in favour of their funders,” Surgey said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2013, Suffolk University publicly repudiated Beacon Hill  [9]after the Guardian reported the organisation told prospective funders its studies could undermine a regional climate change initiative. The claim did not follow Suffolk University rules for grant proposals, the university said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jay Duffy, a legal fellow at the Clean Air Task Force, said the current BHI analysis of the EPA rules did not meet the usual academic standards. “BHI’s interpretation of EPA’s analysis just doesn’t hold up,” he said. “BHI has skewed timelines, underestimated the social cost of carbon, and overestimated the effect on electricity prices. As a result, their study badly inflates the costs and minimises the benefits of EPA’s draft rules.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BHI defended the study. “Our costs are within the broad range of costs that the EPA produces,” said Paul Bachman, who directly oversaw the study. “It’s just that we don’t include – we exclude – what they call the co-benefits of the proposal.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s other forays into the environmental arena this year have been hard-hitting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One prime example was the Environmental Policy Alliance – a mirror image of the government agency – which, according to the website, is “devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups and exploring the intersection between activists and government agencies”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group oversees four projects aimed at discrediting the government agency and environmental and conservation groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a full page ad in Politico last year, one of the projects, EPA Facts [10], asked: “What would you call a radical organisation that threatens to shut down 25% of our electrical grid?” The ad crossed off responses including anarchist, terrorist and militia before coming to Obama’s EPA.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">COI:]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another Berman creation Big Green Radicals [11] claims environmental groups are funded by Russian oil interests close to Vladimir Putin, put up billboards on the Pennsylvania turnpike attacking Lady Gaga, Robert Redford and other celebrities who oppose fracking [12], and sent a poison Valentine to the fossil fuel divestment campaign. [13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">404</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://350.org/breaking-up-with-fossil-fuels-is-easy-to-do/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...The Environmental Policy Alliance is a front group for Big Oil that pushes out specious and inaccurate opposition research on individuals and organizations who fight climate change. The group is led by Rick Berman, who was taped by the New York Times as saying in a talk to oil executives that “you have to play dirty to win.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After we watched it we laughed, then we laughed some more – then we had an idea.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Packard, our Oceania Region Coordinator, used his own narration skills to do a remix of the video.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UPDATE Looks like Big Oil didn’t like our parody and made YouTube take it down, but you can still listen to Aaron’s narration here – if Big Oil was honest, this is what they would actually say:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(if you mute the above video and start at same time – it’s the same hilarious effect)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Decoys  [14]takes on sportsmen and fishermen who support the power plant rules. Leed Exposed [15] opposes green building codes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The outrageous claims are a key part of the strategy, Berman has claimed. “Berman and Company isn’t your average PR firm,” his company website said. “We don’t just change the debate. If necessary, we start the debate.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">-</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/15</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">anti union zones http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12720/ALEC-Wisconsin-Milwaukee</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two suburban Wisconsin lawmakers have unveiled an economic development plan for the lowest-income neighborhoods of Milwaukee, and their "solutions" for the Wisconsin communities hit hardest by deindustrialization come directly from a national right-wing playbook.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) represent two of the wealthiest districts in Wisconsin and have no background in economic development, yet have proposed at 23-page plan targeting the majority-minority communities with the highest unemployment rates in the state -- and have done so without consulting any of the elected officials who actually represent the area.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I don't understand how two suburban legislators can tell Milwaukee what they need without talking to Milwaukee legislators," said Sen. Nikiya Harris Dodd, a Democrat who represents Milwaukee. "It's really hurtful."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The plan promotes anti-union "right to work" zones, zero-corporate tax zones, and measures to turn public schools into for-profit charters, ideas promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The proposals come against the backdrop of four years of failed economic policies. The harsh prescription of tax breaks for the rich and cuts in services for the poor that Governor Walker promised would revitalize Wisconsin's economy and balance the budget have failed to do either. Wisconsin remains 32nd in the nation in new job growth and the state faces a $2.2 billion dollar deficit. In January 2014, Rep. Kooyenga promised the Wisconsin State Journal that Wisconsin's structural deficit would be gone by 2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These policies have contributed to record inequality in the state, according to the Wisconsin Budget Project. As members of the Joint Finance Committee, Sen. Darling and Rep. Kooyenga have been key architects of this agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's Breathtaking to Hear the Double Talk from Sen. Darling"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "New Opportunities for Milwaukee" plan isn't the first time that Sen. Darling has felt comfortable deciding what's best for the state's largest and most diverse city, without regard for what its residents think.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011, after Scott Walker became governor and Republicans took control of the legislature, Darling was one of the principal sponsors of a bill to ban local governments from guaranteeing workers paid sick days in the name of "uniformity." The law was aimed squarely at Milwaukee, where voters had overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure allowing workers to earn paid sick days to take care of themselves or a family member who is ill. (The law was then shared at an ALEC meeting and similar bills subsequently spread across the country.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's breathtaking to hear the double talk from Sen. Darling," said Ellen Bravo, Executive Director of Family Values @ Work, a coalition of groups advocating paid sick days and other family-friendly policies. "A local policy of paid sick days in Milwaukee, democratically enacted by 70% of the voters, was not OK because the state allegedly needs a uniform standard. Yet a local policy of so-called right-to-work in Milwaukee, undemocratically imposed by the state, is just fine," Bravo said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Seems contradictory," Bravo added, "until you realize both positions undermine local control, hurt workers and serve the interests of corporate lobbyists."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Local Anti-Labor Zones Likely to Prompt Costly Lawsuits</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">berman superbowl ad ~ union</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12721/union-busting-front-group-run-super-bowl-ad</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in  what has become a local tradition, the front group Center for Union Facts will air an ad in Washington D.C. during the Super Bowl, The New York Times reports. When the union-busting organization did the same thing three years ago, Working America took to Twitter to point out the irony of running an anti-union ad during a “celebration of unionized players,” referring to the NFL Players’ Association, which is one of the most well-known unions in America.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Union Facts is a $3.5 million-a-year organization, and part of a vast web of front groups funded and controlled by PR spinmeister Rick Berman. Once dubbed Dr. Evil by CBS’s 60 Minutes, Berman has launched a plethora of “deceptive campaigns against industry foes, including labor unions; public-health advocates; and consumer safety, animal welfare, and environmental groups,” according to watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD has tracked Berman and his phony front groups for years and his deep ties to corporations and trade associations fighting better pay and benefits for working families.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In October 2014, Berman was caught on tape as he met with energy company executives and pitched his tactics to undermine grassroots environmental and labor organizations. "Think of it as an endless war," he told the deep pocketed executives. “I get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions; that’s my offense,” says Berman, who has been a reliable waterboy for some of the worst wage-crushing institutions in America. Berman has had a long-standing relationship with the National Restaurant Association which has fought to keep the tipped minimum wage at $2.13 an hour for decades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This weekend, Green Bay Packers quarterback and NFL Players Association union member Aaron Rodgers was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. As someone who has stepped up to serve as a union representative, he knows that unions are not just for the elites, but everyone who wants better wages and working conditions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see tag on NYT bust </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">audio:  http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/10/30/beyond-fracking-psyops-frackers-study-how-to-play-dirty/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON — If the oil and gas industry wants to prevent its opponents from slowing its efforts to drill in more places, it must be prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits about environmentalists and liberal celebrities, a veteran Washington political consultant told a room full of industry executives in a speech that was secretly recorded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The blunt advice from the consultant, Richard Berman, the founder and chief executive of the Washington-based Berman & Company consulting firm, came as Mr. Berman solicited up to $3 million from oil and gas industry executives to finance an advertising and public relations campaign called Big Green Radicals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The company executives, Mr. Berman said in his speech, must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should not worry about offending the general public because “you can either win ugly or lose pretty,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?r=1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/10/12646/rick-berman-exposed-new-audio-detailing-tactics-against-environment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The audio of the talk to the frackers:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/c/cb/Berman_presentation.mp3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Background of Berman’s advice to the frackers:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rick_Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-rick-berman-aka-dr-evil/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Endless War” Against the Environment and Other Rallying Points</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This transcript of the speech made by Richard Berman in June in Colorado Springs to a group of energy executives, as well as other documents, provides a unguarded glimpse of Mr. Berman’s lobbying tactics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1349204/berman-at-western-energy-alliance-june-2014-doc.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Think of this as an endless war,” Mr. Berman told the crowd at the June event in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the Western Energy Alliance, a group whose members include Devon Energy, Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum, which specialize in extracting oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. “And you have to budget for it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Mr. Berman did not know — and what could now complicate his task of marginalizing environmental groups that want to impose limits on fracking — is that one of the energy industry executives recorded his remarks and was offended by them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“That you have to play dirty to win,” said the executive, who provided a copy of the recording and the meeting agenda to The New York Times under the condition that his identity not be revealed. “It just left a bad taste in my mouth.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Berman had flown to Colorado with Jack Hubbard, a vice president at Berman & Company, to discuss their newest public relations campaign, Big Green Radicals, which has already placed a series of intentionally controversial advertisements in Pennsylvania and Colorado, two states where the debate over fracking has been intense. It has also paid to place the media campaign on websites serving national and Washington audiences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokeswoman for Mr. Berman confirmed that he gave the speech, but said he would have no comment on its contents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Berman is well known in Washington for his technique of creating nonprofit groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom that secretly collect corporate donations to finance the aggressive, often satirical media campaigns his team conceives. They are intended to undermine his opponents, like labor unions or animal rights groups that have tried to spotlight the treatment of animals at meatpacking plants.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions — that’s my offense,” Mr. Berman said in his speech to the Western Energy Alliance. “I am just trying to figure out how I am going to reduce their brand.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Berman offered several pointers from his playbook.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you want a video to go viral, have kids or animals,” he said, and then he showed a spot his company had prepared using schoolchildren as participants in a mock union election — to suggest that union bosses do not have real elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side,” he added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There is nothing the public likes more than tearing down celebrities and playing up the hypocrisy angle,” his colleague Mr. Hubbard said, citing billboard advertisements planned for Pennsylvania that featured Robert Redford. “Demands green living,” they read. “Flies on private jets.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the speech, given in June at the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort, where the Western Energy Alliance held its 2014 annual meeting, could end up bringing a new round of scrutiny to Mr. Berman and the vast network of nonprofit groups and think tanks he runs out of his downtown Washington office.Mr. Hubbard also discussed how he had done detailed research on the personal histories of members of the boards of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to try to find information that could be used to embarrass them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Berman repeatedly boasted about how he could take checks from the oil and gas industry executives — he said he had already collected six-figure contributions from some of the executives in the room — and then hide their role in funding his campaigns.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“People always ask me one question all the time: ‘How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’ ” Mr. Berman told the crowd. “We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Mr. Berman probably appreciated the criticism. As he explained in his remarks, what matters is increasing the number of people who see his work, which is part of the reason he intentionally tries to offend people in his media campaigns.What is unclear is if the hardball tactics that Mr. Berman has pitched will succeed in places like Colorado.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Already, The Denver Post editorial page, generally supportive of the oil and gas industry, has criticized Mr. Berman’s tactics, calling one video spot — featuring fictitious environmentalists who debate if the moon is made of cheese before calling for a ban on fracking — “a cheap shot at fracking foes.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They characterize us in a campaign as being the guys with the black helicopters,” he explained. “And to some degree, that’s true. We’re doing stuff to diminish the other sides’ ability to operate.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/node/12543</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On an almost daily basis, Miley Cyrus can be seen in grocery store lines on the cover of entertainment magazines and gossip rags. But now Cyrus is appearing in one place you might not have expected – on a billboard in Los Angeles denouncing higher wages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Employment Policies Institute (EPI), whose president is Richard Berman, the infamous PR flak dubbed "Dr. Evil" by 60 Minutes, reportedly purchased the image of Cyrus for a billboard attacking California's $9 minimum wage. Apparently, Berman's clients think that nine bucks an hour is just too much money for folks in Los Angeles, where the cost of living is skyrocketing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 72-year-old Berman may not know what twerking means, but he certainly knows how to exploit young people to advance his corporate agenda. Through the years, Berman has launched PR campaigns to convince people that smoking bans are bad, fast food is good, and tanning beds pose no risk of cancer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, through his phony EPI think tank, he is working to convince America that a fair minimum wage will harm teens and the economy, when the opposite is true.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phony Think Tank Attacks "Raise the Wage" Campaigns</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent months, the 501 (c)(3) tax exempt Employment Policies Institute (not to be confused with the Economic Policy Institute, a legitimate think tank packed with economists and PhDs) appears to have become supercharged, writing opeds in newspapers across the country and spending big bucks on high-dollar PR tactics, such as full page New York Times ads and TV commercials that warn America of the dangers of higher wages (not to mention the invasion of "commie" economists who back them).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fact is that EPI doesn't know what it is talking about. A growing body of evidence, including a study of wage hikes during recent high periods of unemployment, shows that minimum wage increases do not cause job loss or slow rehiring. But that doesn't stop newspaper editors from accepting Berman's spin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recent review by CMD showed that only 3 percent of the time did newspapers correctly identify EPI as tied to Berman & Co. It isn't hard. As a front page New York Times story pointed out earlier this year, EPI shares an address with Berman & Co. and the PR firm "bills" the tax-exempt nonprofit for services, making it a highly questionable money making venture.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even $2.13 Is Too Much for Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not only is Berman's EPI fighting against rate hikes for general hourly employees, but it also fights tooth and nail against any effort to raise the wage for tipped workers. For 22 years, the federal tipped minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 an hour, and the gap between the minimum wage and the tipped minimum has never been higher. While Berman likes to portray restaurant workers as young teens, the facts are that two-thirds of food workers are over 21 and 66 percent are women, many of whom are mothers. Some 3.3 million workers get this "subminimum" wage, and many need to rely on foodstamps and other public services to make ends meet. At the same time, restaurant industry profits and CEO pay are soaring, documents the Institute for Policy Studies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recently, Berman's EPI ran a wraparound ad in the Washington Post promoting another one of its proliferating websites, Tipped Wage. The ad shows a well-dressed white guy being erased and pleads, "Don't erase my job -- or my tips," as if tips would disappear if workers are given an increase in their $2.13 salary. In the ad, EPI claims to cite the "best economic research," which purports to show that restaurant employment will "dramatically" fall if wages rise. In fact, the best economic research shows that the states with the highest tipped wage have a booming restaurant sector and that raising the wage floor helps workers at the bottom as well as at the top of the wage scale.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Berman's PR campaigns aren't limited to the economics. He seeks to distort the images of the groups fighting to raise wages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the websites tied to Berman by an electronic "paper trail" is ROCexposed.org, dedicated to tearing down the New York-based non-profit Restaurant Opportunities Center. Founded in memory of the restaurant workers who died on 9-11, ROC advocates for higher wages and fair treatment for restaurant workers. As CMD reported, Berman appears to have tag-teamed with an old client and tipped-wage foe: the National Restaurant Association. Dubbed the "Other NRA", the behemoth food industry lobby shop has apparently earmarked more than $600,000 to attack the Restaurant Opportunities Center and lists ROCexposed.org as a key ally in those efforts. Similarly, Berman's attack website Activistcash.org spins tall tales about his critics, including the Center for Media and Democracy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's Anti-Environment Front Group Compares Obama to a Terrorist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another of Berman's most recent PR campaigns involves the Environmental Policy Alliance (EPA), a front group created in the spring of 2014. "EPA" sounds like a ringing endorsement for all things green, and it uses a symbol that looks a heck of a lot like the symbol used by the actual EPA, but a closer look reveals an agenda that only the fossil fuel industry would love.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In June 2014, as a response to the Obama administration's announcement of new federal rules that will dramatically slash emissions from existing power plants, Berman's EPA Facts unleashed a full-page ad in both Politico and USA Today condemning the move as a radical threat to the country's energy resources. The ad compared the administration to a terrorist organization and trumpeted unsubstantiated claims that the rules threatened "to shut down about 25 percent of the energy that powers America's electric grid."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's "EPA" frontgroup operates a number of websites, including Big Green Radicals, EPA Facts, Green Decoys, and LEED Exposed, each taking on a different issue within the environmental movement. Big Green Radicals spends a lot of time attempting to tear down groups like the Sierra Club and Food and Water Watch, an effective DC-based consumer group that fights to protect water and campaigns against fracking. FWW views the Berman attacks as a badge of honor and uses them to raise funds for their campaigns, not the result Berman would hope for.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Group Alleges Animal Rights Group Abuses Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman is also fond of attacking people seeking to protect animals; he does this via his Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) front group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July 2014, CCF relaunched the attack site PETA Kills Animals. The site berates PETA for "dirty tactics," features graphic images of dead dogs, and calls for PETA to be "put down." Berman clients may be upset about PETA's effective campaigns against abusive factory farming practices that underpin cheap eats and the fast food industry. It should come as no surprise that sick and abused animals that are brought to PETA shelters often have to be euthanized. PETA discloses its data on these cases, and then Berman exploits those records to tarnish the organization.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May 2014, another CCF website, Humane Watch, launched new ads, including one in USA Today charging the Humane Society of the United States with being corrupt and mismanaged. HSUS spokesperson Alan Heymann speculated that industry interests, like factory farms and puppy mills, are fearful of HSUS's work and were fueling the attacks to discredit the organization. He added that if Berman and his front groups really cared about animal welfare, they would choose to invest directly in other animal rights groups rather than slandering a reputable charity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a report in LA Weekly, the use of Cyrus' image could land the Berman team in hot water: "Most celebrities are very litigious, and if [Cyrus] doesn't stand behind it they could end up being in a legal mess," said Steven M. Weinberg, an intellectual property and branding attorney. "It's okay to use something in an informational, First Amendment way, but if you look like she's endorsing it you could run into problems. If, in fact, this is not her position, then it may transcend First Amendment protection."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Cyrus doesn't take action, next we will hear that she was spotted with President Obama shooting cats and dogs at an HSUS fundraiser. Nothing seems beneath the Berman spin machine.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Check out the Center for Media and Democracy's profiles of Berman front groups and attack websites in our SourceWatch wiki:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman and Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green Radicals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LEED Exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Decoys</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Watch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA Kills Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tipped Wage</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bad Idea CA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Economy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Think Tanks </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://stophumanewatch.org/blog/web-of-lies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Company, Inc.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HumaneWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ActivistCash</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Society for Shelter Pets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Beverage Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employee Freedom Action Committee</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First Jobs Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Miscellaneous</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg: http://bermanexposed.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Stop HumaneWatchers, we have long followed the anti-animal attacks of Rick Berman and the Center for Consumer Freedom.  But we are also aware of his many other front groups http://bermanexposed.org/ campaigning on issues such as teachers unions, the minimum wage, drunk driving, high-fructose corn syrup, and tanning beds. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s why we figured it was only a matter of time before Berman moved into the anti-environment arena.  With large corporations and foundations plowing over $1 billion in untraceable dark money each year into front groups that deny climate change, we knew Berman would want a piece of that pie. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last week our suspicions were confirmed with the appearance of a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal targeting three environmental nonprofits: Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Food and Water Watch. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just who was behind the ad?  The ad itself pointed readers to a new website: BigGreenRadicals.com, a project of the “Environmental Policy Alliance” – not to be confused with the Environmental Protection Agency even though it had a similar name with the same initials, a classic Berman ploy. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The website of Environmental Policy Alliance held another clue: its address of 1090 Vermont Ave., NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005.  If that address sounds familiar, it’s likely you have seen the tax returns for Center for Consumer Freedom, which list the exact same address. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s fingerprints</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So what exactly is the Environmental Policy Alliance?  This new Berman front group has four campaigns:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green Radicals, which bashes the three environmental organizations listed above;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Decoys, which targets hunting and fishing groups that certain powers think are too environmentalist;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LEED Exposed, which goes after sustainable certification in buildings;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA Facts, which targets the actual Environmental Protection Agency.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of these sites have Berman’s fingerprints all over them.  Never one for self-reflection, Berman takes the criticisms that opponents have made of his clients and tries to turn them around on his targets. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, where environmentalists have charged that the oil-friendly Bush White House muzzled science to fit its politics, Berman’s EPA Facts claims the EPA uses “agenda-driven science.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Where critics have pointed to right-wing foundation funding for climate-denial front groups like the Heartland Institute, Berman’s Green Decoys claims conservation groups like Trout Unlimited receive funding from what it calls “environmentalist foundations.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And just as HumaneWatch paints the Humane Society of the United States as having a gigantic budget – never mind that the HSUS’s net worth is 4.6 percent that of Cargill – so Big Green Radicals paints Food and Water Watch as “among the most powerful … voices pushing the green agenda” – despite the fact its budget is 0.0026 percent of Exxon’s.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who’s footing the bill?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Obviously someone has hired Berman to go after these environmental organizations.  The question is, who?  Berman does not list who funds his smear campaigns on any of his websites, but it’s not hard to figure out which industries are footing the bill, even if we don’t know specifically which corporations. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Decoys, for example, seems particularly offended that Trout Unlimited has come out in favor of regulations on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.  TU isn’t against fracking altogether, just against unregulated fracking – but that’s enough to merit a smear campaign from Berman. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green Radicals attacks not just Food and Water Watch’s opposition to fracking, but its campaign to label genetically modified food.  The Sierra Club is also attacked for its campaigns against fossil fuels and GMO foods, as well as its defense of the Endangered Species Act. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And LEED Exposed turns what ought to be a no-brainer – energy efficient construction of new buildings – into a political issue.  Who could possibly be against energy efficient buildings?  As it turns out, plastics, vinyl, and chemical companies that supply inefficient and sometimes toxic building materials don’t like LEED very much — they are behind a push for federal agencies and state governments to ban use of LEED certification. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just this month, LEED Exposed released a new report claiming that LEED-certified buildings are not as energy efficient as traditional buildings.  That report was covered by Berman’s old friend the Daily Caller in a story made available for free to other outlets, and by the National Review, which is currently being sued for defamation after comparing climate scientist Michael Mann to child molester Jerry Sandusky. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While both outlets happily quoted Berman employee Anastasia Swearingen, neither bothered to mention who her boss is, nor that the Environmental Policy Alliance occupies the same Washington, D.C., offices as the Center for Consumer Freedom.  Fortunately these facts did not escape the U.S. Green Building Council, which refuted the report and linked it back to Berman. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rebranding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amidst all of our questions about the new territory Berman is venturing into, one thing caught our eye.  While Big Green Radicals, LEED Exposed and the other new smear campaigns are all projects of the Environmental Policy Alliance, which lists the same address as Center for Consumer Freedom, the Environmental Policy Alliance is itself a project of something we had never heard of called the Center for Organizational Research and Education. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Organizational Research and Education has no web footprint whatsoever.  Google it, and you will not find a website, or even a mention of it on a parent company site. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s because, as noted by Architect Magazine, Center for Organizational Research and Education is the new name of Center for Consumer Freedom.  CCF formally changed its name in a filing with the West Virginia secretary of state on January 30. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why has Rick Berman taken the extreme step of changing the name of Center for Consumer Freedom?  A couple of possibilities come to mind. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, Center for Consumer Freedom has been thoroughly exposed as a front group for Big Food and Big Ag by Stop HumaneWatch and others, including pretty much every major media outlet in the country. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When companies’ reputations are damaged beyond repair, they often respond by simply changing their name, such as when tobacco company Philip Morris changed its name to Altria shortly after settling the landmark case over health care costs related to smoking with a group of state attorneys general. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new direction?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps Berman plans to take his Center for Organizational Research and Education in a new direction, making the attacks on environmental organizations front and center while pushing the attacks on animal welfare groups to one side.  After all, most major food producers including Smithfield and McDonald’s have already agreed to adopt more humane practices such as phasing out gestation crates. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Pork Producers Council may still hate HSUS, but let’s face it: Their budget pales in comparison to Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Gas, who have a lot of money and a lot of reason to spend it with all the climate change regulations likely to start coming down the pike. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, we don’t think HumaneWatch is going anywhere.  As long as someone is paying Berman, he will keep running it, even as he creates new campaigns and hires more Washington operatives willing to sell their souls for profit.  And some players in the Big Ag community seem happy to keep throwing their money at Berman, even though not a single one of his campaigns against the HSUS has had an effect. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite all of Berman’s efforts, HSUS donations continue to grow and its programs continue to expand.  The fact is, most people support policies to treat animals with kindness, and the HSUS is the most effective organization in the country at getting these policies put into place. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People also generally like clean air and clean water.  So if Berman truly is changing his emphasis from anti-animal campaigns to anti-environment, we don’t expect him to be any more successful there either. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Swearingen also wrote an anti-LEED op-ed for Forbes in December 2013, arguing, "we're clearly not spending that money wisely."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Swearingen told HuffPost that the alliance doesn't solely represent business interests, arguing that all Americans have a vested interest in affordable energy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"These methods of attack rely on the way people read media," Horst added. "They rely on creating confusion."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Manufacturing doubt around scientific issues and sowing confusion through the media is a well-documented industry strategy -- one that Berman has often employed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scholars at UC Berkeley recently released a study finding that low wages in the fast food industry cost taxpayers $7 billion every year [3] in a raft of social supports that subsidize the salaries of these low-income workers. The professors argue that the minimum wage should be increased to relieve the burden on taxpayers who underwrite super-sized restaurant industry profits.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> PUNKED</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But as the bona fide academic study rolled out, multiple media outlets ran comments criticizing the report’s numbers and methodology from the scholarly sounding “Employment Policies Institute (EPI).” The Austin Business Journal [4] characterized EPI as a think tank “which studies employment growth,” while the Miami Herald [5] ran a quote from Michael Saltsman, who the paper named as EPI’s “research director.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For his part, Mr. Saltsman ran aggressive op-eds against any minimum wage increase in papers such as the The Missoulian [6], where he was described as EPI’s “research fellow.” In an op-ed he wrote for the Washington Post [7], his title was listed as EPI’s “research director” but with a notation that EPI “receives funding from restaurants, among other sources.” But even this partial disclosure provides a disservice to readers in the nation’s capital.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the Employment Policies Institute operates from the same office suite [8] as Berman and Company, a public relations firm owned by Richard Berman [8]. This is not an opinion; it’s a fact anyone can verify by viewing EPI and Berman and Company’s websites. The 990 for the Employment Policies Institute Foundation (EPIF) lists Rick Berman as the CEO; in 2011 his for-profit firm was paid $1.5 million of EPIF's total $2.1 million budget. If you’re wondering how a PR company could so easily fool newspapers across the country—including the Post, which regularly pats itself on the back for breaking Watergate—then you haven’t woken up to the crisis of American journalism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Pew Research Center [9], newspaper newsrooms have shrunk 30% since 2000, leaving fewer than 40,000 newspaper employees across the country, the lowest number since 1978. In such a depressed media environment — where there are four public relations flacks for every reporter, compared to a 1-to-1 ratio in the 1960s – it is not surprising that a P.R. company could successfully rebrand itself as a think tank and capitalize on an acronym held by an actual think tank, the Economic Policy Institute, with 20 staff and 36 respected research associates. Unilke the Berman group, the Economic Policy Institute lists its staff, its raft of experts, its board, its annual report and its annual audit, which shows its funders, right on its website [10].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the Center for Media and Democracy [8], we have spent twenty years tracking disinformation and spin, and Richard Berman has long been one of our favorite research subjects. Berman came out of the restaurant industry, spending several years as a top executive at Steak and Ale before launching Berman and Company to help advocate for corporate America. His clients have included tobacco companies (for which he formed an entity he called the Center for Consumer Freedom) and the alcohol industry (for which he created the American Beverage Institute). He was once profiled on a 60 Minutes piece titled “Dr. Evil.” But one of his most successful products has been the Employment Policies Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPI regularly opines in the press on a host of topics. Recently EPI has been working to show that restaurant workers don’t need higher wages or paid sick days, but few Americans are informed by the press that this “think tank” is just one or two working for spinmeister Berman, likely on a contract for the restaurant industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We recently analyzed three years of newspaper stories from across the country that quoted from EPI or Michael Saltsman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 83% of the stories we examined, reporters provided readers with no information about EPI’s relationship with Berman and Company. In most cases, journalists stated that EPI is a “Washington DC nonprofit” and called Saltsman a “research director.” In some instances, reporters took tentative steps in the right direction and called EPI “conservative” or “pro business.” Only about 3% of the time did they correctly link EPI to Berman and Company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Failing to note EPI’s role as an arm of Berman and Company fools readers into thinking they are a legitimate and independent voice in national politics. In 37% of stories we found reporters tapped EPI to counter positions by government experts or politicians; in 39% EPI was used to counter policy experts at nonprofits; and 22% of the time, EPI was used as a counterpoint to academics at American universities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Certainly corporations have a right to have their voice heard, but that voice should be their own; not that of phony experts on retainer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article originally appeared in Salon.  [11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility [12]  Economy [13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News Types: Op-Ed [14]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attachment Size</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">rick_berman_empi_990_filed_11-9-12.pdf [15] 1.67 MB</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PR Watch is published by the Center for Media and Democracy. © Center for Media and Democracy 2013.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12306/don%E2%80%99t-be-hoodwinked-pr-firm-posing-think-tank</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Links:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35268/lisa-graves</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[2] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12306/don%E2%80%99t-be-hoodwinked-pr-firm-posing-think-tank</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-worst-minumum-wage-bill-before-the-dc-council/2013/10/18/77cc1dc8-34f3-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[4] http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2013/10/16/most-texas-fast-food-employees-use.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[5] http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/15/3691189/report-burger-king-workers-collecting.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[6] http://http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/how-a--cent-wage-increase-hurts-montana/article_75ce8f3e-37fe-11e3-b963-0019bb2963f4.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[7] http://http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-worst-minumum-wage-bill-before-the-dc-council/2013/10/18/77cc1dc8-34f3-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[8] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Berman%26_Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[9] http://stateofthemedia.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[10] http://www.epi.org/about/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[11] http://www.salon.com/2013/11/13/corporate_americas_new_scam_industry_p_r_firm_poses_as_think_tank/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[12] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations/corporate-social-responsibility</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[13] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/economy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[14] http://www.prwatch.org/news-types/op-ed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[15] http://www.prwatch.org/files/rick_berman_empi_990_filed_11-9-12.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fake animal rights orgs crypto</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Saltsman's Overview</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Education</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Michigan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lake Orion High School</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Connections</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">169 connections</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Saltsman's Volunteer Experience & Causes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mentor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neutral Zone Ann Arbor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Children</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2004 – 2005 (1 year)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Summer Camp Counselor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Camp Fa Ho Lo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Children</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2003 – 2004 (1 year)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Saltsman's Languages</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spanish  (Elementary proficiency)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Saltsman's Education</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Michigan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bachelor of Arts, Economics; Political Science</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2001 – 2005</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Activities and Societies: Resident Advisor, Campus Crusade for Christ, Writer for The Michigan Daily, Writer for The Michigan Review</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lake Orion High School</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">High School Diploma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1997 – 2001</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fish: Sarah Longwell </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Eric Schlecht Eric Schlecht </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Rick Berman Rick Berman </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Owner, Berman and Company and...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> James Bowers James Bowers </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SVP | Creative Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Will Coggin Will Coggin http://www.consumerdeception.com/minion.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Research Analyst at Berman and...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Jacob Abrams Jacob Abrams </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Government Affairs Associate at Berman...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> J. Wilson J. Wilson </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Director of Communications at Institute...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Ryan Mills Ryan Mills </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sercwtch:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard B. (Rick) Berman is a former labor management attorney and restaurant industry executive who currently works as a lobbyist for the food, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries. He is the sole owner of Berman & Co., which sponsors many non-profit front groups that defend his corporate clients' interests by attacking their critics, allowing his paying clients to remain out of public view.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He is the President, Executive Director and Director of the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). CCF's 2005 IRS return states that Berman works 23 hours a week for the group for which he is paid $18,000. [1] In spite of its name, CCF is more concerned about industry than the consumer. He is also the Executive Director and President of the Employment Policies Institute Foundation the American Beverage Institute and the Center for Union Facts. [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a July 31, 2006, profile of Berman in USA Today, his company has 28 employees and takes in $10 million[hmn] dollars a year, but "only Berman and his bookkeeper wife" know how much of the $10 million ends up in their own pockets. [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman has earned the nicknames "Dr. Evil," the "Conservatives' Weapon of Mass Destruction" and the "Astroturf Kingpin" for his repeated use of the strategy of forming non-profit front groups that advocate for the interests big business while shielding those same businesses from disclosing financial support for these efforts.[3][4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    1 Work history</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 2 Tobacco industry involvement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 3 Pro-Alcohol industry activity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 4 Anti-ACORN activity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 5 Advocating for Food Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 6 Alar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 7 Americans with Disabilities Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 8 Ethics violations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 9 Court ruling against Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 10 People to call concerning their experiences with Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 11 Contact</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 12 Articles and resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">         o 12.1 Related SourceWatch articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">         o 12.2 References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">         o 12.3 External resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">         o 12.4 External articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Work history</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1967-1969: Labor Law attorney, Bethlehem Steel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1969-1972: Corporate law attorney, Dana Corp. (automotive parts)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1972-1974: Labor law director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1975-1984: Senior Vice President, Steak and Ale (restaurant chain)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1984-1986: Executive Vice President, Pillsbury Restaurant Group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * 1986-present: President, Berman &Co. (lobbying group)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Source: interview with Berman in Chainleader.com[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tobacco industry involvement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman conceived the idea of the Guest Choice Network, a front group to help advance the goals of Philip Morris' Accommodation Program while appearing to be more of a grass-roots-led effort. [5] Berman became head of the Guest Choice Network. Berman cites an Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Roger Jenkins study that downplays the effects of secondhand smoke. Berman is also counsel for the American Beverage Institute, which also fronts for the tobacco industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philip Morris funded Guest Choice Network, also known in PM's files as "Vendor #340875." Evidence of PM funding is a check for $200,000 dated May 29, 1996, to fund "Guest Choice Network and its activities."[6] and a check for $600,000 dated December 15, 1995.[7] A March 28, 1996 PM "privileged and confidential" email from Marty Barrington to Denise F. Keane, both of PM, states,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   You'll remember that PM USA Corp. Affairs contributed $600,000 in '95 to get this Network, organized by Rick Berman, up and running. Berman is now looking for another $300,000, principally for an educational newsletter, and Corp. Affairs wants to contribute. As of this writing, PM USA is still the only contributor, though Berman continues to promise others any day now ...[8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philip Morris saw Berman as a "hospitality industry insider as well as a legislatively astute individual" who could help them achieve their goal of preserving smoking in restaurants. Barbara Trach at PM wrote in an October 1995 memo that "Berman's current client list is a virtual who's who in the chain restaurant industry." Berman was introduced to Philip Morris through employees of Miller Beer, who were familiar with him and his work. Berman originated PM's strategy of broadening the focus of the "smoking issue," and "expanding it into the bigger picture of over-regulation."[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pro-Alcohol industry activity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman formed a group called Beverage Retailers Against Drunk Driving" (BRADD), a pro-social drinking group, in response to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).[10]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anti-ACORN activity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For several years, Berman has been fighting efforts by the voter registration/community organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to raise the minimum wage at the state and federal levels. To assist with his efforts, Berman created a Web site, www.rottenacorn.com, slamming the group. Contact information on RottenACORN.com directs readers to the Employment Policies Institute,[11] a Berman front group which shares the same address as Berman's lobbying business, Berman & Company.[12]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the fall of 2008, prior to the general election, a full-page, anti-ACORN ad appeared in the New York Times that accused ACORN of a list of abuses that would make the group appear hypocritical: intimidating and firing its own employees when they try to unionize, misappropriating millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded government grants and advocating minimum wage hikes while paying its own employees less than minimum wage. The ad did not indicate what person or organization had funded it.[13]In an October 29, 2008 article, the investigative journalism group ProPublica revealed that the ad and the Web site "RottenACORN.com" are funded by Rick Berman's Employment Policies Institute, which has among its clients, the American Beverage Institute, a trade group for bars and restaurants.[14] youtube aMSVnTiw97U</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Advocating for Food Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As head of the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a front group for the restaurant, tobacco, and alcohol industries, Berman has specialized in the no-holds-barred intimidation tactics pioneered by Big Tobacco. Berman confirms that organizations like his, by keeping their corporate sponsors anonymous, can engage in edgier PR by providing safe shelter for individual corporations: "There's no doubt about that. Most trade associations try to insulate individual companies and brand names from cutting-edge rhetoric."[15] In 2000, the Center for Media and Democracy found that Berman and Co., Inc. was paid $256,077 by CCF for "management services," although CCF did not report paying any income to any of its employees.[16]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has written a number of strategically placed op-ed articles in leading newspapers on behalf of CCF. On August 26, 2004, for example, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed "Soft Drink Hysteria Hard to Swallow," in which Berman trashed a study published that week in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed a clear connection between soda consumption and diabetes: "Frankly, the contortions that the authors went through to demonize soda would make our own gold medal gymnasts proud."[17]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An article in the December 15,1999 copy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer describes Berman's support for Uniroyal, the company that produces Alar(tm), slow-ripening chemical (deminozide) used on apples to delay ripening until the markets paid higher prices. Through his Guest Choice Network (currently the Center for Consumer Freedom) Berman published a newsletter that minimized the risks of Alar to children. The newsletter stated, "According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one would have to eat 50,000 pounds of apples a day over a lifetime to contract cancer from Alar." In response, EPA spokeswoman Denise Kearns said, "To my knowledge, EPA never issued that kind of statement." In the end Berman admitted that the source of his information was a statement made by Uniroyal. Alar has since been banned due to cancer risks. In 1989, the EPA decided to ban Alar on the grounds that "long-term exposure" posed "unacceptable risks to public health." However, in June 1989, before the EPA's preliminary decision to ban all food uses of Alar went into effect, Uniroyal agreed to voluntarily halt all domestic sales of Alar for food uses. [18]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Americans with Disabilities Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an October 9, 1989 commentary for Nation's Restaurant News, Berman opposed the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). He wrote, "The ADA in its present form will cost our industry untold millions in added construction and labor costs" He begins the article with a reference to the ADA and AIDS. He stated, "Congress ... is seriously considering passage of a new law that would require employers to ignore AIDS infections among cooks and servers [4].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ethics violations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the early 1990s, Berman was tied to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich through possible ethics violations involving Gingrich's PAC (GOPAC). In 1993, Berman made a $25,000 contribution to Kennesaw State College for Gingrich's class on "Renewing American Civilization" on condition that Gingrich teach ideas supported by Berman's Employment_Policies_Institute_Foundation. House Ethics Committee reports revealed that Berman's contribution was solicited by GOPAC and that Berman had already helped GOPAC in recruiting big donors. In the cover letter to the check, Berman thanked Gingrich for his "help" in enabling Berman to testify at a Congressional hearing on another matter of interest to the industry.[citation needed]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Court ruling against Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the fall of 2009, the American College of Surgeons filed a legal complaint in Illinois' Northern District alleging that the Berman-formed Employee Freedom Action Committee had violated trademark law and defamed the group when it included the organization's name on a scrolling list headed "Doctors Against the Plan" in an anti-health care reform television advertisement. The court granted a temporary restraining order to the surgeons, finding the group would likely prevail on the merits in a trial. The court order enjoined Berman's front group from placing ads citing the American College of Surgeons on television or the Internet. The ad was run by a group called Committee to Rethink Reform, which is a 501(c)4 not required to disclose its donors -- one of the hallmarks of a Berman-operated group. The ad has been removed from TV and the Internet. [19]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People to call concerning their experiences with Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Naomi Seligman, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington www.citizensforethics.org 202.408.5565</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Simon Chaitowitz, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: 202-686-2210, ext. 309</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Sheldon Rampton, Center for Media and Democracy: (cell) 608-206-2745 or (office) 608-260-9713</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Theresa Hart, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD): 800-438-6233</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Jeff Nelson, VegSource Interactive, Inc: 818-349-5600 and see: http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/berman_cspi.htm and http://www.vegsource.com/articles/berman_release.htm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Michael Jacobson, Center for Science in the Public Interest (202) 332-9110</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Company</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1090 Vermont Avenue, NW</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Suite 800</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20005</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Telephone: 202.463.7100</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fax: 202.463.7107</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Email: info@bermanco.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Articles and resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related SourceWatch articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * ActivistCash.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * American Beverage Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Employment Roundtable</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * FishScam.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * The Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Richard Berman cares about animals: clients exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Front Group King Rick Berman Gets Blasted by his Son David Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  1. ↑ "The Center for Consumer Freedom", Form 990, p.5</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  2. ↑ "The Center for Consumer Freedom", Form 990, Statement 11.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  3. ↑ Morley Safer Meet Rick Berman, A.K.A. "Dr. Evil" CBSnews.com 60 Minutes, July 22, 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  4. ↑ Tim McCown Richard Berman coming to Astro-turf your rights away Examiner.com, Philadelphia Progressive Examiner, September 24, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  5. ↑ Richard B. Berman, Berman and Company Untitled letter to Barbara Trach at Philip Morris 3 pp. September 5, 1995. Bates No. 2072148834/8836</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  6. ↑ S,J, Philip Morris Invoice/Pay request May 29, 1996. Bates No. 2072395885</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  7. ↑ Barbara Trach, Philip Morris 333754 Pay request/Invoice. December 15, 1995. Bates No. 2072148756/8757</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  8. ↑ M. Barrington, Philip Morris Guest Choice Network Email. March 28, 1996. Bates No. 2048257603</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  9. ↑ Barbara Trach, Philip Morris N921 Memorandum, resume'. October 19, 1995. 2 pages. Philip Morris Bates No. 2072395887/5888</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 10. ↑ Richard B. Berman Richard B. Berman Resume'. 1991. Philip Morris Bates No. 2072148764</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 11. ↑ Employment Policies Institute Employment Policies Institute Web page, "About" (description, contact information), accessed October 7, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 12. ↑ Berman & Co. Berman & Co. Web page, "Contact Us", accessed October 7, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 13. ↑ ProPublica Image of Anti-ACORN ad, undated, accessed October 7, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 14. ↑ Mosi Secret “Rotten” ACORN Ad Funded by Anti-Minimum Wage Group, ProPublica, Elections section. October 29, 2008</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 15. ↑ Caroline E. Mayer and Amy Jones, "The Escalating Obesity Wars," Washington Post April 27, 2005</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 16. ↑ [1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 17. ↑ Rick Berman, "Soft Drink Hysteria Hard to Swallow," Atlanta Journal-Constitution August 26, 2004</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 18. ↑ Percival et al., Environmental Regulation: Law, Science & Policy (4th ed.), p.391</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 19. ↑ Ben Smith Court forces health care foes' ad off air Politico.com, blog. December 17, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * BermanExposed.org, website by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Richard Berman, "Disability Act Threatens to Cripple Hospitality Industry," Nation's Restaurant News, October 9, 1989, p. F4.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Richard Berman, "Animal Groups Callous, Not Cute," USA Today, April 15, 2003.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Greg Sargent, "Berman's Battle," The American Prospect, January 3, 2004.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * John N. Frank, "ABL ups efforts slamming GM for its support of MADD", PR Week, February 28, 2005. (Sub req'd).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Nancy Goldstein, "Biting the Hand that Spins You," PageOne, March 17, 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Caroline E. Mayer and Amy Joyce, "Nonprofit's Tactics, Funding Sources Spark Controversy", Washington Post, April 27, 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Melanie Warner, "Striking Back at the Food Police", New York Times, June 12, 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Seth Lubove, "Food Fight," Forbes, September 23, 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Aina Hunter, "Mercury in Fish? Baloney!: Lobbyist tells pregnant women to eat more tuna", Village Voice, January 17th, 2006.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Harold Meyerson, "Our Pious Babylon", Washington Post, April 6, 2006; A29.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Mark Matthews, Lobbyists Hide Behind Non-Profit Fronts, KGO TV, San Francisco, CA, May 3, 2006.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Jayne O'Donnell, "Got a nasty fight? Here's your man", USA Today, July 31, 2006.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Meet Rick Berman, A.K.A. "Dr. Evil", CBSnew.com, April 5, 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">   * Sam Stein, "Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill", Huffington Post, January 27, 2009.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article may include information from Tobacco Documents Online.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">srcwtch:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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'.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1 Overview & clients</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2 Clients & investigations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.1 Altria (Phillip Morris)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.2 Covance Laboratories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.3 Huntingdon Life Sciences</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.3.1 Senate hearings focusing on HLS issues</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.4 Tyson Foods</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.5 Dean Foods</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.6 CCF & puppy mills</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 Corporate concern</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3.1 American Cancer Society</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3.2 March of Dimes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4 PETA Kids</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 PETA, ALF & ELF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6 CCF & green baiting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6.1 Animal activists who have been injured or killed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7 PETA's local programs in Virginia & North Carolina</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.1 NC shelters & gas chambers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.1.1 NC gas chambers, stats & local services</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8 PETA overview, financial statement & salaries</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9 Other targeted organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10 Articles & sources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10.1 SourceWatch articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10.2 References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10.3 External resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Overview & clients</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA has since created a response site, PETA Saves, which discusses Richard Berman and the CCF’s smear campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clients & investigations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also PETA, section 2.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over 90% of the animals used in experimentation are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the only federal law which over sees animal testing. Rats, mice, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish are expressly eliminated from all safeguards. Species not covered under the AWA do not even have to be reported. [6] Thousands of rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, and primates are killed in "pre-clinical" tests for new drugs (including all ingredients and even minor differences in formulas). Following an extensive battery of animal testing, drugs generally undergo three phases of clinical trials. The fact that months or years of human studies are also required suggests health authorities do not trust the results. [7] In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that 92 out of every 100 drugs that successfully pass animal trials, subsequently fail human trials. [8], [9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also animal testing, sections 1 through 3.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Altria (Phillip Morris)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA investigation of Covance Laboratories, Vienna, VA. - April 2004 - March 2005</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Covance Laboratories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Covance Laboratories.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Huntingdon Life Sciences</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. & European investigations of Huntingdon Life Sciences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Splenda: Sadistically Sweet.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September of 1996, undercover PETA investigator Michelle Rokke, was hired as a lab technician at Huntingdon's New Jersey lab. Wearing glasses with a pinpoint video camera in the bridge, she taped some 50 hours of laboratory activities in her 8 months of employment. She also made six hours of audiotapes and copied 8,000 pages of documents, including a client list. [16] HLS has a long history of gross animal welfare violations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Huntingdon Life Sciences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate hearings focusing on HLS issues</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Dr. Jerry Vlasik's October 10th, 2005 address to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works:  INHOFE?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Martosko  daiy caller  https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/David_Martosko</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martosko is Executive Editor of The Daily Caller, a news organization in Washington, D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 service</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tyson Foods</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA investigation of Tyson Foods. - 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Tyson Foods.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dean Foods</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Land O' Lakes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF & puppy mills</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Missouri puppy mills & Prop B.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate concern</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA campaigns against charities which fund animal testing, such as the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and Muscular Dystrophy Association. [24]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Cancer Society</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also War on Cancer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March of Dimes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also March of Dimes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1990, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducted a study on 38 types of birth defects from 1979-80 through 1986-87. During this period, 29 birth defects increased, two decreased and seven remained stable. [31] Approximately 25% of all infant deaths could be eliminated with better pre-natal services and infant deaths would decrease by 10 to 25% if women gave up smoking during pregnancy. Alcohol abuse during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable birth defects. [32]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is easy decipher CCF's position on "life saving research". Cutting down or eliminating alcohol, tobacco and dangerous, animal tested pharmaceuticals and toxins, is bad for business.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA Kids</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA's departments include Peta Kids, which is geared to children and contains age appropriate material.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA, ALF & ELF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the 1995 trial of Rodney Coronado for the arson of Michigan State University (MSU), U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer [BC appt replaced by Chaira who was in the purge? replaced by FedSoc Lam]) "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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF & green baiting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also Huntingdon Life Sciences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even children's movies are subject to relentless green baiting and guilt by association. For example, the best selling book and popular movie "Hoot", was labeled "soft-core eco-terrorism" because teenage protagonists tried to save an endangered owl from developers. According to CCF, the movie remake of Charlotte’s Web also promoted "animal rights extremism". [40]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The only attempted murder in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement was coordinated by corporate provocateurs.[41]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Between 1977 and January 2007, there were over 13,000 incidents targeting abortion clinics and doctors, including 7 murders. There have been over 2,100 acts of union violence between 1991 and 2001, including bombings, shootings and near fatal injuries. In 2004 alone, there were over 4,500 racially motivated incidents in the U.S. There were 1,480 incidents based on religious bias and another 1,460 based on sexual orientation. Animal and environmental groups have committed far fewer acts, yet are labeled "terrorists", while those who shoot abortion doctors or burn down synagogues are perceived only as felons.[42]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also AETA, section 7.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Animal activists who have been injured or killed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, there have been a number of incidents involving victimized animal activists who have been injured or killed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA's local programs in Virginia & North Carolina</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters." [45]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NC shelters & gas chambers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NC gas chambers, stats & local services</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also PETA, sections 2 & 4.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA overview, financial statement & salaries</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizations like CCF not only represent multi-billion dollar corporations, but industries which are heavily subsidized by tax payers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also U.S. Government's War on Animals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other targeted organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"(PETA)'s 'Holocaust on Your Plate' campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals." [54]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"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]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Articles & sources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SourceWatch articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Animal activists who have been injured or killed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Animal testing</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF selected campaigns</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Criminalising civil disobedience</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Martosko</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disinformation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Movement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Intimidating public interest groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meat & Dairy industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Puppy mills</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NABR & the Animal Welfare Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Propaganda techniques</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. animal rights legislation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Government's War on Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">War on Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ About, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, Form 990, 2005, p.3.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Tortured by Tyson, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Inside Customers, SHAC.net, accessed December 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Stopanimaltests.com, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ NHP Study: Evidence from Europeans for Medical Progress and Antidote-Europe, Safer Medicines Campaign, pg 1, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Altria Stock Holder Proposals: Proposal 1 – Eliminate Animal Testing for Tobacco Products, pdf, pg, 44, 45, 2005</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Proposal 5 — Animal Welfare Policy, Altria Group, Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders, April 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ John J. Pippin, M.D. Covance Gets an 'F' in Social Responsibility Test, Chandler Republic', August 2006</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Inside Covance U.S., PETA.org, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA Names the 10 Worst CEOs for Animals in Laboratories, PETA.org, accessed December 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Mike Hamilton Sweetener Slaughter: 12,800 animals die for no-calorie pills, Daily Mirror, August 2001</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Huntingdon Life Sciences Group Plc Business Information, Profile, and History, Jrank.org, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Tyson Workers Caught Torturing Birds, Urinating on Slaughter Line, PETA.org, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Tortured by Tyson, PETA.org, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Alisa Mullins Land O'Lakes Supplier's Owners Charged With Cruelty, PETA files, September 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Animal Rights Uncompromised: Life-Taking Charities, PETA.org, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ American Cancer Society, Inc., Hoovers, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Katy Schiel The war on cancer is a fraud: The 'Cancer Establishment' is lying to you., Disinformation, July 2002</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Cancer, Information for Transformation, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Patricia Haight, Ph.D., Shaynie Aero The Failed Research of Micheal Berens, Liberation Magazine, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation: A. Selected Diseases: 1. Cancer, Medical Research Modernization Committee, 2006</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ March of Crimes: March of Dimes, PETA.org, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Peter Montaque Birth Defects: Part 1, Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly, #410, October 1994</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ The March Of Dimes' Crimes Against Animals, PETA.org, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Ingrid Newkirk Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front, Lantern Books, October 2000, ISBN 978-1930051225</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of PETA, on animal rights and the film about her life, WikiNews.org, November 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Government sentencing memorandum of U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer in USA v. Rodney Coronado, July 31, 1995, pp. 8-10</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Ingrid Newkirk, Wikipedia, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ The Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Will Potter What is the Green Scare?, Greenisthenewred.com, September 2008</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Will Potter How Corporate Provacateurs Made Fran Trutt an “Animal Rights Terrorist”, Mar 25th, 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Charlotte Laws, PhD, AETA and the New Green Scare: Are You the Terrorist Next Door?, Counterpunch, January 2007</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA's Dirty Secret, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services On-line Animal Reporting, PETA, 2008</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Behind the Numbers: ‘Turn-Away Shelters’, helping animals.com, February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in North Carolina, helpinganimals.com, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in NC: Adopted animals, helpinganimals.com, accessed January 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Cruel Killing, Funded By Your Taxes, NC Commission for Humane Euthanasia, accessed February 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ The Cruel, Dangerous Practice of Chaining Dogs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA’s Work Helping Animals in North Carolina, PETA.org, accessed February 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ PETA's Dirty Secret, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ About: Financial Reports, PETA.org, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA, PetaKillsAnimals.com, accessed May 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Alex Hershaft, Founder, FARM, Farm Animal Reform Movement, Animals Voice, accessed June 2009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Syd Baumel Book Review of Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson, Winnipeg Vegetarian, 2002</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Exposed: Richard Berman's Front Groups and Projects, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, accessed January 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Is the Center for Consumer Freedom, and Why Is It Attacking PETA?, Consumer Deception.com, accessed January 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Categories: Tobaccowiki | Front groups portal | Global corporations | Front groups | United States | Web fronts | Industry-funded organizations | Industry lobby groups | Animal rights | Gross Animal Welfare Violations | Huntingdon Life Sciences | Animal testing | Food | Pharmaceutical industry | Corporations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The funny thing is, I'm a "fairly" informed individual....I read incessantly and watch every political talk show on TV and listen to "most" on the radio, and yet, until President Obama started running for office, I had never even heard of ACORN. So the "first" I ever heard of ACORN, was that they were taking part in voter fraud in an effort to help the Obama Campaign...Of course, I've learned "since then" that that was all your "Typical Made Up Bullshit" from the Screaming Mimis on The Right!.....But NOW, I've had an opportunity to look into ACORN and the People (Person) out to destroy them, and WHY! This is quite an interesting read...Plus, go to the internet and just Google "Richard Berman" and see all the crap you get on this Well Paid Front Guy for the Rabid Right:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is a Washington, D.C.-based hired gun who uses front groups to defend his corporate clients against the public interest. Using his lobbying and consulting firm, Berman and Company, as a revenue vehicle for his activities, Berman runs at least 15 industry-funded projects, such as the Center for Union Facts, and holds 16 "positions" within these various entities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President, Berman and Company • Executive Director, Activist Cash • Executive Director, FishScam.com • Executive Director, Center for Consumer Freedom • Executive Director, American Beverage Institute • Executive Director, CSPIscam • Executive Director, Employment Policies Institute • Executive Director, Interlock Facts • Executive Director, Mecuryfacts • Executive Director, SunLightScam • Executive Director, TeacherUnionFacts • Executive Director, The Center for Union Facts • Executive Director, The Employee Freedom Action Committee • Executive Director, Econ4U.org • Executive Director, IncomeTaxFacts.org • Executive Director, Rotten Acorn • General Counsel, Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Short Bio: Richard Berman is the executive director and founder of several big-industry funded front organizations, including the Center for Consumer Freedom, the American Beverage Institute, the Employment Policy Institute, the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy, Activist Cash, Interlock Facts, the Center for Union Facts, and Teachers Unions Exposed. Berman runs these organizations via his consulting firm, Berman & Company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Berman struck out on his own in the early 90s. In 1995 he used Phillip Morris seed money to fight the move to put non-smoking sections in restaurants in through his first front organization, the Guest Choice Network (GCN). Berman’s other front groups were founded soon after, and GCN became the Center for Consumer Freedom in 2001. Berman represents the interests of the food & beverage industry, the anti-union lobby, the tanning industry, and anti-minimum wage activists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman has been a regular front man for business and industry in campaigns against consumer safety and environmental groups. Through his public affairs firm, Berman and Company, Berman has fought unions, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, PETA and other watchdog groups in their efforts to raise awareness about obesity, the minimum wage, the dangers of smoking, mad cow disease, drunk driving, and other causes. Berman runs at least 15 industry-funded front groups and projects, such as the Center for Union Facts and holds 16 "positions" in those organizations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Each year, Berman, using his front groups to spread misinformation, spends millions of dollars distracting the public with misleading ads.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a result of his largesse, in 2006, Richard Berman used $2,000,000 in cash to buy a $3.3 million house.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More to Come later....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.bermanexposed.org/associate/richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://forum.boiseweekly.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4234</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times ran a full page advertisement [1] today in the front section of the paper featuring an attack on ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, whose voter registration practices have come under fire this election season. Directing readers to the Web site www.rottenacorn.com [2], the ad accuses ACORN [3] of a list of abuses that suggest hypocrisy on some of the group’s signature issues: intimidating and firing its own employees if they try to unionize, misappropriating millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded government grants and advocating minimum wage hikes while paying its own employees less than minimum wage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ad does not indicate who or what organization paid for it, but a click to the Rotten Acorn Web site reveals the source—the Employment Policies Institute [4].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Institute, not to be confused with the Economic Policy Institute [5], a liberal think tank, is connected with Rick Berman, a Washington lobbyist who for several years has been fighting ACORN’s efforts to increase the minimum wage at the state and federal levels. The nonprofit Employment Policies Institute styles itself as a research organization, but recent IRS filings show a combined $1.4 million in payments from the nonprofit to Berman and Company [6], Berman’s lobbying firm, in 2005 and 2006.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Institute, which reported spending $4.5 million during those two years, has produced numerous reports arguing that boosting the minimum wage hurts teen workers and frustrates job creation. Other recent studies assert that increasing the minimum wage would not reduce poverty rates and would benefit two-income families that aren’t actually poor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman could not be reached for comment. Among clients listed on his firm’s web site are the American Beverage Institute, a trade group of bars and restaurants, and the Center for Union Facts, which opposes “check card” organizing drives by labor.  A USA Today profile [7] compared Berman to a hard-boiled lobbyist lampooned in the movie “Thank You for Smoking,” and the news show “60 Minutes” profiled Berman under the title “Dr. Evil.” [8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Miller, spokesman for the Employment Policies Institute, said his group timed the ad to take advantage of the flurry of negative publicity about ACORN thanks to attacks from GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain [9], running mate Sarah Palin and the Republican National Committee.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.propublica.org/article/rotten-acorn-ad-funded-by-anti-minimum-wage-group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">-------</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LA Times: Disclosure Failure</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 23rd, 2008 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In today’s Los Angeles Times a man named Bret Jacobson writes a virulently anti-union screed attacking Labor Secretary nominee, Congresswoman Hilda Solis.  Here’s how the LA Times describes Jacobson at the bottom of his op-ed:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bret Jacobson is founder and president of Maverick Strategies LLC, a research and communications firm serving business and free-market think tanks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’ve seen a lot of anti-union, anti-Obama, anti-worker, and anti-Free Choice op-eds penned by business consultants and “free-market think tank” types of late, so this isn’t a terribly shocking biography for drivel like this. Of course, this isn’t all Jacobson is. Here’s what the highly-informative BretJacobson.com has to say:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to founding Maverick Strategies, Bret co-founded the Center for Union Facts, overseeing that organization’s research activities, guiding its communications, launching its new-media capabilities, and helping plan its strategic national advertising and earned-media campaigns.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And just for those not paying attention at home, here’s Sourcewatch:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. It is part of lobbyist Rick Berman‘s family of front groups including the Employment Policies Institute. The domain name www.unionfacts.com was registered to Berman & Co. in May 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Rights At Work is a bit more hard hitting in their assessment of the Center for Union Facts:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center is the latest public relations campaign and front group devised by “notorious D.C. lobbyist”1 and veteran spin doctor Richard “Rick” Berman with his firm, Berman and Company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Union Facts is a front group focused on damaging the public image of unions, depressing workers’ rights, pushing legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to join unions, and furthering an anti-union business climate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman earned his status as one of The Hill’s top lobbyists, along with Jack Abramoff,2 by working on behalf of unpopular clients like the tobacco, alcohol, and fast food industries.  Berman’s campaigns have attempted to relax drunk driving laws, argue obesity is not a public health issue, prevent increases in the federal or state minimum wage, and attack advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Union Facts’ legislative agenda is strikingly similar to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s.   The big business lobbying group both adamantly opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, and is in strong support of the Secret Ballot Protection Act.  Berman formerly devised union avoidance strategies for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,18 and he still has strong ties to the Chamber through Randel Johnson, Vice President for Labor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.19  Berman told The New York Times that he asked Chamber of Commerce officials at a state conference to recommend that businesses in their states donate to his anti-union campaign.20  Randel Johnson has repeatedly denied any Chamber funding of the Center, yet admitted “he had served as an adviser to the Center.”21</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On its website, the Center claims it is “supported by foundations, businesses, union members, and the general public.”22  Berman will only divulge that several companies and a foundation fund the Center, but will not release the names of his donors.23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No individuals, foundations, or corporations have come forward to admit any sponsorship of the Center.  Why wouldn’t they want to distance themselves from Berman’s hyperbolic and unsupported rhetoric?  Berman gets paid to say what responsible business leaders don’t want attributed to them.  The Washington Post reported that food industry officials, who would only be interviewed about Berman, “on the condition that they not be identified by name or by where they work, said that by keeping the sponsors anonymous, Berman’s group can be more vociferous, provocative and irreverent in its criticisms.24</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, the Center for Union Facts is the key organization in Big Business efforts to stop the progress of labor in America, most notably through fighting against the Employee Free Choice Act. One of their co-founders, Bret Jacobson, was given license to push the Center’s anti-union, anti-worker agenda in an op-ed against the nominee for Labor Secretary, while the Times failed to disclose the only informative part of his biography. He’s the founder of a research firm? What is that supposed to tell the Times’ readers? Pretty much every person I know who works in politics does some level of consulting. The most important piece of Jacobson’s biography – his professional connection to one of the biggest anti-union groups in America – is left out of a column that specifically pushes the Center’s agenda. In an AP article three days ago, a spokesman for the Center attacked President-elect Obama’s pick of Solis for Labor Secretary (though, amazingly, the AP cited the Center as “a group critical of organized labor”).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There has been a heavy, persistent trend in the mainstream press of anti-union articles and op-eds. The business lobby has been very good about getting their surrogates’ op-eds placed in big papers like the LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. There is a major fight going on between big business and America’s workers about the future of organizing to increase worker rights in America. The fight is centered around the Employee Free Choice Act, but clearly the Secretary of Labor is now another front in this fight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As frustrating as it is to repeatedly read columns, like Jacobson’s, which include outright lies about what the Employee Free Choice Act is and does, I am 100% willing to take part in a national debate about how our country relates to working families. There are obviously different sides in this debate and there is nothing wrong with the debate being played out in the press. But in this atmosphere of daily volleys back and forth between big business front groups like the Center for Union Facts and the Obama administration and the American labor movement, it behooves the press to be honest about who is taking part in the debate. The LA Times was brutally negligent to not disclose Bret Jacobson’s employment at the Center for Union Facts, the only piece of his biography that had any bearing on his column. By not disclosing Jacobson’s ties to this anti-worker group, the LA Times succeeded in giving their pages over to a press release from a big business front group, with no means for their reader to discern it from a non-partisan piece on President-elect Obama’s pick to chair the Department of Labor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So editors of the Los Angeles Times, let me show you how this is done:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disclosure: I’m proud to work for the Service Employees International Union…so proud that I disclose it when I write about issues that relate to my employer. That said, this post was not approved by nor written with the knowledge of SEIU. It is representative of my views alone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now that wasn’t hard, was it?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://holdfastblog.com/2008/12/23/somone-call-a-blogger-ethics-panel/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is one of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a Washington, DC public affairs firm owned by Rick Berman, who lobbies for the restaurant, hotel, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries. While most commonly referred to as EPI, it is registered as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under the name of "Employment Policies Institute Foundation." In its annual Internal Revenue Service return, EPI states that it "shares office space with Berman & Company on a cost pass through basis". [1]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> [hide] </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1 Berman Non-Profit Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2 Creation of "Rethink Reform"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 Advertising against ACORN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4 Against raising the minimum wage</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 History</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6 The Employment Policies Institute in tobacco industry documents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7 Personnel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.1 Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.2 Directors and Officers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.3 Former Directors and Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.4 Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8 Affiliated organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8.1 Contact information</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8.2 Other websites</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9 Articles and Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9.1 Related PRWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9.2 Related SourceWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9.3 External Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9.4 External Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9.5 References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Non-Profit Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A November 1, 2012 article in Bloomberg shows CCF in the following chart of non-profits created by Berman & Co. at the center of an IRS complaint filed in 2012 (used with permission)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Creation of "Rethink Reform"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2009, EPI created a group called Committee to Rethink Reform and started running television, print, and radio advertisements to mobilize opposition to the Democrats' health care reform legislation. The group is a 501 (c)4 organization and subsequently not required to disclose its donors--one of the hallmarks of a Rick Berman-operated group. The group has its own Web site and Facebook page. Here, among other things, are some of their claims, which have been repeated in anti-reform politicians' talking points:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When it comes to reforming the health care system, Congress is trying to do too much, too fast. Not everyone agrees that we need reform of America’s health care system. Unfortunately, Congressional leaders are cutting backroom deals with special interest groups and writing bills that will lead to higher taxes, higher insurance premiums and fewer health care choices. The solution is not more government intrusion into the health care system, but less. It’s time for Congress to rethink health care reform, focusing on: Increasing health care choices; Reining in health care costs; and Controlling the growth of government to avoid escalating the national debt."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committee to Rethink Reform</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ad</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, they launched another print and TV advertising campaign against health care reform. The group faced controversy in March 2010 when it ran an advertisement in The Cincinnati Enquirer featuring a large picture of Representative Steven Driehaus (D-OH) and his two daughters. According to his spokesman, Driehaus was upset by the ad: "Rep. Driehaus thought the ad was outrageous, said the spokesman, Tim Mulvey. "He can take more than his fair share of political attacks, but this one crossed the line" [1]. Committee spokeswoman Sarah Longwell [IHS] said showing the children was a mistake and that the group was taking out another ad to apologize: "...Politicians' children should bot be involved in public political debates and we deeply regret this mistake." Longwell said the committee already apologized directly to Driehaus. The Committee to Rethink Reform reported its apology on its Web site, while stating it would continue to urge Driehaus to oppose the bill [2].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes SourceWatch.org, is looking into the nature of the claims they are making and their funding.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They have also spent substantial funds on ads in other right-wing campaigns, as described below.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Advertising against ACORN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In October 2008, as Republicans were accusing ACORN, which organizes in low-income communities, of "voter fraud," EPI took out a full-page ad in the New York Times that directed readers to www.RottenAcorn.com. The ad accused "ACORN of a list of abuses that suggest hypocrisy on some of the group's signature issues: intimidating and firing its own employees if they try to unionize, misappropriating millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded government grants and advocating minimum wage hides while paying its own employees less than minimum wage," reported ProPublica. EPI and Center for Consumer Freedom spokesperson Tim Miller said they placed the ad because after the election, "a lot of the coverage of ACORN is going to go away, but they are going to continue the same corrupt and fraudulent practices." [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For years, EPI had fought "ACORN's efforts to increase the minimum wage at the state and federal levels." ACORN says the charges in EPI's are untrue. For example, the group "pledged complete neutrality" when one of its offices "wanted to form a union," explained ACORN's Steve Kest. The employees eventually "decided not to pursue [the union], so nothing came of it." [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Against raising the minimum wage</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman created EPI in 1991 to "argue the importance of minimum wage jobs for the poor and uneducated."[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPI has has been widely quoted in news stories regarding minimum wage issues, and although a few of those stories have correctly described it as a "think tank financed by business," most stories fail to provide any identification that would enable readers to identify the vested interests behind its pronouncements. Instead, it is usually described exactly the way it describes itself, as a "non-profit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding employment growth" that "focuses on issues that affect entry-level employment." In reality, EPI's mission is to keep the minimum wage low so Berman's clients can continue to pay their workers as little as possible.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPI also owns the internet domain names to MinimumWage.com and LivingWage.com, a website that attempts to portray the idea of a living wage for workers as some kind of insidious conspiracy. "Living wage activists want nothing less than a national livingwage," it warns (as though there is something wrong with paying employees enough that they can afford to eat and pay rent).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Employment Policies Institute was launched in 1991, around the time of the economic recession that led to the electoral defeat of then-president George Bush. EPI deliberately attempted to create confusion in the eyes of journalists and the general public by adopting a name which closely resembles the Economic Policy Institute, a much older, progressive think tank with ties to organized labor. In addition to imitating the name and acronym of the Economic Policy Institute, Berman's outfit even used the same typeface for its logo. In reality, the two groups have dramatically different public policy agendas. The Economic Policy supports a living wage and mandated health benefits for workers. Berman's organization opposes both and in fact opposes any minimum wage whatsoever.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1992, Los Angeles Times business columnist Harry Bernstein noted that EPI was using "misleading studies" to help put a positive spin on rising unemployment. "The conservative EPI, financed mostly by low-wage companies such as hotels and restaurants, is issuing reports the titles of which alone could help put a bright face on the miserable job scene," Bernstein wrote. "The latest one is 'The Value of Part-Time Workers to the American Economy.' It hails as a great thing the distressing growth of part-time jobs because they offer 'flexibility' in economic planning for both workers and companies, and say that flexibility is vital 'in the growing and increasingly competitive global economy.' Tell that nonsense to the more than 6.5 million workers forced to take part-time jobs because nothing else is available. That is an increase of more than 1.5 million involuntary part-timers since 1990, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says." EPI has been doing more or less the same thing ever since, sponsoring cooked studies and issuing tendentious sound bytes whenever attempts are made to establish healthcare or better wages for workers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then, as now, fast-food employees were the largest group of low-paid workers in the United States. One-quarter of the workers in the restaurant industry are estimated to earn the minimum wage--a higher proportion than in any other U.S. industry. This is the real reason why EPI appears on the scene whenever federal or local governments consider a proposal to increase the minimum wage. Its standard tactic is to trot out a study using contrived statistics designed to show that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost if the wage is raised. (In reality, studies by labor economists show that the job-loss effect of increasing the minimum wage is either small or nonexistent and that its benefits to low-wage workers and their families far outweigh the costs. Even the Food Institute Report, an industry trade publication, admitted in 1995 that "the weight of the empirical evidence suggests that the effects [on the number of available jobs] of a moderate raise from its current level are likely to be negligible.")</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman continued to fight against mandated insurance in 1992 and 1993, when president-elect Bill Clinton attempted to make health care reform one of his first legislative priorities. Berman created yet another front group, called the Partnership on Health Care and Employment, representing mostly large companies known for paying low wages and high worker turnover. It sponsored a study in 1992 claiming that compulsory insurance for business would wipe out nine million jobs. During the health reform debate in 1994, the Employment Policies Institute issued its own "study," claiming that the Clinton plan would wipe out 3.1 million jobs. The EPI study was cited in TV commercials sponsored by the Republican National Committee, which continued to air even after Berman admitted that his study had actually been produced before the Clinton administration even formulated the details of its health plan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995, EPI lashed out at Princeton University professors David Card and Alan Krueger, after they published a survey of fast-food restaurants which found no loss in the number of jobs in New Jersey after implementing an increase in the state's minimum wage. Berman accused Card and Krueger of using bad data, citing contrary figures that his own institute had collected from some of the same restaurants. But whereas Card and Krueger had surveyed 410 restaurants, Berman's outfit only collected data from 71 restaurants and has refused to make its data publicly available so that other researchers can assess whether it "cherry-picked" restaurants to create a sample that would support its predetermined conclusions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September 1999, Berman launched another group, the Employment Roundtable, to "build on the successes" of the EPI and to "find solutions for problems such as social security and health care." However, the Employment Roundtable has done nothing public of note.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Employment Policies Institute in tobacco industry documents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Employment Policies Institute, in a 1994 R.J. Reynolds-drafted press release, predicted the loss of 2-3 million jobs if the Clinton Healthcare plan was enacted. The Clinton plan was to be funded through an additional federal tax on cigarettes.[4]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 1997 internal Philip Morris presentation called indicates PM planned to "sponsor and participate" in the Employment Policies Institute to gain the organization's help in promoting PM's Accommodation Program, a strategy the company designed to fight smoking bans and preserve smoking in public places.[5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Personnel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is listed as EPI's executive director.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sarah Longwell is a press contact for EPI and for the Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Kreutzer, economist, who in 2008 wrote letters to newspaper op/ed pages arguing against minimum wage hikes and payday loan industry regulation[6][7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Directors and Officers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPI's 2011 return to the IRS lists the groups officers and directors as comprising:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard B. Berman, President & Executive Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Craig Garthwaite, Secretary/Treasurer & Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Berglund, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James R. Ledley, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shannon Foust, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Avery, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gerald Francis, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warren Hardie, Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Company (Management company)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Directors and Staff</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other individuals previously associated with EPI include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas K. Dilworth, whose name appeared in some news stories as EPI's research director and was listed as a director on the groups 2000 IRS return;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1999, EPI's Form 990 listed Ray Kraftson as a director.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the trustees of EPI is Michael Morgan, personnel director for Northern Foods, a British-based food processing and manufacturing company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Toikka, a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, is also EPI's chief economist.[3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Restaurant magnate Norman Brinker has served as chairman of EPI. Brinker is the chairman and CEO of Brinker International. He is also the founder of the Steak and Ale restaurant chain, a former chairman of Burger King, and past President of the Pillsbury restaurant group (all of which are either former employers of Rick Berman or clients of Berman & Co.).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chris Sullivan, president and founder of Outback Steakhouses has served as chairman of EPI. According to an article in the New York Observer, Outback Steakhouses political aciton committee is a major sponser of the EPI. [4];</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Doyle, communications director for Berman & Co., also serves as a spokesman for the EPI, as well as two other Berman organizations, the Center for Consumer Freedom and the American Beverage Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Lang of Boston University has authored a study sponsored by EPI.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jacob Dweck, Former Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeff Campbell, Former Director</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPI reported $1,629,930 in total revenue for 2011, and $2,103,896 in total expenses.[8] This is a significant drop from the previous year, when it reported $5,910,092 in total revenue and $7,054,260 in 2010.[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It paid Richard Berman & Company, Inc. $1,165,601 in compensation in 2011,[10] for "daily monitoring/analysis on a worldwide basis on issues important to the organization, advertising, public and media relations, program management and promotion of information to the public," amongst others. Richard Berman and Company was paid $1,630,104 in 2010 by EPI.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, EPI gave $257,548 to the Center For Union Facts[11] for "educational issues regarding unionization of employees."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Previous Funding:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The IRS Form 990 for the year for the 2005 calendar year for the Employment Policies Institute Foundation states that its total revenue was $1,801,371. Of this $870,616 went to Berman & Company for "management services". The bulk of the group's expenses in 2005 were for PR related activities. $699,572 was spent on "media and message promotion", $229,069 on "marketing" and $324,618 on "issue research". [12] The same year, EPI gave $307,995 by way of grants to the FirstJobs Institute, which it describes as an "economic literacy program". [13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group's 2000 IRS return stated that the group received $1,163,248 in income for the year, most of which ($940,593) came from 17 anonymous donors. Of that amount, $717,812 went to Berman & Co. for "management services," and another $165,766 in salary and benefits went personally to Rick Berman. Comparable figures appear in EPI's Form 990 for previous years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the Right Guide, funders of EPI have included the John M. Olin Foundation and the Claude R. Lamb Charitable Foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Affiliated organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In its 2005 IRS return, EPI lists the FirstJobs Institute as an organisation it is directly or indirectly affiliated with. (FirstJobs is designated as a 501(c)(6) organization by the IRS). In statement 15 of its IRS return, EPI describes the relationship as being for a "joint educational project, 'Econ4u'". Elsewhere it states that that EPI and the 'Institute' "shared free common office space and overhead expenses provided under the management agreement with Berman and Company". It also states that the Institute "solicited funds for the educational portion of the joint project on employment Policies Institute Foundation's behalf." [14]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact information</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like other Berman & Co. front groups, EPI is headquartered at the following address:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1775 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 1200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC 20006</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phone: 202 463 7650</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FAX: (202) 463-7107</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Email: rberman AT new-reality.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Main website: http://www.epionline.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPI's previous phone number, (202) 463-7110, was the same as for other Berman front groups such as the Center for Consumer Freedom.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">search google for above fax# "(202) 463-7107" [5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other websites</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In its 2011 IRS return, EPI lists these websites as including:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://DefeatTheDebt.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://Econ4U.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://RethinkReform.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In its 2005 IRS return EPI lists other websites other than its main website as including (see statement 1):</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.livingwage.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.minimumwage.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://gatewayjobs.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://econ4u.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://livingwageresearch.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://rottenacorn.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://defeatthedebt.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Articles and Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related PRWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anne Landman, Rick Berman's For-Profit Non-Profits Under the Microscope, PRWatch.org, June 20, 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anne Landman, Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society, PRWatch.org, February 17, 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Berman & Co.: "Nonprofit" Hustlers for the Food & Booze Biz, PRWatch, First Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 1.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related SourceWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ActivistCash.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Beverage Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employment Roundtable</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Defeat the Debt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Society of the United States, Richard Berman's Apparent Tax Scam, organizational IRS complaint website, launched November 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Fassler, "Does the Food Lobby Really Care about Freedom of Choice? Fuhgeddaboutit!, OnEarth Blog, November 13, 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wayne Pacelle, "The Confidence Man, Unmasked, and Asked to Answer to the IRS, A Human Nation HSUS blog, November 2, 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Drajem & Brian Wingfield, Union Busting by Profiting From Non-Profit May Breach IRS, Bloomberg, November 1, 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James Verini, "Bull Market: Forrest and Kimberly Smith Think New Yorkers Will Be Kookaburra for Their Cheap Steaks", New York Observer, August 20, 2001.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael P., "Metro Center Advertising - Front Groups ," blog "Infosnack Headquarters," September 24, 2008.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policies Institute Foundation, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax", 2005, Statement 12.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ 2.0 2.1 Mosi Secret, "[http://www.propublica.org/article/rotten-acorn-ad-funded-by-anti-minimum-wage-group/ 'Rotten' ACORN Ad Funded by Anti-Minimum Wage Group]," ProPublica, October 29, 2008.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Richard B. Berman Richard B. Berman Resume'. January 1995. Philip Morris Bates No. 2072148764</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Peaceful Times. Local smoking bans backfire, hurt restaurants R.J. Reynolds. July 15, 1994. Bates No. 511413918/3923</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Our Presentation is About: A A Philip Morris internal presentation; January 1997. Bates No. 2070258088/8114</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letter/269278</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ http://dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2008/02/05/Kreutzer_ART_02-05-08_A8_9697TN1.html?sid=101</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policy Institute, 2011 Form 990, company document on file with IRS, accessed April 11, 2013</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policy Institute, 2010 Form 990, company document on file with IRS, accessed April 11, 2013</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policy Institute, 2011 Form 990, company document on file with IRS, accessed April 11, 2013</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policy Institute, 2010 Form 990, company document on file with IRS, accessed April 11, 2013</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policies Institute Foundation, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax", 2005, Statement 2.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policies Institute Foundation, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax", 2005, Statement 4.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">↑ Employment Policies Institute Foundation, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax", 2005, Statement 14.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Categories:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Front groups portal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tobaccowiki</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Front groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">United States</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AlterNet [1] / By Steven Rosenfeld [2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Corporate Bully Whose Front Groups, Willful Distortions and Hate-Mongering Has Poisoned U.S. Politics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">: Meet Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">November 24, 2013  |  </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Why don’t we know who one of the most powerful people in America is? What he has done? Why '60 Minutes' called him Dr. Evil?” asks Saru Jayaraman [3], a leader in a growing national movement of restaurant workers demanding better pay and working conditions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Evil is Richard Berman, a Washington-based lawyer-turned-hitman for Big Food who pioneered and still deploys many of the most intentionally deceptive, inflammatory and anti-democratic tactics used in corporate propaganda campaigns today. For nearly four decades, Berman’s attacks have tried to smear, discredit and destroy public-interest causes and groups by a toxic brew of industry front groups, distortion-filled attacks, ridicule and bullying to stoke prejudice and hatred as a means of turning the public’s attention and regulators away from his paymasters’ business practices.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take his effort to cripple the Humane Society [4] of the United States (HSUS) and defame the character of its CEO, Wayne Pacelle. He ran a television ad during the 2013 Academy Awards telling people not to give to HSUS. He created a YouTube video viewed 1.7 million times calling Pacelle “the Bernie Madoff of the charity world.” He set up a non-profit front group called Humane Watch to undermine donations intended for the HSUS and a website attacking its funding. He even threatened [5] the Better Business Bureau to drop HSUS' accreditation under the business group's Wise Giving Alliance, and then attacked [6] BBB when it refused to do so.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Astute observers have concluded that Berman is guilty of the sins he regularly accuses others of. Legitimate watchdog groups, such as CharityNavigator.org, have characterized [7] his web [8] of non-profit front groups, which take in millions [9] in tax-deductible corporate donations, as the fake charities. Tax law experts contacted by Bloomberg.com said [10] his operation was comparable to Madoff’s, a shell game of financial transfers enriching Berman that likely violated tax laws. Investigative reporters have even traced [11] e-mails from front groups who deny they’re working with him back to his office.   </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Can one man really be held responsible for large slices of any era’s excesses, especially in a city as dominated by opportunists as Washington, D.C.? The answer is yes, there are people who are emblematic of political eras. Ronald Reagan was the “Teflon president,” evading [12] criticism that stuck. Lee Atwater was the dark political operator who revived [13] the GOP’s racist attack machinery for George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign. In Berman’s case, there is a decades-long record of gleefully [5] taking fights into the gutter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why would Berman and his backers go after a group like the Humane Society of the U.S., the nation's most effective animal protection group? Or enviromentalists concerned [8] about mercury in tuna? Or nutritionists concerned [8] about trans fat? Or physicians worried [8] about the effect of high-fructose corn syrup on obesity? Or restaurant workers seeking [11] a higher minimum wage and paid sick days? Or liberal foundations funding [8] public-interest advocates? Because in every one of these examples, their warnings and advocacy threaten how Big Food—the corporate-dominated food and beverage industry paying Berman—makes its fortune.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman and his agribusiness allies didn’t just target the Humane Society of the U.S. They’ve gone after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, creating websites and videos saying that PETA kills pets when they can’t find homes. They mock almost all public health efforts as a totalitarian nanny state nightmare. Their bottom line is always the same: protect profits by stifling debate and government regulation. And Berman's methods usually involve playing dirty to intimidate and win on emotion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May, the Boston Globe’s deputy Washington bureau chief Michael Kranish [14] wrote a magazine-length report [15] on Washington’s “industry of distortion,” citing Berman’s attack on the Humane Society of the U.S. as Exhibit A. It ended by quoting a 2010 article [16] by the Nebraska Farm Bureau News where Berman boasted about winning on emotion—not truth.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Emotional understanding is very different; it stays with you,” Berman said. “Intellectual understanding is a fact and facts trump other facts. When I understand something in my gut, you’ve got me in a very different way.” Speaking to Minnesota’s Agri-Growth Council in 2012 about animal rights activists, he was blunter [17]. “We should attack their credibility using ridicule and humor; not for what they’ve said but for who they are.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now 70, he has used front groups and exaggerated facts flung with a disregard for public consequences for decades. He created the American Beverage Institute in 1991, which attacked [18] Mothers Against Drunk Driving, saying it was not run by women and that using a cellphone in a car is more dangerous than driving slightly drunk. Like fists on a punching bag, Berman unleashed a series of distorted claims [19] to derail any effort that might alter the booze industry’s business model—such as lowering the legal blood alcohol level. His institute’s experts, on his payroll, blare [20] that new cars will soon have breathalyzers, and that people won’t be able to have a “beer at a ballgame.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is stunning how many fights have been picked by Berman's corporate protection racket. He’s also gone after [8] teachers' unions, food processing industry union drives, Obamacare and Obama’s tax policies, and groups such as Center for Science in the Public Interest. He’s defended the tanning salon and payday lending industries. His Employment Policies Institute exists to keep [21] minimum wages as low as possible. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, which created BermanExposed.org [8] in 2009, tracks his efforts [22]—the front groups, attack websites and propaganda. “Berman runs at least 23 industry-funded projects, such as the Center for Union Facts [23], and holds 24 ‘positions’ within these various entities,” BermanExposed said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real public-interest groups such as CREW and the Humane Society of the U.S. have tried [24] to hold Berman accountable [25] for years. But they have been thwarted by playing by Washington’s murky rules. In 2004, CREW filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint to revoke his non-profits’ tax status, which let dozens of corporations funnel [26] millions into a political attack machine. The HSUS filed [27] a similar complaint last year. But the IRS does not want to say when campaigns without candidates—like Karl Rove’s 2012 non-profit [28]—cross the line from “educational” to “political,” which would be illegal. Just this week, for example, it approved [29] non-profit applications for dozens of Tea Party chapters, taking their word that they will limit political work to 40 percent of overall activities. Berman’s aides, when they talk to the press, say [27] that his non-profits are educational.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With little legal recourse, Berman’s targets have worked with the media to try to expose his dark tactics. In 2007, CBS’ "60 Minutes" produced a Berman profile [30], “Meet Dr. Evil,” which was the name union officials gave him. This spring, the Boston Globe profiled [15] the Humane Society attacks, dissecting his methodology, profiteering, refuting his attacks, and concluded that no responsible official or media should heed him. But these more civil tactics—seeking IRS review, being upbraided in the mainstream media—don’t derail a street fighter who enjoys bullying. As a smug Berman told "60 Minutes," “I grew up in the Bronx. Name-calling is not the worst thing that I’ve been subjected to.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If anything, Washington’s political culture has been embracing [31] Berman’s thuggery. October’s federal government shutdown, the ongoing Obamacare and budget wars, and the routine vilification of critics are all signs of increasingly poisoned politics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fights that Berman and his allies are picking today are not the same as a few years ago when their message was based around a “personal freedom” mantra and their target was the “nanny state” and its advocates, who called for regulation of their unhealthy or addictive products. Today, Berman and allies like the National Restaurant Association are ramping [32] up attacks on groups such as Restaurant Opportunities Centers United—a powerful nationwide movement of low-wage workers. Why? Because ROC United is challenging the business model of an industry that pays poorly, has few benefits, is rife [33] with sexual discrimination, and has escaped anti-trust regulation for decades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They don’t just weigh in on minimum wage and paid sick days,” said Jayaraman, ROC United co-founder. “They’re the ones that got pizza declared a vegetable in Congress. They’re the ones that fight the soda tax bills. They’re the ones that fight the trans fat bills. They have some connection to these groups that set FDA policy…. They all come together in the body of Richard Berman.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From Big Tobacco to Big Exploitation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When CBS’ Morley Safer talked to Berman, he had been working to stop regulation of addictive substances and unhealthy foods for decades [34]. He grew up in working-class New York where his father ran gas stations and car washes. He went to law school in the 1960s and began his career as a labor lawyer for management at Bethlehem Steel—opposing unions. In the early 1970s, he moved to Washington as director of labor law at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he filed [35] a brief opposing granting healthcare to pregnant women. In 1975, he moved into food and beverages, working for the Steal and Ale restaurant chain. In 1986, he created his firm, Berman and Co. [36], where within a decade cigarette-maker Philip Morris became a multi-million-dollar account.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ConsumerDeception.com, one of the first websites tracking Berman, posts “inter-office correspondence” and other memos documenting [37] his tobacco-defending tactics. Berman proposed [38] creating “The Guest Choice Network… to educate members of the hospitality industry on all the issues that affect their business.” Its goal was to stop second-hand smoke regulations and smoking bans, that day’s anti-smoking efforts. Philip Morris executive Barbara Trach, writing on the margin of a 1995 memo [39] suggesting an initial $600,000 payment, listed the rules that would come to define a Berman operation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We can’t tell him what to do—he knows what to do and what’s going on,” she wrote [39]. “We don’t want reportable activities… No direction in grassroots by us… Minimize written correspondence… Check payable to Berman & Co.”   </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Guest Choice Network became the Center for Consumer Freedom, which Berman used to attack nearly 60 [40] public interest groups and government agencies, according to ConsumerDeception.com’s count a dozen years ago: health departments; medical and scientific associations; public health, farming and environmental groups. The funders were a who’s who [26] of agribusiness giants, food producers and processors, and fast food and restaurant chains. CREW’s BermanExposed.org has since updated the list [22].</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the "60 Minutes" profile, Berman described himself as a fighter for corporations in an era dominated by do-gooders. “Businesses themselves don’t find it convenient to take on causes that might seem politically incorrect,” he said. “And I am not afraid to do that.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman says he isn’t in interested in policy debates and position papers, but gut punches that people will remember. In one anti-union drive effort, his television ad begins with a smirking cashier, saying, “You know what I love, paying union dues just so I can keep my job.” A smiling black construction worker followed, saying, “I really like how the union discriminated against minorities.” Then a busy waitress, “Nothing makes me feel better than knowing I’m supporting their fat-cat lifestyles.” It ended, in unison, “Thank you union bosses,” with an on-air credit to the “Center for Union Facts.” In another television ad, a trial lawyer interrogates a Girl Scout on a witness stand because her cookies do not have nutrition labeling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman calls this approach “shooting the messenger,” and told CBS it “means people getting that this messenger is not as credible as their name would suggest.” His staff goes through government reports, activist press releases, policy papers and books by anyone who might stand in the way of unfettered corporate profits. They take aim by seizing on small points—a research methodology, size of a poll, minority opinion—and blow up that trifle to smear a reputation, organization or agenda. They create websites parodying the points, write and air ads attacking groups, their leadership, their funding, and even push GOP officeholders to join in the bullying.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The methodology is twisting the truth, exaggerating facts that are totally acceptable to make them sound corrupt, and fanning cliches or prejudice to evoke emotional reactions that take the public’s eye away from real scrutiny of, or accountability for, his clients’ exploitive business practices.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So Berman launches a website shouting that PETA kills animals. He accuses the Humane Society of the U.S. of giving less than 1 percent of its funds to local shelters, but he omits that HSUS runs five of its own animal care centers and sanctuaries, supports countless rescue groups, operates disaster response teams for animal victims of natural disasters, investigates animal cruelty and carries out countless other initiatives for animal welfare and protection.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Front groups traced [11] back to Berman's office accuse ROC United of a litany of supposed sins in cities considering higher minimum wage and paid sick leave laws, while other websites mock Jayaraman’s new book [41] while she’s on a speaking tour. Meanwhile, Berman writing [42] on the National Restaurant Association (NRA) website, says that raising minimum wages are “a politician-made disaster” leading to “the death of the entry-level job.” On theWall Street Journal opinion page, the anti-regulator argues [43] without a trace of hypocrisy that groups like ROC United should be regulated under federal labor law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marion Nestle [44], a longtime healthy food expert and author who also has been attacked [45] by Berman, says she tries to ignore him. Nestle said she met Berman once, when they were on a panel at a NRA conference. That appearance gave her the chance to meet with a handful of national restaurant chain CEOs, Nestle said, where she went in armed with three demands—including one about ceasing to bankroll Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I wanted these restaurant chains to give a price break for smaller portions, to have the default meals for kids be healthy, and I wanted them to stop funding the Center for Consumer Freedom,” she said of meeting with the CEOs of Applebees [46] and Darden [47], the nation’s largest restaurant group. “They just went ballistic. Absolutely ballistic. It was truly amazing. I thought they were three completely reasonable asks. And they said that Berman was the only person who understood their problems.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nestle’s sit-down with Berman’s sponsors reveals why he has had a four-decade run as a corporate hit man. With the backing of tobacco, booze and then Big Food, he has created industry front groups, kept his sponsors’ identities largely hidden, developed a political playbook based on smears, distortions and hate-mongering, and seen the campaign and lobbying profession embrace his poisonous and destructive methodology.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America’s political culture has become uglier and more hate-filled in recent decades, and Richard Berman has played a singular roll in that descent into the gutter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See more stories tagged with:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">richard berman [48],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman and Co. [49],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">corporate propaganda [50],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">negative campaigning [51],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">attack ads [52],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">union-busting [53],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Food lobbyist [54],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Society of America [55],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CharityNavigator.org [56],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">peta [57],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mothers Against Drunk Driving [58],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Science in the Public Interest [59],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Saru Jayaraman [60],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Restaurant Opportunities Centers United [61],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington [62],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">crew [63],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">non-profit tax law [64],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">marion nestle [65],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Restaurant Association [66],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">center for union facts [67],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer freedom [68],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">corporate front groups [69],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">astrotufr lobbying [70],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BermanExposed.org [71],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ConsumerDeception.com [72],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">philip morris [73],</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Guest Choice Network [74]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/richard-bermans-propaganda-wars-take-us-politics-gutter</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Links:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[1] http://alternet.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[3] http://workercenters.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[4] http://www.humanesociety.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[5] http://www.citizensforethics.org/blog/entry/corporate-bully-richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[6] http://www.humanewatch.org/hsuss_terrible_horrible_no_good_very_bad_day/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[7] http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11842#.UoqxBY2E7Z3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[8] http://bermanexposed.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[9] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/File:11022012_Berman-kr-01.png</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[10] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-02/union-busting-by-profiting-from-non-profit-may-breach-irs.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[11] http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-08/news/37564041_1_berman-sick-days-front-group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[12] http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3234744?uid=16887128&uid=2129&uid=16886816&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=67&uid=62&sid=21103004293033</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20sat3.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[14] http://www.michaelkranish.com/Michael_Kranish/Michael_Kranish.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[15] http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/05/18/corporations-anonymously-fund-attacks-and-influence-washington-policy-through-nonprofit-groups/qyaJIFcv7yYOsQvya6ykAK/story.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[16] http://www.nefb.org/public/401/news/nebraska_farm_bureau_news</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[17] http://www.agrigrowth.org/Newsletters/Dec2012.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[18] http://abionline.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[19] http://abionline.org/newsroom/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[20] http://abionline.org/press_release/602/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[21] http://www.epionline.org/news/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[22] http://bermanexposed.org/press</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[23] http://www.unionfacts.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[24] http://www.citizensforethics.org/pages/category-results/c/richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[25] http://consumerdeception.com/index.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[26] http://consumerdeception.com/append3.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[27] http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-02/union-busting-by-profiting-from-non-profit-may-breach-irs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[28] http://www.propublica.org/article/what-karl-roves-dark-money-nonprofit-told-the-irs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[29] http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56897</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[30] http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2661990n</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[31] http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10384</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[32] http://www.alternet.org/labor/other-nra-how-insidiously-powerful-restaurant-lobby-makes-sure-fast-food-workers-get-poverty</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[33] http://www.fordharrison.com/9113</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[34] http://www.bermanco.com/rick-berman/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[35] http://consumerdeception.com/history.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[36] http://www.bermanco.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[37] http://consumerdeception.com/append5.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[38] http://consumerdeception.com/pdf/2047824004_4032.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[39] http://consumerdeception.com/pdf/2072148761.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[40] http://consumerdeception.com/append4.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[41] https://www.facebook.com/behindthekitchendoorbook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[42] http://nrn.com/print/corporate/minimum-wage-hikes-hurt-foodservice-endanger-entry-level-jobs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[43] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324549004579066724265410410</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[44] http://www.eatdrinkvote.com/tag/marion-nestle/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[45] http://www.foodpolitics.com/tag/ccfcenter-for-consumer-freedom/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[46] http://www.applebees.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[47] http://www.darden.com/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[48] http://www.alternet.org/tags/richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[49] http://www.alternet.org/tags/berman-and-co</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[50] http://www.alternet.org/tags/corporate-propaganda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[51] http://www.alternet.org/tags/negative-campaigning</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[52] http://www.alternet.org/tags/attack-ads-0</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[53] http://www.alternet.org/tags/union-busting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[54] http://www.alternet.org/tags/big-food-lobbyist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[55] http://www.alternet.org/tags/humane-society-america</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[56] http://www.alternet.org/tags/charitynavigatororg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[57] http://www.alternet.org/tags/peta</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[58] http://www.alternet.org/tags/mothers-against-drunk-driving</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[59] http://www.alternet.org/tags/center-science-public-interest</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[60] http://www.alternet.org/tags/saru-jayaraman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[61] http://www.alternet.org/tags/restaurant-opportunities-centers-united</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[62] http://www.alternet.org/tags/citizens-responsible-ethics-washington</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[63] http://www.alternet.org/tags/crew</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[64] http://www.alternet.org/tags/non-profit-tax-law</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[65] http://www.alternet.org/tags/marion-nestle</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[66] http://www.alternet.org/tags/national-restaurant-association</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[67] http://www.alternet.org/tags/center-union-facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[68] http://www.alternet.org/tags/center-consumer-freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[69] http://www.alternet.org/tags/corporate-front-groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[70] http://www.alternet.org/tags/astrotufr-lobbying</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[71] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bermanexposedorg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[72] http://www.alternet.org/tags/consumerdeceptioncom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[73] http://www.alternet.org/tags/philip-morris-0</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[74] http://www.alternet.org/tags/guest-choice-network</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[75] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit corporation run by lobbyist Richard Berman through his Washington, D.C.-based for-profit public relations company, Berman & Co. The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by Berman with a $600,000 “donation” from tobacco company Philip Morris.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into nonprofit 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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is an influence peddler. He has worked out a scheme to funnel charitable donations from wealthy corporations into his own pocket. In exchange, he provides a flurry of disinformation, flawed studies, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and trade-industry articles, as well as access to his high-level government contacts, who are servants of the industries he represents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s name might sound familiar. In 1995, Berman and Norm Brinker, his former boss at Steak and Ale Restaurants, were identified as the special-interest lobbyists who donated the $25,000 that disgraced then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was hauled before the House Ethics Committee for influence-peddling over the money. Berman and Brinker were lobbying against raising the minimum wage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is a spin doctor. For example, he has argued against a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) initiative to lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers by claiming that the stricter limits would punish responsible social drinkers. He has claimed that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warnings about salmonella-related food poisoning are just “whipping up fear over food.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s how an internal Philip Morris memo described Berman’s spin: “His proposed solution would broaden the focus of the ‘smoking issue,’ and expand into the bigger picture of over-regulation.” Smoking won’t kill you; over-regulation will.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman is “a one-man wrecking crew on important issues.” His approach has been described as “misleading” and “despicable.”  Berman has been called “a tobacco company whore,” but he’s branched out since then.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Using “freedom of choice” as his battle cry, Berman has now taken on PETA and a number of other groups and organizations whose points of view could have an impact on the profits of his clients by waking consumers up. Berman’s Guest Choice Network has an “advisory panel” whose members in 1998 included officials representing companies ranging from Cargill Processed Meat Products and Outback Steakhouse to Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association and Sutter Home Winery. Berman’s clients are companies with vested interests in low employee wages; cheap, unhealthy restaurant-chain food, particularly meat; and tobacco, soft drink, and alcohol consumption—companies like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Armour Swift, and Philip Morris, whose product line includes Kraft Foods and everything from Marlboro cigarettes to Oscar Meyer wieners and which is a major shareholder in its former subsidiary Miller Brewing, now known as SABMiller.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA’s recent successes in gaining fast-food industry concessions for more humane conditions for farm animals have sent ripples of fear through the food and beverage service industry. About the same time that McDonald’s buckled to PETA’s demands, Richard Berman changed his front group’s name and stepped up his attacks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The key to Berman’s aggressive strategy is, in his own words, “to shoot the messenger ... we’ve got to attack their credibility as spokespersons,”—an interesting remark from someone whose background and funding so severely challenge his own credibility.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA has since created a response site, PETA Saves, which discusses Richard Berman and the CCF's smear campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Appendices</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Individuals Who Have Been Associated with Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Businesses That Have Been Associated With Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contributions to Berman - Dollar Amounts by Company and Year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizations That Have Been Attacked by Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documented Donations of $2,950,000 from Philip Morris to Rick Berman/CCF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">F.A.Q. on Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who is Richard Berman, and why he is attacking The HSUS?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Frequently Asked Questions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who is Richard Berman, and why is he attacking animal welfare organizations?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is Berman’s goal?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is the so-called “Humane Society for Shelter Pets”?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What do animal shelters and other animal welfare groups say about Berman and his various corporate fronts?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How does The HSUS support local shelters?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will Berman’s attacks have any real impact on animal welfare?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What can I do? </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who is Richard Berman, and why is he attacking animal welfare organizations?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is a corporate front-man, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist and PR operative. Over the years, he has created a spider web of organizations whose aim is to attack established charities, nonprofits and public interest groups—from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Institute of Medicine to The Humane Society of the United States. He refuses to divulge specific companies financing his dirty work, but it is known that Berman launched this line of work by taking money from tobacco companies to battle those seeking restrictions on smoking—a template that has defined his career.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recently, he has aligned himself with the agribusiness lobby and appealed to factory farming interests for support, telling them that he will try and slow down The HSUS’s advances in improving the treatment of farm animals. By attacking The HSUS, Berman and his organizations have given encouragement to others who profit from the status quo cruelty to animals—whether large-scale puppy mill operators, criminal cockfighters, the seal slaughter industry, horse slaughter profiteers, or others.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s shadowy dealings have been exposed again and again by respected news organizations, including The Boston Globe, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, CBS, Harper’s, The San Francisco Chronicle. The investigative program “60 Minutes” reported that Berman's nickname is “Dr. Evil.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ultimately, those who finance Berman’s dirty tricks will be publicly revealed. America is not a nation of secrets. When that occurs, as it did with the tobacco apologists, Berman and his paymasters will recede further onto the fringes of America’s civic conversation. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is Berman’s goal?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From what can be seen, Berman is in it for the money. Certainly, he has enriched himself handsomely over the years by being the mouthpiece for corporations too ashamed to stand up and speak for themselves. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He exploits America’s charitable tax laws, but public documents show that Berman and his privately held PR firm are the financial beneficiaries of his efforts. In one recent tax filing, Berman and his private, for-profit company received 92 cents of every dollar reported by his primary nonprofit, the misnamed “Center for Consumer Freedom.” His corporate funders get anonymity and tax benefits, and Berman gets a million-dollar mansion with a Bentley in the driveway.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman is falsely trying to define animal welfare work as just one narrow category of giving grants to local dog and cat shelters, which take in 6 to 8 million animals each year. The HSUS helps local shelters in a number of ways but also helps the billions of other animals at risk in society, too. Berman attacks The HSUS not because we do too little, but because we do too much—and we are the greatest threat to animal abusers and Berman's industry paymasters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is the so-called “Humane Society for Shelter Pets”?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman was party to the launch of a wildly misnamed “charity” called the Humane Society for Shelter Pets. In hijacking the proud name “Humane Society” from groups at the local and national level—groups that have worked honorably to help animals for decades—Berman cynically sought to fool people into thinking that he had the interests of pets in mind, when indeed the real point of the group was to attack The Humane Society of the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although he claims to be interested in pets in peril, the money trail tells the opposite story: Berman has purchased advertising valued in the millions attacking The HSUS, which by contrast has a proud record of fighting pet homelessness.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has sent threatening letters to local animal shelter leaders, harassing those who have spoken out about the real agenda of Berman and HSSP. That’s hardly a practice that makes him a friend of shelters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If pickpocketing the name “Humane Society” wasn’t shameful enough, Berman and his undisclosed backers lifted the words “Shelter Pets” straight from the established “Shelter Pet Project” of The HSUS, The Ad Council and Maddie’s Fund. This ongoing national campaign to promote pet adoptions has resulted in more than $100 million of public service advertising and engagement on behalf of shelter pet adoption.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A review of HSSP’s most recent tax filings reveals an organization in deep financial distress. HSSP reported $1,208,700 in revenue in 2010, but only $55,000 in 2011, a decrease of 95.6 percent. HSSP is deeply indebted to its management firm, Berman & Company. In 2011, the nonprofit paid Rick Berman’s for profit PR agency $245,483, or four times the revenue the group took in, for “management, advertising, research and accounting fees.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zero percent of HSSP’s revenue went to animal shelters in 2011, though its stated mission is to “assist local pet shelters.” The only beneficiaries of HSSP’s revenue were the Center for Consumer Freedom, which is one of the tax exempt entities controlled by Rick Berman, and Rick Berman’s PR firm. Combined, they received $814,617 from the tax-exempt entity, while local shelters received nothing. HSSP’s other major expense in 2011 was a $520,000 pass-through grant to the Center for Consumer Freedom. The purpose of the grant as stated on the tax filing was “research and program development.” According to CCF’s tax filing, contributions totaling $577,050 “were temporarily restricted to be used on the Center’s Humane Watch campaign.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What do animal shelters and other animal welfare groups say about Berman and his various corporate fronts?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Gary Weitzman, former CEO of Washington Animal Rescue League, wrote this:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thanks to HSUS, there is cohesion in our struggle to protect animals and move the nation forward on humane issues: shutting down puppy mills, promoting spay/neuter, encouraging shelter pet adoption, and other issues that are crucial to our joint success … Groups such as the CCF and HSSP hurt not only us, but the animals we are all trying to help. Read Washington Animal Rescue League's blog.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robin Robertson Starr, CEO of Richmond SPCA, wrote:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF has recently created a new entity … called Humane Society for Shelter Pets. It took out huge full-page ads in major newspapers like the New York Times last week—ads that cost about $100,000 each—claiming to be deeply concerned about shelter pets.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">… They have never supported animal shelters, never been a part of the effort to save the lives of animals and, in fact, could not care less about shelter pets. They just want to drive a wedge between the organizations in our field … for the protection of their own business interests. This is nothing but shameless opportunism tarted up as concern for animal welfare. Read Richmond SPCA's blog.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Karel Minor, executive director of Berks County Humane Society, said this about CCF:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF is trying to turn local animal shelters against the HSUS. They are trying to pit one group of animal advocates against another group and are hoping that no one will notice who is paying them to do it. No single animal shelter can really make much of a difference nationwide. But one huge organization like HSUS, which can improve legislation across the nation, can help make animal shelters more effective, and can respond in meaningful ways to natural disasters, can make a difference, and that difference isn’t always in the best interests of the food processors and their stockholders. That’s why CCF attacks HSUS. Read Berks County Humane Society's blog.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jennifer Scarlett, Co-President of San Francisco SPCA wrote:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[CCF] has sought to minimize public concern regarding smoking, obesity, drunken driving and even mercury in tuna. Now Mr. Berman has set up several “humane” charities like Humane Watch and Humane Society for Shelter Pets that bash HSUS’s work and encourage the public to divert funds from HSUS.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[The HSUS] operates on the national stage, so it’s no surprise that as an advocate of the big issues, HSUS doesn’t run local shelters or fund the hundreds of independent humane societies, which Berman claims to find so outrageous. In fact, there is no national umbrella group for shelters … [s]o it’s easy money for sleek imposters to try to exploit public confusion. ... It would be tragic if donations for animal welfare were shunted into the coffers of a cynical fundraising machine that damages those very interests. Read SF Gate's blog.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Janice Brown, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of TAILS Pet Media Group, Inc. wrote:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“To me, the HSSP is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I could not agree more that we need to “help shelter pets by donating locally …” as the ads state. But their message does not end there. The full plea says, “Please help shelter pets by donating locally, not to the HSUS.” Why? People routinely donate money to many different charities, because each one takes on a unique role in being part of the solution. […] If people are fooled, buy into what the HSSP is saying, and decide to stop donating to a national animal welfare organization … the state of animal welfare will be negatively impacted.” Read TAILS blog.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2x?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.consumerdeception.com/history.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman grew up in New York City. His father ran gas stations and car washes, and Berman did general labor on weekends and summers while he was growing up. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From 1967 to 1969, Berman worked as a labor law attorney for Bethlehem Steel. From 1969 to 1972, he served as a corporate lawyer for Dana Corporation, an automotive parts company in Toledo, Ohio. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From 1972 to 1974, Berman was employed as labor law director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. In this role, Berman claimed that he “argued against unnecessary regulation of [the] hospitality industry.” However, he is known to have submitted an amici curiae brief opposing a decision to grant health care coverage to pregnant women. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman moved into the food and beverage industry in 1975 under the mentorship of Norman Brinker, founder and owner of the Steak & Ale chain of restaurants. Berman started a government affairs program, launched his first PAC for Brinker, and worked there until 1984. In 1995, Berman and Brinker were identified as the special-interest lobbyists who donated the $25,000 that caused House Speaker Newt Gingrich to be hauled before the House Ethics Committee for influence peddling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman served as executive vice president of Pillsbury Restaurant Group from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, he formed Berman and Company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s résumé also includes his work for Beverage Retailers Against Drunk Driving (BRADD), where he argued for “tolerance of social drinking;” the Minimum Wage Coalition to Save Jobs; and the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), created in 1991 to argue “the importance of minimum wage jobs for the poor and uneducated.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, Berman describes himself as a social liberal and an economic conservative. He is media savvy and is reported to be clever, “aggressive, and polished—a real street fighter.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Appendices</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Individuals Who Have Been Associated with Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Businesses That Have Been Associated With Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contributions to Berman - Dollar Amounts by Company and Year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizations That Have Been Attacked by Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documented Donations of $2,950,000 from Philip Morris to Rick Berman/CCF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.ConsumerDeception.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TWO</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see main and tag</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5/16</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CAPT 3 22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HTML</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hides all info</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">son not pleased w/ dad work; David Berman, the songwriter and poet best known for co-founding the indie rock band Silver Jews, died at the age of 52, an anonymous law enforcement official told the New York Times that poet was found in an apartment in Brooklyn and pronounced dead at the scene.(suicide hanged, not 1st attempt, ]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/08/13/if-john-oliver-wants-be-funny-about-science-non-profits-i-can-help-write-better-material-13303</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">berman acsh claims total transparncy; oil conf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/05/13240/bradley-foundation-bankrolls-front-groups-richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) pull back the curtain on the highly politicized funding of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and its relationship with Richard Berman, the public relations spin doctor dubbed a "hired gun" for corporate America by 60 Minutes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley is bankrolling multiple Berman front groups along with groups across the nation that are working to "defund Big Labor" and to destroy unions, the most significant advocate for higher wages and better working conditions in America. Berman was caught on tape telling prospective funders: "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions" and "marginalize the people on the other side," as CMD helped reveal in 2014.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The highly political nature of Bradley's efforts is underscored by Bradley grantees who boast in major newspapers and in Bradley-funded publications like the Daily Signal that the evisceration of public and private sector unions in states like Wisconsin and Michigan was successful in turning blue states red in the last presidential election cycle. Bradley even has a promotional video "Blue Lakes Red States," boasting of the success of its numerous grantees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has mastered the dark art of dissemination disinformation though front groups, websites, TV and print ads and paid social media campaigns. While most of Berman's front groups are no more than a website, a few of them have been incorporated as non-profit "charitable" organizations. They may even have an employee attached to them and a specific focus, but as the New York Times detailed in 2016, employees are generally housed at the PR firm Berman and Co. and report to the boss, Rick Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These "charities" serve the function of allowing groups like Bradley to send tax-exempt funds, which are then funneled into Berman's wholly-owned for-profit entity, Berman and Co., under the rubric of "management fees." This scheme has prompted Charity Navigator, an independent authority on charitable giving, to issue donor warnings on Berman front groups. It has also prompted serious complaints against Berman and Co. for abusing the tax code and engaging in activities for private benefit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley Files suggest that the foundation is quite comfortable with the Berman shell game. Bradley board documents characterize Berman's confusing jumble of front groups and websites as a "collaborative cluster of nonprofit groups" and reveal for the first time that Bradley itself created a Berman project called the "Interstate Policy Alliance" within Berman's Employment Policies Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an ethics watchdog group, filed an IRS complaint against Berman some years ago and helps track the flack's activities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When a company or a foundation gives money to Richard Berman or one of the groups set up and run by his consulting firm, they're investing in his way of doing business, which includes exploiting 'fear and anger' to 'shoot the messenger,' usually in defense of issues his clients don't want to be publicly identified with," said Matt Corley, CREW Research Director.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One example is Berman's "BigGreenRadicals.com" website, an attack on four environmental organizations, the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Food and Water Watch. The website says it is a project of the "Environmental Policy Alliance" and does not disclose Berman's involvement. The Bradley files reveal for the first time that the foundation gave $150,000 to a Berman front group to fund this website under the misnomer "public education" (Center for Consumer Freedom, Grant Proposal Record, 11/12/2013).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years, the site has been trashing environmental activists in Colorado. There has been a multi-year throw down between anti-fracking community groups battling it out against the oil and gas industry, and the national environmental groups have been lending a hand.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Richard Berman is a go-to hire for corporate bullies. If the Bradley Foundation is paying groups to focus more on political bullying, it makes sense they would support Berman's attacks on environmental advocates," said Connor Gibson of Greenpeace's investigations team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More recently, Bradley has funded another Berman front group to "expose Big Labor's strategies and tactics, including in the policymaking arena." Materials included in the Bradley files as examples of Berman's work are a series of print ads accusing teachers of treating kids like garbage and ads that liken teachers' unions to roach traps (Center for Union Facts, Grant Proposal Record, 1/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley enemies list - sidebarBradley even has an enemies list.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In board meetings and committee meetings in 2014, Bradley Foundation staff distributed and discussed a chart of "Organizations that Attack Conservatives." The chart lists 17 groups with information about their size, funders, and leadership. The groups are a mixture of good government groups, media groups, public relations firms, and funding organizations including, in alphabetical order:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alliance for Justice; American Bridge, BerlinRosen; Center for American Progress/Think Progress Blog; Center for Media and Democracy; Change.org; Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW); Color of Change; Common Cause; Democracy Alliance; Fenton Communications; FitzGibbon Media; Media Matters for America; Mother Jones, One Wisconsin Now; Open Society Institute; and Progress Now.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A note with the chart says Bradley wanted to "survey the landscape of such groups for a more informed perspective about that which could perhaps be done to mitigate the damage they could do." The note says the information about the groups came from two Berman websites "Activistfacts.com and CREWexposed.com, projects of the Bradley-supported Center for Consumer Freedom" (Meeting of the Implementation and Impact Committee, October 14, 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through Berman, the Bradley Foundation can engage in unseemly opposition research and disinformation campaigns, while still keeping the appearance of a staid, philanthropic institution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the Bradley Files, Bradley has given Berman groups at least $6.5 million. Bradley gave Berman's "Employment Policies Institute," an organization that spreads misinformation about the effects of minimum wage increases and other workplace reforms, a total of $3,650,000 between 2009-2015; Berman's "Center for Consumer Freedom," a front group created to undermine public support for food-safety and animal welfare groups, $625,000 between 2009-2013; Berman's "Center for Union Facts," created to attack and undermine unions and collective bargaining, $2,240,000 between 2006-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley funds the "Capital Research Center" to work with Berman on projects. The Center is not part of the Berman operation, but is run by a former Berman employee, Scott Walter. It received $2.5 million from Bradley between 1998-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for all intents and purposes, the Bradley foundation is underwriting the activities of three people: Berman and Co. President Richard Berman, Vice President Sarah Longwell (who is often listed as the contact for Center for Consumer Freedom and many other Berman groups), and Vice President Michael Saltsman (who is also listed as the head of the Employment Policy Institute, which is located within Berman's offices).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley bankrolls Berman for at least three sets of activities:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disseminating studies via the Interstate Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommending state infrastructure investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coaching on "crisis communication" and opposition research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dissemination of Studies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's Employment Policies Institute (EPI) was named to confuse the public with an actual think tank, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which employs a host of PhD-level economists and other support staff. Berman's EPI has no economists on staff, but does employ "Research Director" Michael Saltsman, who has no advanced degree. MSNBC's Chris Hayes pinned Saltsman down on that point in a remarkable interview.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2013, Bradley earmarked $300,000 for a new Berman project within EPI called the Interstate Policy Alliance (IPA). In 2014, the grant for the same work doubled to $600,000 and included "crisis communication" for Bradley-funded groups on the receiving end of bad publicity, and in 2015, Bradley provided $400,000. Click here for a full list of Berman IPA groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley documents describe IPA as a "discrete channel" for "studies" that could be utilized by state-based groups "to achieve maximum credibility in local and social media outlets."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Created at Bradley's behest in 2012 and with continuing Bradley support since then, IPA is a discreet channel for the better coordination and presentation of helpful, high-quality research on existing and proposed state-level, free-market policies around the country. It provides this research, too often out of reach for many small state think tanks, and customizes it for each state to achieve maximum credibility in local- and social-media outlets. The Searle Freedom Trust has joined Bradley in support of the project" (Barder Fund, August 18, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State think tanks participating in Berman's IPA, which include Wisconsin's Bradley-supported MacIver Institute, do not have to pay for the research or its packaging or dissemination. They are able to easily access data that has been uploaded to a password-protected website. As needed, Berman's IPA also helps with report writing, graphic design, news release preparation, op-ed placement and the scheduling of interviews, (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015 ).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute revealedhow IPA operated, when it reported that the Beacon Hill Institute was releasing misleading studies attacking President Obama's Clean Power Plan, an ambitious multi-year effort to cut carbon pollution and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. The funding for the study came through the previously unknown group called the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In many of its sponsored research "studies," IPA promotes fossil fuel development over renewables. This has been a long-term agenda item of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate funded bill mill and many State Policy Network "think tanks" and advocacy groups funded by Bradley. In addition, the Bradley documents examined by CMD show Bradley is funding numerous climate denial groups, including Myron Ebell's Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One IPA report, touts the tens of billions of revenue North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia might gain from offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic Ocean.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another report argues that fossil fuel development of federal lands in seven Rocky Mountain states will grow the economies at a faster pace than renewables.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another promotes the transfer of federal lands to states, claiming that revenues from taxes and fees will rapidly flow to states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet another study criticizes the Renewable Portfolio Standards in 29 states and D.C. as costly to consumers, while ignoring any benefits to jobs or the environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Infrastructure Investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files reveal that the foundation has a previously undisclosed stream of funding to build right-wing infrastructure nationwide and is using a metric to assess the strength and depth of the infrastructure in individual states a phenomenon that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has dubbed the Bradley Blueprint.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, Bradley asked Berman's IPA and the allied Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. to conduct an assessment of "second tier" states for consideration as "potential targets of opportunity" to enhance their infrastructure investments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files also laud Berman & Co.'s Vice President Saltsman, who is described variously in Bradley documents as the "executive director" of EPI and "executive director" of IPA. "The talented and energetic Saltsman's IPA experience has exposed him to many of the strengths and weaknesses of the mid-sized state think tanks and conservative infrastructure around the country."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CRC/IPA evaluation of the quality and potential of states' existing conservative infrastructure and recommended investments in eight states: Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and California in that order. The documents note "(Given IPA's Bradley supported role in trying to help all state think tanks, they were quite keen on the report's contents being kept confidential)" (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley asked Saltsman "to discreetly consult with ALEC's Lisa Nelson, ATRF's Grover Norquist, and Ned Ryun of the also Bradley-supported American Majority" on what states should get funding (Barder Fund, 8/18/15).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The advisors named Colorado a top tier priority. Not only is Colorado an important swing state, but Coloradan Terry Considine is on the Bradley Board of Directors. Considine is a failed Colorado politician, but a dedicated right-winger who has long served on the Board of Directors of Club for Growth, the national dark money group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The political nature of Bradley's investment in this swing state is made clear in a report "Colorado state-infrastructure recommendations" included in the Bradley documents. "Colorado is an important swing state with a broad base of center-right organizations and donors," writes Bradley. The report discusses "The Gang of Four" liberal funders in the state who were featured in an "attention-getting" book called "The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care)," which details how a small group of Democratic donors helped turn the state blue. The book made a big impression on Bradley staff; a picture of the cover is included in the Bradley documents multiple times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Bradley wants to fund institutions in Colorado in an effort to swing the pendulum back again. Bradley recommends five specific grants, including two that illustrate the political nature of the endeavor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommends $125,000 to American Majority for 2016. The grant asks for support for a new field office in the I-25 corridor, an executive director, field staffer and intern. "They would coordinate with Centennial [Institute] and Independence [Institute] to identify, train and nurture mentoring relationships with conservative Coloradans." American Majority is an organization that trains candidates to run for office. It claims to be nonpartisan, but was founded by Republicans to train Republicans (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommended $250,000 to the Independence Institute in 2016. The Independence Institute is a State Policy Network member heavily funded by Bradley for both its work on climate issues and its anti-union work. The Bradley documents say it is led by "the charmingly bombastic Jon Caldara" "who has lead the creation of one of the more-effective conservative state infrastructures." But that infrastructure has a problem. "Colorado has 3,600 local governments."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Not only does the left exercise its power and coercion through these governments, he and [the Independence Institute] believe, but it uses them as farm teams to groom people for higher office." Caldera wants to counter this problem and "build a better bench" for the right-wing by compiling a database of every appointed and elected position in Jefferson County and conducting outreach to these officials. The Institute would coordinate its activities with American Majority, the Centennial Institute and the Leadership Program of the Rockies. Staff recommended $75,000 for this later institution (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These two investments appear to be exactly the type of political spending that might run afoul of IRS rules for permissible non-profit activity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other Colorado grantees included Colorado Christian University for its Centennial Institute ($75,000), Leadership Program of the Rockies ($75,000) and the Steamboat Institute ($50,000).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Crisis Communications" and Opposition Research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley has also bankrolled the Berman team for a communications program for many years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Also at Bradley's behest in 2012, CCF [Center for Consumer Freedom] created a related crisis-communications program for state infrastructures. It has been led by Berman vice president Sarah Longwell, formerly director of public affairs at the Bradly-supported Intercollegiate Studies Institute... CCF has consistently exposed the agenda of the activist groups that seek to attack personal freedom and its allies" (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This crisis communication work as described by Bradley relates directly to the successful, grassroots campaigning against ALEC that was sparked in 2011 after CMD published more than 800 ALEC "model bills" secretly voted on by corporate lobbyists and legislators on its website ALECexposed.org in 2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To quote from the Bradley files:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In the wake of the media firestorm that engulfed the American Legislative Exchange Council last year, it was clear that a new group of influential, media-savvy activist outfits have emerged—along with a new group of targets that includes state think tanks and other entities including foundations. The Gates Foundation, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Walmart, Johnson and Johnson, McDonalds and Wendy's are just a few of the funders that cut ties to ALEC following the media onslaught generated by activists who successfully linked it to the shooting of Trayvon Martin."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"ALEC never saw it coming. Neither really did the Heartland Institute or Chick-fil-A see what was coming when they subsequently have been on the receiving end of similar onslaughts. Caught flat footed as the media charged ahead with the 'Stand Your Ground' story, ALEC had no rapid-response strategy in place to combat this runaway narrative. Berman and Co.'s advice to ALEC to be more aggressive in its response was not followed. The 'I stand with ALEC website' came much too late and brought far too little to its defense" (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are "case studies," writes Bradley staff, and "cautionary tales" for any conservative organization. Now Bradley wants to fund CCF for an "off the shelf public relations strategy for use by any such conservative outfit caught in the media crosshairs."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Already-prepared "well sourced opposition research" is key, says the Bradley grant document:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Just as CMD was able build an online dossier on ALEC that provided activists and sympathetic journalists with a base of research, so too is CCF using its data and information to build a 'bigger and better clearinghouse of research on groups within the wider left-wing network' as part of a rapid response strategy."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF boasts of training Bradley-supported "think tanks" across the nation that are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), such as North Carolina's Civitas Institute, Michigan's Mackinac Center, and Washington State's Freedom Foundation. CCF asks Bradley for support to expand this type of opposition research and training to the rest of the SPN network and the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a grant proposal record, "Full Service Menu" of Berman Center for Consumer Freedom services would include, 1) support for two or three studies a year, 2) op-ed drafting and placement, 3) drafting and sending of news releases on the groups behalf, 4) compiling a media list of reporter contacts, 5) ad buying for television, radio, print and online, 6) crisis communication assistance and in-state infrastructure seminars (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley is recommending a $200,000 grant in renewed support for ALEC in 2016 as it continues to build a "comprehensive communications infrastructure" in response to citizen campaigns targeting its funders. The grant summary reads: "ALEC has been under sustained, organized attack from the Left for several years, as well-documented in Bradley Prize recipient Kimberly Strassel's new book The Intimidation Game: How the Left Silences Free Speech. Under Executive Director Lisa Nelson and at Bradley's urging, ALEC is aggressively, but thoughtfully responding." "The plan consciously mimics the Left's Citizen Engagement Laboratory (CEL)...the parent organization of Forecast the Facts and Color of Change."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC also redesigned and beefed up its website, deployed more social media, and partnered with CrowdSkout a data analytics company to track, view and engage supporters (ALEC, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley outlines the bigger game plan for ALEC: "The larger plan also has an important component for aggressive 'opposition research,' which has yielded many beneficial outcomes, including to Strassel for her helpful book, among others." This last comment in the Bradley documents suggests that ALEC provided Wall Street Journal editorial writer Kim Strassel with information for her book Intimidation Game. In it, Strassel portrayed the sustained citizen campaigning against ALEC as a well-funded, nefarious effort to crush the "free speech" rights of ALEC and its enormous funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and ALTRIA/Phillip Morris (Strassel received a $250,000 Bradley Prize in 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of its opposition research funding, Bradley recommended $115,000 in 2016 for the Capital Research Center run by Bradley-ally Scott Walter to develop "an online encyclopedia of the left" in conjunction with Berman that mimics the Center for Media and Democracy's Sourcewatch.org wiki. CRC wants to focus on the anti-ALEC groups and the Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal funders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This will be a comprehensive, wiki-style resource that provides in-depth profiles of left-of-center individuals and organizations based on the model of the Center for Media and Democracy's website Sourcewatch.org…CRC plans to take a page out of Sourcewatch's playbook by ensuring that its new, wiki-style encyclopedia of the left is thorough, regularly updated and written in a manner that is accurate and measured in order to attract and retain a larger audience. The website will be constructed and in partnership with Berman and Company [where Walter worked briefly as director of development], and CRC is collaborating with ALEC and the Heartland Institute to make use of their data as it builds the new website's profile list," (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Sourcewatch is a widely used resource that significantly influences public opinion regarding the activities of center-right groups and individuals. While there are a number of conservative resources that profile organizations and individuals on the Left (such as David Horowitz's DiscoverTheNetworks.org, Heartland Institute's LeftExposed.org, Berman and Company's ActivistFacts.org and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise's UndueInfluence.com) CDC will build upon and complement their efforts adding value through its more comprehensive coverage, superior search engine optimization, and wiki-style format," (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current members of the Bradley Foundation Board are Richard W. Graber (President), Art Pope (Chairman; Variety Wholesalers), Patrick J. English (Vice Chairman; Fiduciary Management, Inc.), Terry Considine (AIMCO), Curt S. Culver (MGIC), Robert P. George (Princeton University), Victor Davis Hanson (Hoover Institution), Diane Hendricks (ABC Supply Co. and Hendricks Holding Co.), Cleta Mitchell (Foley & Lardner), and James T. Barry III (The Barry Company). Former board members include Michael W. Grebe and George F. Will.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Armiak, Evan James, Nick Surgey, and Lisa Graves contributed research to this series.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC ExposedPublic RelationsState Policy Network</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">old/2x?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://stophumanewatch.org/blog/berman-rebrands-center-for-consumer-freedom-moves-into-new-territory</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">web of lies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman is a corporate lobbyist and PR marketer who makes a living defending the worst corporate abuses. Through his public relations firm, Berman & Company, Inc. — a for-profit company that apparently has no other purpose than to operate Berman’s various faux nonprofits — Berman wages war against legitimate charities, public interest groups, and the facts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman has created more than one hundred deceptive astroturf groups, websites, and “nonprofit” organizations that funnel millions of dollars in tax-exempt corporate donations into his for-profit PR firm — and from there, into his personal bank accounts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s websites are frequently cited in the same breath, as if they were independent sources. That’s a flagrant attempt to deceive the public into thinking that unsupported claims are confirmed by independent sources. In fact, these websites are just sockpuppets for Richard Berman’s astroturfing enterprise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following is a list of astroturf ventures run by Richard Berman. Some have been retired, such as Trans-FatFacts.com, which failed to convince the public that trans-fats are full of cancer-fighting healthiness. Others, like the state-specific anti-union websites, are apparently parked and waiting for an appropriate venue to launch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organizations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Company, Inc.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Organizational Research and Education</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Accountability in Science</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HumaneWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ActivistCash</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Humane Society for Shelter Pets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Beverage Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employee Freedom Action Committee</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First Jobs Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Miscellaneous</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Company, Inc. (BCI)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doing business as: “A/B/See Marketing Research”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg no idea he was (maybe) in on longmont ~ frack ord</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/07/12/bradley-foundation-funds-web-climate-change-deniers/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Armiak</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley Foundation internal documents reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reveal a concerted effort by the organization to delegitimize climate science, while promoting fossil fuel energy development in the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An analysis of Bradley’s climate-related activities shows that the foundation has made significant grants to support energy policy think tanks, attack-dog groups that target environmentalists, and efforts to discredit climate science.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 2013 internal foundation document details how Bradley “instructed staff to explore options…to make more energy-related grants.” The document also notes that the Board gave a “terminal grant” of $263,591 to the Sand County Foundation (SCF), which previously administered the Bradley Fund for the Environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[oh, they cut them off!] legit eg soil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Sand County Foundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">131 W. Wilson Street</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Suite 610</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Madison, WI 53703</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(608) 663-4605</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(608) 299-3745 (fax)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">info@sandcountyfoundation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The documents do not reveal Bradley’s motivation in splitting from SCF, but they do outline a serious effort to promote fossil fuel industry interests at the expense of the environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CENTERS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL AND FOSSIL FUEL DEVELOPMENT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of its push to support studies and public relations to cast doubt on mounting scientific evidence on climate change, Bradley has focused its resources on “Energy Policy Centers,” many of which are housed in “Bradley-supported” State Policy Network (SPN) “think tanks.” SPN is a web of 156 right-wing groups in 49 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Canada, and the UK that receives funding from the billionaire Koch brothers, the Bradley Foundation, and the Roe Foundation, as well as many multi-national corporations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The examined documents show that the Center for Energy Policy and the Environment (CEPE) at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MIPR), a member of SPN, received a total of $500,000 for its Center, with another $200,000 distributed in 2016. (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research GPR, February 23, 2016) CEPE works to promote fossil fuel development despite the devastating effects of climate change. A background document on CEPE states its goal clearly: “The Center’s research and public education activity aims at demonstrating that the United States is poised to reap substantial economic benefits in the form of job creation, lower gasoline and electricity prices, and increased productivity provided public policies allow companies to access valuable energy resources and distribute them at home and abroad.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recommendation by Bradley staff on the Manhattan Institute’s 2016 grant proposal specifically states that CEPE is worth funding because, “They have succeeded in identifying and publicizing so many of the falsehoods that surround energy and the environment.” (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research GPR, February 23, 2016) An example of this “success” can be found in the work of CEPE senior fellow Mark Mills, who is recognized as originating the idea that North America can surpass the Middle East as the largest energy supplier in the world. (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research GPR, November 12, 2013)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Energy Policy Center (EPC) at another SPN “think tank”, the Independence Institute, received $195,000 from the Bradley Foundation between 2012 and 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley documents examined show that EPC’s purpose is to “consciously counter-balance former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s environmental think tank” at Colorado State University, which promotes a “New Energy Economy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley considers EPC to be highly successful in fighting local and federal environmental initiatives. The Bradley documents note that EPC was a “key coalition partner” in preempting local bans on fracking in Colorado, and that it “has developed a toolkit for policymakers, attorneys general, and other conservative state think tanks to help them push back against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.” (Independence Institute GPR, June 2, 2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to these two centers, Bradley has funded the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an “associate member” of SPN, and the Center for Energy Innovation and Independence at Consumers’ Research.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CEE is led by the prominent climate change denier Myron Ebell, who steered Trump’s EPA transition team. Ebell also chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, which brings together right-wing activists and scholars for monthly meetings. The coalition was established on May 6, 1997, “to dispel the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific and risk analysis.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CEI was long tied to tobacco disinformation campaigns, but is now a leading organization in the movement to discredit climate science.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley does not mention how much of its funding to CEI was designated for CEE operations. Between 1986 and 2015, Bradley Foundation gave $2.2 million to CEI, the majority of which was “to support general operations.” (Competitive Enterprise Institute GPR, June 2, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Energy Innovation and Independence received $250,000 from Bradley in 2013 to get the new group off the ground. According to a background document, the group “will closely monitor federal environmental regulations and potentially lay the foundation for multi-state litigation against them, similar to those actions in the Obamacare and Dodd-Frank lawsuits, of which aggressive (Scott) Pruitt was and is a part.” Pruitt is the former AG of Oklahoma and recently resigned as the EPA Administrator under Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMEAR CAMPAIGNS AND FUNDING EFFORTS TO DISCREDIT CLIMATE SCIENCE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the same time Bradley rolled out funding for “Energy Policy Centers,” it was doling out cash to discredit environmental organizations and climate change science.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A grant proposal record for the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a front group created by the close Bradley ally Rick Berman, details an organized effort to weaken the credibility of well-respected, national environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, and Food and Water Watch. (The Center for Consumer Freedom GPR, November 12, 2013) Berman also founded Berman and Company, a notorious Washington, D.C.-based corporate lobbying and PR company known for creating numerous corporate “front groups” and astroturf propaganda campaigns.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s anti-environmental project at CCF was called Big Green Radicals and was seeded with a $150,000 “public education” grant from Bradley in 2013.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Bradley’s background document, the Big Green Radicals project would include the following components:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[N]ew, updated research profiles for NRDC, Food and Water Watch, and Sierra Club; standalone websites for all three organizations; a Facebook group seeded with several thousand fans [sock puppets?]to provide a base for the message; the production of two online videos to explain the real agenda of the environmental left; and Google keyword advertising for members of the media and the public searching for information about one of the targeted groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to providing the start-up funding for Big Green Radicals, Bradley gave $85,000 to the Capital Research Center (CRC), a group led by former Berman and Company employee Scott Walter. The grant was designated for “general operations,” but it may have been used to support the publication Green Watch. A background document on CRC states that, “Green Watch tracks the money flow to environmental nonprofits and critiques their positions, and those of their allies, including their policymaking ones.” (Capital Research Center GPR, August 19, 2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2014, the Bradley Foundation has distributed numerous grants to discredit the vast amount of scientific research demonstrating the harmful effects of climate change. In 2014, it gave $65,000 to the George C. Marshall Institute (GMI), a right-wing front group largely funded by oil and gas interests. Newsweek called GMI “a central cog in the denial machine” in 2007.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GMI folded in late 2015, so Bradley recommended $50,000 in “seed funding” the following year for its “successor organization,” the CO2 Coalition. The coalition is led by a Dr. William Happer, a well-known climate change denier. “We’re doing our best to try and counter this myth that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant. It’s not a pollutant at all,” Happer said at a Heritage Foundation event on energy and climate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another $10,000 Bradley grant in 2014 for the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CSCDGC) went to support its Science & Public Policy Institute (SPPI). A staff recommendation notes that SPPI “has helped demonstrate that no real-world data confirms that floods, draughts [sic], or hurricanes are becoming more frequent or severe, as global-warming alarmists allege. Neither is there any real-world data that sea levels are about to rise precipitously, inundating the world’s coasted [sic] lowlands, as is also often alleged.” (Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change GPR, June 17, 2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ENERGY ROUNDTABLES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents show that, beginning in 2013, Bradley provided funding to the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, also an SPN member, to host and organize two “energy roundtables” a year — one before the Heritage Foundation’s annual Resource Bank meeting, and the other before SPN’s annual fall meeting. (Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy GPR, November 10, 2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The $50,000-per-year grant from Bradley for the meetings was matched “by staff arrangement” by the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), a front group for the energy industry that promotes fossil fuel development and opposes efforts to regulate its activities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Planned and put on in close cooperation with the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), the roundtables allow state think tanks to better promote free-market energy and environmental policies,” one document states. (Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy GPR, November 12, 2013)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attendance has been high at the roundtables, with as many as “67 SPN leaders” attending the event in Denver in September 2014. The agenda for that meeting details presentations from a number of fossil fuel lovers including: Artic Power, Consumer Energy Alliance, Vital for Colorado, Devon Energy, GOPAC (a political action committee that backs and trains Republican candidates), and Freedom Partners. Freedom Partners, a funding conduit for the billionaire Koch brothers, delivered a talk on “Messaging and State Action.” (Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy GPR, November 11, 2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BRADLEY GRANTEES WORKED TOGETHER TO DEFEAT LOCAL REGULATIONS ON FRACKING IN COLORADO</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2014, the Independence Institute and Berman’s Big Green Radicals worked in lockstep in Colorado to defeat local fracking bans, such as the one that passed by ballot measure in Longmont in November of 2013. A 2015 Bradley backgrounder on the Independence Institute praises the anti-fracking work of Independence Institute’s Energy Policy Center, saying, “It has also been a key coalition partner in the movement to stop local and statewide bans on hydraulic fracturing. Last year, current Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper crafted a delicately balanced compromise on local control of oil and gas drilling that removed all initiatives on the issue from the state ballot.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s Big Green Radicals rolled out an attack campaign to discredit anti-fracking efforts in the state in May of 2014. Big Green Radicals assertedthat “extreme groups, mostly based far from Colorado in San Francisco, New York, or Washington D.C., are spending millions and spreading their anti-science message to scare voters into approving ballot measures in November to send the oil and gas industry (and the jobs and affordable energy it provides) packing from the Centennial State.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The efforts by these two groups were successful in overturning local fracking bans. Bradley agreed and decreased its funding recommendation for EPC to $25,000 in 2016, saying, “it is unlikely that there will be any significant developments for EPC in the upcoming months, and therefore staff believes this reduced award is important.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is uncertain where the next battleground for energy development will be for Bradley, but the documents demonstrate that they have the funds to bankroll infrastructure in place to discredit climate science and smear the opposition.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OTHER NOTABLE BRADLEY GRANTS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other significant Bradley grants to support fossil fuel development or dispute climate science in recent years include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$150,000 to Opportunity Ohio for “program activities.” (2016)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$100,000 to Energy and Environment Legal Institute for “transparency practice general.” (2016) HORNER SCHNARE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$20,000 to Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment for “general operations.” (2016)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$200,000 to Competitive Enterprise Institute for “general operations” and “litigation.” (2013, 2015)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$100,000 to The Sand County Foundation for “energy resource development.” (2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$100,000 to National Center for Policy Analysis for “general operations.” (2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$20,000 to Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment for “general operations.” (2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">slate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/08/mad_at_madd.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">saletan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mothers Against Drunk Driving Receives Another 'D' from Charity Rating Guide," shouts the Aug. 24 press release. It notes that the guide's publisher, the American Institute of Philanthropy, "says most highly efficient charities are able to spend 75 percent or more of total expenses on charitable programs. Yet, MADD has spent as little as 61 percent on programs."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sixty-one percent versus 75 percent? That doesn't sound great, but it doesn't sound awful, either. So why the press release?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Look at who's issuing the release: the American Beverage Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABI calls itself "a restaurant trade association, representing America's favorite restaurant chains as well as hundreds of individual restaurants and on-premise retailers." It stands for "the protection of responsible on-premise consumption of adult beverages." In other words, ABI doesn't represent the alcohol industry. It represents places where you might go to drink alcohol before getting in your car to drive home.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hence its war on MADD. ABI wants to weaken drunken-driving regulation by persuading MADD's donors to stop giving money to the organization. To discourage them, ABI argues that MADD has wasted donations and "diverted money" from programs to get "drunk drivers off the roads."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's a touching plea. But if MADD were truly ineffective, ABI would be happy to let MADD's donors go on wasting their money. ABI is trying to defund MADD not because MADD diverts money from drunken-driving crackdowns, but because MADD spends money on drunken-driving crackdowns.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the years, ABI has fought MADD on nearly every alcohol-related issue, from liquor taxes to sobriety checkpoints. Often, the merits are debatable. But ABI doesn't argue for moderation. Like the National Rifle Association, it opposes any restriction, no matter how reasonable. Consider interlocks, which can prevent a car from starting if its driver's breath, as measured by a sensor, exceeds a proscribed blood-alcohol limit. ABI opposes the use of these devices not just for the general public but even for "first-time DUI offenders" with blood-alcohol concentrations below 0.15 percent. (The legal threshold for DUI is 0.08 percent.)   ABI complains that "legislatures are steadily approving legislation aimed at first-time offenders, often drivers who are only one sip above the limit. … This legislation is the first step of anti-alcohol groups toward their long-term goal of universal interlocks."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This extremism is part of a broader pattern. In addition to MADD, ABI is waging PR wars against the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, and other organizations with "very radical agendas." ABI's executive director, Rick Berman, runs a network of lobbying groups that oppose regulation of animal welfare, soda, corn syrup, indoor tanning, and mercury in fish. Berman's Web sites condemn the Humane Society of the United Statesand claim that the "anti-cancer benefits" of tanning "far outweigh the risks associated with over-exposure." In defense of public smoking, Berman asserts a "lack of evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike MADD, Berman doesn't reveal his donors. But over the years, investigative journalists have identified some of them, including Coca-Cola, Wendy's, White Castle, and Outback Steakhouse. And thanks to documents exposed by the 1998 tobacco settlement, you can read Berman's 1995 letters to Philip Morris, in which he obtained $600,000 in seed money for his PR empire by pledging "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." In total, Philip Morris gave Berman nearly $3 million during the three years covered by the documents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I don't know enough about MADD's finances to tell you whether MADD is the best investment of your charitable dollars. I recommend reading MADD's annual reports and tax forms before making that decision. But after researching Berman and his various front groups, I can say this: Any organization Berman has vilified is probably worth giving money to.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD admits it could be more efficient—we "continue to streamline our efforts to be fiscally responsible"—but it cites the poor economy as a big reason for its troubles. Even ABI acknowledges that MADD's top salaries became a bigger share of its spending in part because, during the tenure of MADD's former chief executive, Chuck Hurley—possibly the greatest CEO name ever—"MADD's revenue declined nearly one-quarter," forcing layoffs and program cuts. The logical solution would be to give MADD more money, not less, so that MADD can increase the percentage of revenue it spends on fighting drunken driving. Or, if you're one of Berman's funders, you could cut him off, thereby reducing the money MADD has to waste on overcoming his smears.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But if you decide not to give money to MADD, I'd suggest reallocating your dollars to any of the other nonprofits Berman and ABI have denounced as radical do-gooders, such as the Humane Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, or the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. I don't always agree with these organizations, or with MADD. But if they're pissing off Rick Berman, they must be doing something right.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Correction, Aug. 29, 2011: I originally ended the quote about ABI's interlock position after "offenders." ABI managing director Sarah Longwell argues that I should have included the whole line: ABI is " against ignition interlocks for first-time DUI offenders with low BAC." In retrospect, I think she's right. My point was, and is, that ABI's position against interlocks is extreme because it extends to people who have already been caught driving with blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit. But, to be fair, it does not extend to all such people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although ABI's page of position statements does not define "low BAC" or state its preferred threshold, Longwell, in an email, clarifies ABI's position as follows:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABI supports mandating in-car breathalyzers for drivers caught with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over 0.15 percent (even if it's their first time) or those with a previous drunk-driving offense. However, for someone whose impairment level is below .15 on their first offense, a judge should be trusted to decide whether an ignition interlock is an appropriate punishment. It's wrong to say that ABI opposes interlocks for first-time offenders; rather, ABI supports judicial discretion in the case of low-BAC, first-time offenders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Return to the corrected sentence.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2010 last time? ref 2012</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shown Here:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Introduced in Senate (02/25/2010)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere Act of 2010 or the ROADS SAFE Act of 2010 - Directs the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to carry out a collaborative research effort to continue to explore, and report to specified congressional committees on, the feasibility and the potential benefits of, and the public policy challenges associated with, more widespread deployment of in-vehicle technology to prevent alcohol-impaired driving.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">co 13-3 gop</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Corker, Bob [R-TN]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>02/25/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Begich, Mark [D-AK]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>04/12/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>04/13/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Dorgan, Byron L. [D-ND]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>04/20/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Vitter, David [R-LA]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>04/28/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Lautenberg, Frank R. [D-NJ]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>04/29/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>05/06/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Inouye, Daniel K. [D-HI]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>05/14/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>05/20/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Boxer, Barbara [D-CA]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>05/27/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>05/27/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>06/07/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>09/20/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Dodd, Christopher J. [D-CT]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>09/27/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Franken, Al [D-MN]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>09/27/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID]<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>12/07/2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/senate-bill/3039?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22alcohol%22%2C%22alcohol%22%5D%7D</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref CREW 7/18</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">good lord why?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BERMAN GROUP QUIETLY RAN ANTI TRUMP ADS UNDER OBSCURE TRADE NAME</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.citizensforethics.org/berman-group-quietly-ran-anti-trump-ads-obscure-trade-name/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Matt Corley </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 25, 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In mid-May, Richard Berman, the infamous president of corporate public relations firm Berman and Company, published an op-ed in TheWashington Times decrying an investigation into the lack of female directors in Hollywood because, in his view, “China’s growing direct and indirect control of soft communications like movies and radio” is a greater concern. Calling the probe of gender bias in the film industry a “domestic comedy,” Berman concluded, “instead, let’s focus on the tragedy that is China’s ongoing control of women’s bodies, USA assets and the movie industry.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The column was the first in a series of op-eds by Berman about China’s financial interest in American communications industries that culminated this month with the soft announcement of a new Berman project. Of course, Berman being Berman, he didn’t exactly make it clear that he was promoting his own campaign and gave no indication of who was funding it. Instead, in a post on Independent Journal Review, he simply encouraged readers to watch a video that would “scare” them about Chinese ownership of American radio stations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Security</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The video was hosted on the YouTube page of the Center for American Security, a heretofore unknown entity. The group’s Facebook page, however, gave away the game by initially referring to Berman’s July 1 USA Today op-ed on China as “[o]ur piece” before editing out the reference. The Facebook page also includes a link to a website called China Owns Us, described as “a project of the Center for American Security,” that features a white paper on “China’s Stealth Power Play in the United States.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The website doesn’t have an “About” page or any actual information about what the Center for American Security is. Is it a new non-profit or just a “project” of one of the pre-existing non-profits Berman uses to do work for his clients? Corporate records reveal that it is technically a separate trade name for the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee, a section 501(c)(4) organization that Berman has used to campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act and President Obama’s health care reform efforts:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">enterprise freedom action committee</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unclear what exactly led to Berman’s newfound interest in Chinese ownership of movie theaters and radio stations. He is well-known in Washington, DC for using non-profit groups established and run by his for-profit firm for “shoot the messenger” campaigns on behalf of corporate interests. Berman’s non-profits, which include the Employment Policies Institute and the Center for Organizational Research and Education, have not previously focused on media ownership.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate records also show that the Center for American Security is not the only new project operating out of the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee. Last March, the group also started using the Coalition to Unite America as a trade name. But what is that?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s the name Berman placed on digital ads the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee ran attacking Donald Trump this spring. One ad asked whether Trump represented entertainment or leadership while the other featured children worrying about Trump, including asking why he is “such a bully.” Berman once told a room full of energy executives, “If you want a video to go viral, have kids or animals.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee reported spending $355,000 on independent expenditures opposing Trump to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), viewers of the actual ads would have had no way of knowing Berman’s group was behind the attacks. Neither the videos nor the website that hosts them, Trump-Truth.org, mention the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee, just the Coalition to Unite America. On the flip side, the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee’s filings with the FEC, which were previously reported on by OpenSecrets, make no mention of the Coalition to Unite America.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In effect, by creating and using multiple trade names, Berman is able to distance his own organization from any backlash over the ads. The viewer wouldn’t know the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee was involved while anyone looking at FEC records wouldn’t be able to go find the actual ads for which the group reported paying because they were put out under the Coalition to Unite America’s name. Only someone checking obscure DC corporate records could make the connection between the two names.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related Tags: Donald Trump, Elections, Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">april 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW Staff </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 13, 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last week, Claire Moser of the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress highlighted the role that Richard Berman’s public relations firm, Berman and Co., is playing in a campaign to sell off America’s national forests and public lands. Berman and Co. is notorious for using nonprofit front groups to wage deceptive campaigns on behalf of corporate clients. One of Berman’s employees, Will Coggin, has been spamming newspapers with op-eds arguing that public land management should be moved from the federal government to the states, who are more likely to sell the land for energy development.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Each of Coggin’s nearly identical columns — published under the guise of Berman’s Environmental Policy Alliance project — accuses several sportsmen’s groups who oppose shifting control of public lands of being “green decoys” because they have received some funding from environmentally engaged foundations.  “A quick look at their ‘dark money’ financial backers makes their true motive clear: To lock away land from being utilized for economic growth and jobs,” writes Coggin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It takes a lot of gall for a Berman operative to attack other organizations over “dark money,” especially as part of an attack campaign that appears to have gotten its seed money from a foundation described as “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement” by Mother Jones. In 2013, Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund “dedicated to promoting a free society,” gave $57,250 to Berman’s Center for Consumer Freedom “for hunting organization opposition research.” That same year, the Center for Consumer Freedom reported spending $71,132 on research into “various environmental activist groups and their activities.” The “Green Decoys” project debuted in January 2014.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since launching, Coggin has published at least 29 op-eds and letters-to-the editor attacking groups such as Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, including three more since Moser’s story. None of them mention that Coggin works for Berman and Co., instead listing him as an analyst at either the Center for Consumer Freedom or the Environmental Policy Alliance. Only three mention that the Environmental Policy Alliance’s parent organization, the Center for Organizational Research and Education, “is supported by a variety of businesses and foundations, including those in the hospitality, agriculture and energy industries.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One publication, the Sierra Sun, posted an editor’s note after running a letter last August, writing that Coggin had “misidentified himself as a senior research analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Policy Alliance” and is “is actually employed by Berman and Co.” The note closed with an apology to readers: “the Sierra Sun regrets publishing this misinformation.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coggin’s refusal to admit his own agenda while casting aspersions on others is not the only deceptive aspect of his and Berman’s public lands campaign. In a Washington Examiner op-ed last October about Trout Unlimited’s opposition to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issuing oil and gas leases in Nevada, Coggin cited research by University of Wyoming professor Timothy Considine claiming that up to 208,000 jobs would be created if all of the oil and gas projects on federal lands in seven Western states were approved.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unmentioned by Coggin? Professor Considine’s report was funded by another one of Berman’s front groups, the Employment Policies Institute, and “prepared under a consulting agreement with the Interstate Policy Alliance.” On his curriculum vitae, Professor Considine also lists himself as a consultant for the Interstate Policy Alliance on “energy development on federal lands.” The Interstate Policy Alliance is a project of the Employment Policies Institute that works with the think tanks in the conservative State Policy Network to “support and promote state-based research” from a free market perspective. The Guardian recently documented how the Interstate Policy Alliance is funding research critical of the Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coggin isn’t the only Berman employee to cite Professor Considine’s research while arguing for opening up public lands to development without acknowledging their ties. In June 2014, Anastasia Swearingen, a Berman employee, published op-eds in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Salt Lake Tribune that cited Professor Considine’s research as proof that “radical environmentalists have prevented Western states from reaping enormous economic benefits.” Like the Sierra Sun, the Salt Lake Tribune came to regret describing the op-ed as having been written by a representative of the Environmental Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The column now carries an editor’s note as well: “This commentary originally described the author as a senior research analyst for the Environmental Policy Alliance. In fact, Anastasia Swearingen works for the public relations firm Berman and Co., which manages the Environmental Policy Alliance and represents clients in the energy industry.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related Tags: Corporate, Disclosure, Financial, Governance & Legislation, Lobbying, Organizations, Transparency</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CATEGORIES:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industry Influence (15)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Campaign Finance (7)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Press Releases (6)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ethics & Corruption (5)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lobbying (5)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Transparency (5)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Federal Agencies (4)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOIA (3)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate (2)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corruption (2)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August 4, 2008 WHO IS RICHARD BERMAN? In light of Center for Science in the Public Interest newest investigation "Kids' Meals: Obesity on the Menu," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May 22, 2013 CORPORATE BULLY RICHARD BERMAN On Sunday, the Boston Globe published a front page exposé on Richard Berman’s network of business front groups,  describing his work as “a case study of what critics say is an...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 2, 2014 DR. EVIL MEETS THE KOCHTOPUS: AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY NOW SUPPORTING BERMAN GROUP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like something out of a horror movie, two of the most notorious dark money networks in America have joined forces. Recently released tax filings for 2013 confirm that corporate front...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 17, 2013 RICHARD BERMAN: WORKING HARD AND PLAYING BY THE RULES SHOULDN’T KEEP YOU OUT OF POVERTY Last week, the Washington, D.C. City Council passed living wage legislation requiring very large retailers to pay employees in the District $12.50 an hour. The bill has yet to be...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 3, 2014 ANTI-UNION BERMAN GROUP HIRES LOBBYIST TO PUSH BILL AIMED AT UNDERMINING UNIONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman, who once bragged about his consulting firm's lobbying, now runs away from the lobbyist label as fast as he can.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 12, 2014 HIRE RICK BERMAN’S FOR-PROFIT AND HIS NONPROFIT WILL GO TO WAR FOR YOU </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For much of the last decade, the sugar industry and the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have been at war, fighting over health claims regarding their respective...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 13, 2015 BERMAN LANDS CAMPAIGN SEEDED WITH $57,000 FROM “DARK MONEY ATM”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman's dark money group to attack on national parks and forest.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August 22, 2014 BERMAN ENLISTS INDUSTRY SCIENTIST FOR LATEST PROJECT, FLIP-FLOPS ON CANCER RISK OF TANNING</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Accountability in Science is the latest project hatched by corporate PR man Richard Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 14, 2009 CREW LAUNCHES BERMANEXPOSED.ORG– RIPPING THE CLOAK OF SECRECY AWAY FROM FRONT MAN RICHARD BERMAN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW launches BermanExposed.org to expose the activities of lobbyist Richard Berman, his front groups, projects and the tactics of his firm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 25, 2006 CREW SUES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OVER ANTI-UNION LOBBYIST RICHARD BERMAN’S COMMUNICATIONS Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Department of Labor (DOL) over its refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 25, 2016 BERMAN GROUP QUIETLY RAN ANTI TRUMP ADS UNDER OBSCURE TRADE NAME In mid-May, Richard Berman, the infamous president of corporate public relations firm Berman and Company, published an op-ed in The Washington Times decrying an investigation into the...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 25, 2006 CREW SUES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OVER ANTI-UNION LOBBYIST RICHARD BERMAN’S COMMUNICATIONS Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Department of Labor (DOL) over its refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act... Page 1 of 3123</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wt bs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Rick Berman - - Thursday, June 18, 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ANALYSIS/OPINION:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just in time for Father’s Day, the federal government and automakers have unveiled the perfect gift for Dad — a device to stop him from drinking a beer or two at a ballgame before driving home. In fact, the system is even called DADSS. It’s short for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety — passive, alcohol sensing technology under development for installation in all cars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This paternalistic intrusion into our vehicles is an overreaching solution in search of a problem.[back to classic nanny state big bro paranoia]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Drunk driving used to be punished with little more than a traffic ticket — which was a problem. Then in 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) started a national campaign to strengthen punishments for drunk drivers and educate the public about the dangers of driving drunk. The campaign morphed into ubiquitous public service messages, including “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk,” and “Don’t drink and drive.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The resulting shift in behavior represents one of the most successful examples of developing a new societal norm. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities have been cut in half since the campaign began — in 1980 more than 21,000 Americans died in drunk-driving crashes. In 2013, that number was just over 10,000.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For sober drivers and their companions today, the chances of dying at the hands of a drunk driver are smaller than most people imagine. Consider that in 2013, nearly 80 percent of those killed in drunk-driving crashes were either the drunk drivers themselves or the adults who (presumably) willingly got into the car with an already-impaired driver. Conversely, your exposure to being killed by a drunk driver is one chance in every 1.4 billion miles traveled. That’s nearly 250,000 round trips from New York City to Los Angeles.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, this doesn’t mean that drunk driving isn’t a problem — it is. But much like every crime in society, there will always be that irreducible minimum of violent behavior. And that can’t be affected without an enormous financial cost and surrender to a suffocating police-state mentality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve worked in the hospitality industry for decades. During that time, I’ve watched MADD turn from targeting the chronic, heavily intoxicated repeat-offender drunk drivers to policies aimed at reducing moderate, responsible drinking. Even MADD’s founder, Candy Lightner, who once worked with me on the problem, acknowledged mission creep when she said MADD has “become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DADSS is yet another step toward that neo-prohibition. Both the federal government and MADD admit the goal is to put detection devices in every car. And because an individual’s blood alcohol concentration level rises over time after consumption, the devices to be effective will have to be set with a margin as low as .03 or .04 percent to ensure drivers can’t operate a vehicle while above the current .08 percent legal limit. It means for most adults, driving home after one or two drinks with dinner could be a thing of the past.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there is the issue of electronic-mechanical integrity. Even if these devices are manufactured to the government’s targeted Six Sigma standard of reliability, they’re going to malfunction up to 4,000 times per day nationwide. Sober drivers will be stranded. Drunk drivers will be able to start their cars. And if the technology is slightly less reliable, there could be up to 3 million malfunctions every day.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Considering the trade-offs — possible malfunctions when you can least afford being stuck, a likely end to moderate drinking before driving, and a host of lawsuits surrounding these malfunctions after a crash — installing these devices in every car simply isn’t a proportional response to a diminishing problem. And that says nothing about the added cost to each car that will be paid by every owner. In 2013 there were 2,115 driving-while-intoxicated innocent-victim fatalities. For context, in that same year, 28,851 people died from unintentional poisoning and 6,601 died from unintentional suffocation. More than 25,000 died from falling down at home.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Risk is everywhere, but we don’t ban bleach or plastic bags because if accidentally ingested or used improperly, they can be deadly.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD has made great strides toward protecting innocent people from drunk drivers. Instead of focusing on the remaining problem — chronic drunk drivers who continue to drive while highly intoxicated despite the social stigma, risk to themselves and others, and threat of punishment — the organization wants to punish and or inconvenience all of us.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As difficult an idea as it will seem to some, it’s one more government restraint the evidence doesn’t justify. This Father’s Day, we don’t need DADSS to replace the ones we already have.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• Rick Berman is president of Berman and Co., a Washington public affairs firm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/18/rick-berman-dadss-drink-and-drive-alcohol-detector/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman - - Thursday, June 18, 2015</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ANALYSIS/OPINION:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just in time for Father’s Day, the federal government and automakers have unveiled the perfect gift for Dad — a device to stop him from drinking a beer or two at a ballgame before driving home. In fact, the system is even called DADSS. It’s short for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety — passive, alcohol sensing technology under development for installation in all cars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This paternalistic intrusion into our vehicles is an overreaching solution in search of a problem.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Drunk driving used to be punished with little more than a traffic ticket — which was a problem. Then in 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) started a national campaign to strengthen punishments for drunk drivers and educate the public about the dangers of driving drunk. The campaign morphed into ubiquitous public service messages, including “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk,” and “Don’t drink and drive.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The resulting shift in behavior represents one of the most successful examples of developing a new societal norm. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities have been cut in half since the campaign began — in 1980 more than 21,000 ...[sez lichtener sp mom thinks gone too far?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For sober drivers and their companions today, the chances of dying at the hands of a drunk driver are smaller than most people imagine. Consider that in 2013, nearly 80 percent of those killed in drunk-driving crashes were either the drunk drivers themselves or the adults who (presumably) willingly got into the car with an already-impaired driver. Conversely, your exposure to being killed by a drunk driver is one chance in every 1.4 billion miles traveled. That’s nearly 250,000 round trips from New York City to Los Angeles.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, this doesn’t mean that drunk driving isn’t a problem — it is. But much like every crime in society, there will always be that irreducible minimum of violent behavior. And that can’t be affected without an enormous financial cost and surrender to a suffocating police-state mentality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve worked in the hospitality industry for decades. During that time, I’ve watched MADD turn from targeting the chronic, heavily intoxicated repeat-offender drunk drivers to policies aimed at reducing moderate, responsible drinking. Even MADD’s founder, Candy Lightner, who once worked with me on the problem, acknowledged mission creep when she said MADD has “become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DADSS is yet another step toward that neo-prohibition. Both the federal government and MADD admit the goal is to put detection devices in every car. And because an individual’s blood alcohol concentration level rises over time after consumption, the devices to be effective will have to be set with a margin as low as .03 or .04 percent to ensure drivers can’t operate a vehicle while above the current .08 percent legal limit. It means for most adults, driving home after one or two drinks with dinner could be a thing of the past.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there is the issue of electronic-mechanical integrity. Even if these devices are manufactured to the government’s targeted Six Sigma standard of reliability, they’re going to malfunction up to 4,000 times per day nationwide. Sober drivers will be stranded. Drunk drivers will be able to start their cars. And if the technology is slightly less reliable, there could be up to 3 million malfunctions every day.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Considering the trade-offs — possible malfunctions when you can least afford being stuck, a likely end to moderate drinking before driving, and a host of lawsuits surrounding these malfunctions after a crash — installing these devices in every car simply isn’t a proportional response to a diminishing problem. And that says nothing about the added cost to each car that will be paid by every owner. In 2013 there were 2,115 driving-while-intoxicated innocent-victim fatalities. For context, in that same year, 28,851 people died from unintentional poisoning and 6,601 died from unintentional suffocation. More than 25,000 died from falling down at home.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Risk is everywhere, but we don’t ban bleach or plastic bags because if accidentally ingested or used improperly, they can be deadly.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD has made great strides toward protecting innocent people from drunk drivers. Instead of focusing on the remaining problem — chronic drunk drivers who continue to drive while highly intoxicated despite the social stigma, risk to themselves and others, and threat of punishment — the organization wants to punish and or inconvenience all of us.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As difficult an idea as it will seem to some, it’s one more government restraint the evidence doesn’t justify. This Father’s Day, we don’t need DADSS to replace the ones we already have.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">• Rick Berman is president of Berman and Co., a Washington public affairs firm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">quote shows up here and in beck bk:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">march 2012:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/217573-sarah-longwell-managing-director-american-beverage-institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned," said Lightner in a 2002 Washington Times interview. "I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, MADD has lobbied Congress to enforce its neo-prohibitionist philosophy on all Americans. The Senate Transportation Reauthorization Bill (S. 1813), passed Wednesday, was amended to include funding for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) — a federal program working to create alcohol detection systems for installation in all cars. The bill appropriates $24 million in additional funding over 2 years for the research program. This is a massive increase from the $10 million the program received over the last 5 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration presentation revealed, the program’s big-picture objective mirrors MADD’s extreme interlock agenda: “DADSS in every vehicle.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD once claimed that the use of this technology would be strictly voluntary. Now, as the devices grow close to completion, the story has changed: MADD hopes they’ll be used in all cars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if these alcohol detection devices were manufactured to six sigma standards and 99.99966 percent were default free, it would still mean over 4,000 misreadings per day. That means every day, thousands of sober drivers could find their cars locked down by a faulty interlock– bringing chaos to personal and professional lives as a matter of course.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DADSS supporters claim the alcohol detectors would be voluntary and set at 0.08, but there is a mountain of evidence showing that their true goal is to put alcohol sensing technology in all cars as original equipment, set well below the 0.08 level.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The anti-alcohol movement knows full well that it’s impossible, for physiological and liability reasons, to set interlocks at the 0.08 legal BAC limit. Instead, they’d likely be preset as low as 0.02 – the BAC of an average male after one beer. Under MADD’s rule, you’d better not get any big ideas about that glass of wine at dinner or a champagne toast at your daughter’s wedding.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These new policies would not only decimate America’s hospitality industry, but would have a chilling effect on personal freedom. An America where cars cannot start if an individual has had one serving of alcohol would be far less free, far less prosperous and, in all likelihood, far less friendly. Life would be a cross between the Prohibition era and George Orwell’s 1984. American’s should let their voices be heard on this issue now -- before we let the neo-prohibitionists treat all of us like criminals. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longwell is the managing director of the American Beverage Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABL newlter no name:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Transportation Reauthorization in Limbo; Senate Version Contains DADSS Funding On March 29, Congress passed the 9th extension of current transportation legislation that will keep funding in place through June 30. The current law was set to expire on March 31 should Congress have failed to act. This gives Congress 90 days to work out their differences and, in the case of the House, simply get a longer-term transportation bill passed. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Senate passed a surface transportation reauthorization bill (S. 1813) on March 14 by a vote of 74-22. Transportation reauthorization legislation historically contains alcohol traffic safety provisions; the Senate’s bill this year continues that tradition. S. 1813 allows states to qualify for impaired driving countermeasure funding by implementing effective programs or ignition interlocks (broadly defined).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> It also includes incentive grant language similar to what has been in past transportation bills. S. 1813 also includes funding for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) program of $12 million/year for 2 years. This provision of the Senate legislation was originally introduced as a stand-alone bill (Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere Act of 2011 (S. 510)) by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) on March 8, 2011. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The original House transportation bill did not include DADSS funding. With passage of the Senate bill, the onus is now on the House to pass its own legislation before the expiration of the current law on June 30. Initially, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) introduced a H.R. 7, a five-year reauthorization bill with a price tag of approximately $260 billion. Not expansive enough for House Democrats, the bill also ran into surprisingly strong headwinds from Chairman Mica’s own caucus, with many Republicans lamenting it as too costly. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has signaled that the House could be forced to consider a two-year bill similar to the Senate’s, though just how similar remains to be seen. Senate Democrats are using the relatively broad bipartisan support for their chamber’s bill (Three-fourths of the chamber vote...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">abi links to </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington Times (Washington, DC)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August 6, 2002 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">byline: Sam Bresnahan, THE WASHINGTON TIMES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIDDLETOWN, Va. - The new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving will earn every dime of her annual $75,000 salary this year fighting off critics who say the once all-powerful group has become an organization of prohibitionists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD's new eight-point attack plan is named "Let's Get MADD All Over Again," indicating a worry that the nonprofit group has lost some of its punch, said one MADD vice president.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wendy Hamilton, who has quietly transformed herself from a stay-at-home mother of three into the new president of MADD, must now transform the lobbying efforts of the aging organization - which still commands an impressive $50 million in annual revenues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We really need to kick-start this whole program," said Jan Blaser-Upchurch, MADD's vice president of victim issues. "We need to make people outraged and concerned that this drunk-driving problem has not gone away."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mrs. Hamilton cites the AIDS epidemic as one of the issues that has shifted the limelight away from MADD, as has the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and the Washington area. …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 6, 2002</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIDDLETOWN, Va. The new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving will earn every dime of her annual $75,000 salary this year fighting off critics who say the once all-powerful group has become an organization of prohibitionists. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD's new eight-point attack plan is named "Let's Get MADD All Over Again," indicating a worry that the nonprofit group has lost some of its punch, said one MADD vice president. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wendy Hamilton, who has quietly transformed herself from a stay-at-home mother of three into the new president of MADD, must now transform the lobbying efforts of the aging organization which still commands an impressive $50 million in annual revenues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We really need to kick-start this whole program," said Jan Blaser-Upchurch, MADD's vice president of victim issues. "We need to make people outraged and concerned that this drunk-driving problem has not gone away."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mrs. Hamilton cites the AIDS epidemic as one of the issues that has shifted the limelight away from MADD, as has the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and the Washington area.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm not trying to minimize in any way what happened to our country on that day, because if anybody knows terror, I think the victims of drunk driving certainly do," said Mrs. Hamilton, noting that about 14,000 Americans have been killed in drunk-driving crashes since September.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The organization's plan, which calls for widespread sobriety checkpoints and increased excise taxes on beer, among other measures, has drawn sharp criticism from civil-liberties and consumer-rights advocates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They started off in the 1980s with a legitimate goal. However, like many nonprofits, you have the question: Once you have achieved your goal, what do you do with your organization?" said Martin Wooster, who has written extensively on various philanthropic issues and is a visiting fellow at the Capital Research Center.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to MADD's proposed excise-tax increase on beer, Mr. Wooster points out that such taxes are higher now than they have ever been. "You're punishing every beer drinker in America, and for what reason?" he asked.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD's directors hope their plan will reduce the annual number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities from its current level of about 16,000 down to 10,000. From 1980, the year of MADD's founding, to 1994, the annual drunk-driving death rate decreased 43 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the statistic has leveled off since 1994, prompting some observers to say MADD is now merely flogging a cause that has already been largely accomplished.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Candy Lightner, MADD's founder, says she disassociated herself from the movement in 1985 because she believed the organization was headed in the wrong direction.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned," said Mrs. Lightner, who founded MADD after her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. "I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several years after she left MADD, Mrs. Lightner briefly represented the American Beverage Institute in its fight against the 0.08 percent BAC law. She also lobbied Congress to enforce tougher penalties for drunk drivers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mrs. Hamilton, whose tenure as MADD president began in June, denied her organization is against any and all alcohol consumption. "It's not about people drinking," she said. "It's about people drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car and putting themselves, and everybody else on the highway, at risk."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADD in the past few years has targeted elementary- and middle-school students in their education campaigns against drinking and against alcohol advertising.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also included in MADD's eight-point plan are stricter seat-belt laws in all 50 states, and increased federal funding of alcohol-abuse prevention and education.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With only two years to accomplish all of this, Mrs. Hamilton hit the ground running.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In July, she met with congressmen and other advocacy groups in Washington. Then she was off to a book signing in New York City, the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver and another conference in Montreal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Mrs. Hamilton had been told 30 years ago that she would one day serve in a position of such influence, she probably would have laughed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I went to college to get my 'Mrs.' degree," said Mrs. Hamilton, who happily married at the age of 20 and contentedly remained at home to care for her children. Little did she know a single act of irresponsibility would alter her life's course, indelibly marking her character and catapulting her into a career of activism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That day in 1984 is etched deeply into Mrs. Hamilton's memory. "My mother called me on a beautiful day just like this," she said. "I could tell that something horrible had happened. And she finally said, 'It's Becky and Timmy. They're both dead.'"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Becky was Mrs. Hamilton's 32-year-old sister, and Timmy her 22-month-old nephew. Both were killed after a drunk driver crossed into their lane, causing a head-on collision.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, you don't expect to hear that," Mrs. Hamilton said, as she recalled the memory. Since that day, her life has never been the same. Over the next few weeks, as she grieved over her loved ones, Mrs. Hamilton came to learn of an upstart organization known as MADD.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She feels that small events, like pieces of a puzzle, came together and led her into a life of activism. The week after the funeral, she stumbled upon a MADD bumper sticker while going through Becky's belongings. She saw an article about MADD while reading a magazine. And there was even a MADD chapter in Crown Point, Ind., where she lived at the time a striking coincidence, considering how few chapters existed in 1984, only four years after MADD's founding.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A lot of what's happened to me in my life since then has been just pieces of the puzzle that have been building a picture," Mrs. Hamilton said. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I believe there's a reason why I'm sitting here today," she said, recalling the tragedy that took her sister's life. "That's what I'm doing now, keeping her legacy alive."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sw in main. this is update/reminder:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rick_Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard B. (Rick) Berman is a former labor management attorney and restaurant industry executive who, with his firm Berman & Co., currently works as a Washington, D.C. lobbyist for the food, alcoholic beverage, tobacco industries and, more recently, other industries. Berman & Co. has lobbied for companies such as Cracker Barrel, Hooters, International House of Pancakes, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Steak & Ale, TGI Friday's, Uno's Restaurants, and Wendy's.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has earned the nicknames "Dr. Evil," the "Conservatives' Weapon of Mass Destruction" and the "Astroturf Kingpin" for his repeated use of the strategy of forming dozens of non-profit front groups, attack-dog web sites, and alleged think tanks that defend his corporate clients' interests by attacking their critics, allowing his paying clients to remain out of public view.[1][2]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co.'s many front groups work to counteract minimum wage campaigns, keep wages low for restaurant workers, and to block legislation on food safety, secondhand cigarette smoke, and drunk driving and more.[3] Since 2013, Berman and his Employment Policy Institute "think tank" have led a national fight against campaigns to raise the minimum wage and to provide paid sick leave for workers with renewed attacks on proponents (including the Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of SourceWatch), misleading reports, op-eds, TV and radio ads, and more, as reported by the New York Times.[4] The New York Times has also reported that he "receives millions of dollars from business" in order to wage these campaigns.[5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has also actively campaigned against any attempts to limit smoking in restaurants and bars. In testimony before the New York City Health Oversight Committee, Berman said, "The level of exposure to secondhand smoke for bartenders, waiters and waitresses is considerably lower than the federal air quality limits established by the federal government."[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman is the president, executive director, and board member of the Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE, called the Center for Consumer Freedom/CCF until early 2014).[7] In spite of its former name, CORE is more concerned about industry than the consumer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman is also the executive director and president of the Employment Policies Institute,[8] the Employment Policies Institute Foundation, the American Beverage Institute, and the Center for Union Facts.[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's company had 28 employees and took in $10 million dollars a year as of 2006, but "only Berman and his bookkeeper wife" know how much of the $10 million ends up in their own pockets, according to USA Today.[10]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More recently CMD revealed[11] that the Bradley Foundation is funding a number of Berman's front groups to attack labor, environmental and other groups, as well as to assist and train other Bradley-funded organizations in crisis communications (more below.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents  [hide] </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Bradley Foundation Ties, "Go-To Hire For Corporate Bullies"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>"Management Fees" Syphoning Charity Funds To Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Attacking Labor Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1.3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Attacking Environmental Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Admits to Working for Monsanto</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman behind Movement to Sell off Public Lands</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Pushes Congress to Pass Employee Rights Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Using Front Groups to Attack Barack Obama's New Power Plant Rules</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Exposed in Unguarded Advice to Fossil Fuel Execs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Explains his Playbook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Other Quotes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rick Berman, Dubbed "Dr. Evil" by 60 Minutes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Heads Phony Think Tank, Employment Policy Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Attacks on Raising the Minimum Wage</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Advocating for Food Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Attack on Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club, and NRDC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Deceptive Berman Campaign for Tanning Industry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">13<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Opposing the Americans with Disabilities Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">14<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Defending Alar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ethics Violations</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">16<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Court Ruling against Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">17<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tobacco Industry Involvement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">18<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Pro-Alcohol Industry Activity</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">19<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>People to Call Concerning Experiences with Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">20<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Work History</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">21<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Contact</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Articles and Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Related SourceWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.1.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Berman Front Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Related PRWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>External Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>External Resources</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22.5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>References</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley Foundation Ties, "Go-To Hire For Corporate Bullies"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD's 2017 exposé on the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation revealed that the foundation has given Berman front groups at least $6.5 million.[11]From the exposé,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"According to the Bradley Files, Bradley has given Berman groups at least $6.5 million. Bradley gave Berman's "Employment Policies Institute," an organization that spreads misinformation about the effects of minimum wage increases and other workplace reforms, a total of $3,650,000 between 2009-2015; Berman's "Center for Consumer Freedom," a front group created to undermine public support for food-safety and animal welfare groups, $625,000 between 2009-2013; Berman's "Center for Union Facts," created to attack and undermine unions and collective bargaining, $2,240,000 between 2006-2015."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In addition, Bradley funds the "Capital Research Center" to work with Berman on projects. The Center is not part of the Berman operation, but is run by a former Berman employee, Scott Walter. It received $2.5 million from Bradley between 1998-2015."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Management Fees" Syphoning Charity Funds To Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the CMD exposé,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"While most of Berman's front groups are no more than a website, a few of them have been incorporated as non-profit "charitable" organizations. They may even have an employee attached to them and a specific focus, but as the New York Times detailed in 2016, employees are generally housed at the PR firm Berman and Co. and report to the boss, Rick Berman."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"These "charities" serve the function of allowing groups like Bradley to send tax-exempt funds, which are then funneled into Berman's wholly-owned for-profit entity, Berman and Co., under the rubric of "management fees." This scheme has prompted Charity Navigator, an independent authority on charitable giving, to issue donor warnings on Berman front groups. It has also prompted serious complaints against Berman and Co. for abusing the tax code and engaging in activities for private benefit."[11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attacking Labor Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the CMD exposé,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Bradley is bankrolling multiple Berman front groups along with groups across the nation that are working to "defund Big Labor" and to destroy unions, the most significant advocate for higher wages and better working conditions in America. Berman was caught on tape telling prospective funders: "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions" and "marginalize the people on the other side," as CMD helped reveal in 2014."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The highly political nature of Bradley's efforts is underscored by Bradley grantees who boast in major newspapers and in Bradley-funded publications like the Daily Signal that the evisceration of public and private sector unions in states like Wisconsin and Michigan was successful in turning blue states red in the last presidential election cycle. Bradley even has a promotional video "Blue Lakes Red States," boasting of the success of its numerous grantees."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[. . .]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"More recently, Bradley has funded another Berman front group to "expose Big Labor's strategies and tactics, including in the policymaking arena." Materials included in the Bradley files as examples of Berman's work are a series of print ads accusing teachers of treating kids like garbage and ads that liken teachers' unions to roach traps (Center for Union Facts, Grant Proposal Record, 1/10/2015)."[11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attacking Environmental Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the CMD exposé,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"One of the projects funded by Bradley was the "Big Green Radicals.com" website, which attacks four effective environmental organizations, the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Food and Water Watch. The website says it is a project of the "Environmental Policy Alliance" and does not disclose Berman's involvement. The Bradley files reveal for the first time that the foundation gave $150,000 to a Berman front group [CCF] to fund this website under the misnomer "public education" (Center for Consumer Freedom, Grant Proposal Record, 11/12/2013)."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In recent years, the site has been trashing environmental activists in Colorado. There has been a multi-year throw down between anti-fracking community groups battling it out against the oil and gas industry, and the national environmental groups have been lending a hand."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">""Richard Berman is a go-to hire for corporate bullies. If the Bradley Foundation is paying groups to focus more on political bullying, it makes sense they would support Berman's attacks on environmental advocates," said Connor Gibson of Greenpeace's investigations team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Main article: Berman & Co.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co., a Washington, DC public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman, represents the tobacco industry as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains. Berman & Co. has lobbied for companies such as Cracker Barrel, Hooters, International House of Pancakes, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Steak & Ale, TGI Friday's, Uno's Restaurants, and Wendy's.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman & Co. operates a network of dozens of front groups, attack-dog web sites, and alleged think tanks that work to counteract minimum wage campaigns, keep wages low for restaurant workers, and to block legislation on food safety, secondhand cigarette smoke, and drunk driving and more.[12] In 2013-14, Berman and his Employment Policy Institute "think tank," have led a national fight against campaigns to raise the minimum wage and to provide paid sick leave for workers with renewed attacks on proponents (including the Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of Sourcewatch), misleading reports, op-eds, TV and radio ads and more.[13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Admits to Working for Monsanto</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On May 12, 2016 Berman admitted to advising the controversial corporate giant Monsanto in an interview with the Cato Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I’ve moved people to different points of view over time just by changing the language. You know, I often told Monsanto, I’ll just use one company’s position here, I often told Monsanto they made a very big mistake when they called genetically modified, GMOs, when they call them genetically modified organisms exactly that. Why would you call, why would you tell people it’s safe to eat genetically modified organisms? That’s not the first thing that you think of when you get out of bed in the morning, that I want some genetically modified organisms with my Cheerios. On the other, on the other hand, if they had just called these new foods that they were creating with science, if you call them genetically modified foods, or more importantly, genetically improved foods, so if you called them GIFs, genetically improved foods, rather than GMOs, you immediately would have had a different reaction on the part of the public. And so, I think you could have moved the needle enormously. It wouldn’t have gone so far south if you had just used different language."[14]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Listen to the full interview here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman behind Movement to Sell off Public Lands</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Senate passed Amendment 838, "a non-binding amendment that called for the transfer of public lands, including National Forests, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas, to state control," on March 26, 2015.[15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 51-to-49 vote was mainly along party lines, with Senators Corey Gardner (R-CO), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) joining the Democrats in opposition.[16]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the week of the vote, Will Coggins, a senior research analyst at Berman and Company, took out four nearly identical opinion pieces in Montana, Nevada, and Utah arguing strongly in favor of the transfer of public lands to the states while also attacking hunting and fishing groups as "green decoys."[17][18][19][20]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This coordinated public relations campaign suggests that Berman and Company is behind the movement to sell off public lands, AllGov reports.[15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to the amendment's passage and the opinion pieces written by Berman and Company, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Executive Director Land Tawney wrote, "Nationally, an organized, concerted movement is underway to sell off and limit access to America's public lands and waters. These are not merely the actions of a lunatic fringe. Now is the time to double down and fight back against this ill-conceived idea."[21]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Think Progress reports that "[l]egal scholars have noted that these so-called 'land transfer' schemes are unconstitutional, economic analyses have found them to be fiscally reckless, and sportsmen's groups argue that they would result in diminished public access for hunting and fishing."[22]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Pushes Congress to Pass Employee Rights Act</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Toward the end of 2014 and into 2015, Berman, Newt Gingrich, and various Berman front groups began pushing Congress to pass the so-called "Employee Rights Act," a bill whose seven provisions are designed to further weaken unions and make it even harder for workers to organize. For example, on March 9, 2015, LaborPains.org, the joint blog of Berman front groups the Center for Union Facts and the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee, published a post encouraging Congress to pass the "Employee Rights Act," claiming a connection with Scott Walker's signing of a bill to make Wisconsin a so-called "Right to Work" state.[23]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The post followed months of opinion pieces taken out in major newspapers across the United States by Berman, Gingrich, Michael Saltsman, or various combinations of the three in support of the legislation.[24][25][26][27][28][29]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although the "Employee Rights Act" claims to protect workers' rights, it does the opposite. San Francisco State University Professor John A. Logan noted:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In a recent Washington Post op-ed, right-wing lobbyists Rick Berman and Newt Gingrich urged the new Republican Congress to enact the ludicrously mistitled "Employee Rights Act" (ERA), a bill so reactionary it could have been penned by the Koch brothers themselves. In the name of 'protecting' employee rights, the ERA would make it extraordinarily difficult for workers to choose unions and would give a virtual pass to unscrupulous corporations that coerce and intimidate employees. While it won't become law while the Democrats control the White House, the ERA provides an illustration of the draconian legislation that Republicans will unleash on workers if they win control of both the presidency and the Congress in 2016."[30]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Using Front Groups to Attack Barack Obama's New Power Plant Rules</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Guardian uncovered in February 2015 that "Berman has secretly routed funding for at least 16 studies and launched at least five front groups attacking Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting carbon dioxide from power plants."[31] The Berman front Employment Policies Institute funded the reports, which were carried out by the Beacon Hill Institute, an ALEC-allied member of the right-wing State Policy Network (SPN) headquartered on the campus of Suffolk University.[31] The Beacon Hill Institute received $41,500 from the Employment Policies Institute to research the effects of the EPA rules.[31] According to The Guardian, "The reports, claiming the power plant rules would lead to rolling blackouts, send electricity prices skyrocketing, and devastate local economies, are being published in 16 states by a network of pro-corporate and ultra-conservative thinktanks."[31]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Guardian quoted Jay Duffy of Clean Air Task Force when it reported that the Beacon Hill Institute's research and analysis are not academically rigorous: "BHI's interpretation of EPA's analysis just doesn’t hold up... BHI has skewed timelines, underestimated the social cost of carbon, and overestimated the effect on electricity prices. As a result, their study badly inflates the costs and minimises the benefits of EPA’s draft rules."[31]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Exposed in Unguarded Advice to Fossil Fuel Execs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD posted new audio exposing Rick Berman's corporate PR spin machine in October 2014. Listen to the audio here:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">File:Berman presentation.mp3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read more about this story on CMD's PRWatch here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On October 30, 2014, the New York Times broke the news that a speech Rick Berman had given to oil and gas executives at an event sponsored by the Western Energy Alliance in Colorado Springs in June 2014 had been secretly taped, and that Berman told those gathered that "if the oil and gas industry wants to prevent its opponents from slowing its efforts to drill in more places, it must be prepared to employ tactics like digging up embarrassing tidbits about environmentalists and liberal celebrities."[8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attendees included representatives from Anadarko Petroleum,[8] Halliburton Company, ExxonMobil, Devon Energy, and Noble Energy.[32]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman told the executives they "must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups. And major corporations secretly financing such a campaign should not worry about offending the general public because 'you can either win ugly or lose pretty,' he said. 'Think of this as an endless war,' Mr. Berman told the crowd... 'And you have to budget for it,'" according to the Times.[8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg also reported on the leaked audio, noting that "Berman offered companies a way to anonymously target their environmental foes -- at a cost of as much as $3 million."[32]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg spoke to Pennsylvania’s former top natural-gas regulator Michael Krancer, who said that industry supporters have no choice but to take Berman's advice and play dirty: "There is an anti-fossil fuel movement, and a very well-funded lobbying campaign is behind it," he told Bloomberg. "These are people who want to live in a dream world."[32]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman Explains his Playbook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's remarks to his audience revealed a kind of Ten Commandments from his playbook:[33]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Screw" your enemy. Berman boasted about his obsession with unions and his attack on their efforts to raise the minimum wage for American workers: "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Marginalize" your opponents. Berman described his tactics against public interest groups: "wherever possible I like to use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Demolish the moral authority" of powerful public interest voices: "I got George McGovern to come out and say that unions were wrong. I represent some alcohol companies, I got Candy Lightner, who started Mothers Against Drunk Driving, to come out and say that MADD was overreaching and that she endorsed our position, our client position, rather than the MADD position. That is a demolishing of moral authority." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Make it personal." Berman's associate Hubbard described how they go after concerned citizens who dare to challenge their clients: "we do have a section on every single activist. Their rap sheets, their criminal records they have. We’re really making this personal. We’re trying to make it so they don't have any credibility with the public, with the media, or with the legislators." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Brand" whole movements as "not credible." Berman & Co. detailed their game plan to try to marginalize people concerned about fracking, as noted by Bloomberg media:[32] "what we wanted to do is that we wanted to brand the entire movement behind this as not being credible, and anti-science." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Being "nasty" wins. Berman shakes off concerns that his activities are too nasty or aggressive, saying "you can either win ugly or lose pretty." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Push "fear and anger." Berman talked about pushing people's emotional buttons on fear, love, anger, greed, and sympathy, stating: "you could not get into people's heads and convince them to do something as easily as you could get into their hearts or into their gut to convince to do something. Because, emotions drive people much better than intellectual epiphanies." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Treat public policy as "endless war." Berman recognized that the public interest groups are appealing to the American people: "If you think about it these groups, the Sierra Club, who is the natural enemy of the Sierra Club? Who is the enemy of Greenpeace? You know at the surface, you would love to be a group like that because everyone should be in favor of you, who could be against you? That’s very difficult to over come and they play on that, and they trade on that, and that's our opportunity and also our challenge. So it is an endless war." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Give corporate cash "total anonymity." Berman reassured his audience that he can keep their role in these tactics secret: "We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don't know who supports us. We've been doing this for 20 something years in this regard. And to the degree to anybody is concerned about that I will tell you there are all sorts of ways, all sorts of firewalls that have been established to get this done on an anonymous" basis. He added: "I am religious about not allowing company names to ever get used. At least I'm not going to allow them to get used. And I don't want companies to ever admit that because it does give the other side a way to diminish our message." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tear down celebrities who speak out. Berman's associate Hubbard noted that taking down celebrities who speak up is a key part of their strategy because: "the problem is that the public really does have a celebrity worship culture. But the good news is that there is nothing the public likes more than tearing down celebrities and playing up the hypocrisy angle." Listen to this clip here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other Quotes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a transcript of his talk, Berman also said:[34]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I get up every morning and I try to figure out how to screw with the labor unions -- that's my offense."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"If you want a video to go viral, have kids or animals... Use humor to minimize or marginalize the people on the other side."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"There is nothing the public likes more than tearing down celebrities and playing up the hypocrisy angle."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"People always ask me one question all the time: 'How do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?' We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They characterize us in a campaign as being the guys with the black helicopters. And to some degree, that's true. We’re doing stuff to diminish the other sides' ability to operate."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman, Dubbed "Dr. Evil" by 60 Minutes</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/05/13240/bradley-foundation-bankrolls-front-groups-richard-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) pull back the curtain on the highly politicized funding of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and its relationship with Richard Berman, the public relations spin doctor dubbed a "hired gun" for corporate America by 60 Minutes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley is bankrolling multiple Berman front groups along with groups across the nation that are working to "defund Big Labor" and to destroy unions, the most significant advocate for higher wages and better working conditions in America. Berman was caught on tape telling prospective funders: "I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions" and "marginalize the people on the other side," as CMD helped reveal in 2014.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The highly political nature of Bradley's efforts is underscored by Bradley grantees who boast in major newspapers and in Bradley-funded publications like the Daily Signal that the evisceration of public and private sector unions in states like Wisconsin and Michigan was successful in turning blue states red in the last presidential election cycle. Bradley even has a promotional video "Blue Lakes Red States," boasting of the success of its numerous grantees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has mastered the dark art of dissemination disinformation though front groups, websites, TV and print ads and paid social media campaigns. While most of Berman's front groups are no more than a website, a few of them have been incorporated as non-profit "charitable" organizations. They may even have an employee attached to them and a specific focus, but as the New York Times detailed in 2016, employees are generally housed at the PR firm Berman and Co. and report to the boss, Rick Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These "charities" serve the function of allowing groups like Bradley to send tax-exempt funds, which are then funneled into Berman's wholly-owned for-profit entity, Berman and Co., under the rubric of "management fees." This scheme has prompted Charity Navigator, an independent authority on charitable giving, to issue donor warnings on Berman front groups. It has also prompted serious complaints against Berman and Co. for abusing the tax code and engaging in activities for private benefit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley Files suggest that the foundation is quite comfortable with the Berman shell game. Bradley board documents characterize Berman's confusing jumble of front groups and websites as a "collaborative cluster of nonprofit groups" and reveal for the first time that Bradley itself created a Berman project called the "Interstate Policy Alliance" within Berman's Employment Policies Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an ethics watchdog group, filed an IRS complaint against Berman some years ago and helps track the flack's activities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When a company or a foundation gives money to Richard Berman or one of the groups set up and run by his consulting firm, they're investing in his way of doing business, which includes exploiting 'fear and anger' to 'shoot the messenger,' usually in defense of issues his clients don't want to be publicly identified with," said Matt Corley, CREW Research Director.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One example is Berman's "BigGreenRadicals.com" website, an attack on four environmental organizations, the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Food and Water Watch. The website says it is a project of the "Environmental Policy Alliance" and does not disclose Berman's involvement. The Bradley files reveal for the first time that the foundation gave $150,000 to a Berman front group to fund this website under the misnomer "public education" (Center for Consumer Freedom, Grant Proposal Record, 11/12/2013).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years, the site has been trashing environmental activists in Colorado. There has been a multi-year throw down between anti-fracking community groups battling it out against the oil and gas industry, and the national environmental groups have been lending a hand.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Richard Berman is a go-to hire for corporate bullies. If the Bradley Foundation is paying groups to focus more on political bullying, it makes sense they would support Berman's attacks on environmental advocates," said Connor Gibson of Greenpeace's investigations team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More recently, Bradley has funded another Berman front group to "expose Big Labor's strategies and tactics, including in the policymaking arena." Materials included in the Bradley files as examples of Berman's work are a series of print ads accusing teachers of treating kids like garbage and ads that liken teachers' unions to roach traps (Center for Union Facts, Grant Proposal Record, 1/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley enemies list - sidebarBradley even has an enemies list.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In board meetings and committee meetings in 2014, Bradley Foundation staff distributed and discussed a chart of "Organizations that Attack Conservatives." The chart lists 17 groups with information about their size, funders, and leadership. The groups are a mixture of good government groups, media groups, public relations firms, and funding organizations including, in alphabetical order:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alliance for Justice; American Bridge, BerlinRosen; Center for American Progress/Think Progress Blog; Center for Media and Democracy; Change.org; Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW); Color of Change; Common Cause; Democracy Alliance; Fenton Communications; FitzGibbon Media; Media Matters for America; Mother Jones, One Wisconsin Now; Open Society Institute; and Progress Now.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A note with the chart says Bradley wanted to "survey the landscape of such groups for a more informed perspective about that which could perhaps be done to mitigate the damage they could do." The note says the information about the groups came from two Berman websites "Activistfacts.com and CREWexposed.com, projects of the Bradley-supported Center for Consumer Freedom" (Meeting of the Implementation and Impact Committee, October 14, 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through Berman, the Bradley Foundation can engage in unseemly opposition research and disinformation campaigns, while still keeping the appearance of a staid, philanthropic institution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the Bradley Files, Bradley has given Berman groups at least $6.5 million. Bradley gave Berman's "Employment Policies Institute," an organization that spreads misinformation about the effects of minimum wage increases and other workplace reforms, a total of $3,650,000 between 2009-2015; Berman's "Center for Consumer Freedom," a front group created to undermine public support for food-safety and animal welfare groups, $625,000 between 2009-2013; Berman's "Center for Union Facts," created to attack and undermine unions and collective bargaining, $2,240,000 between 2006-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley funds the "Capital Research Center" to work with Berman on projects. The Center is not part of the Berman operation, but is run by a former Berman employee, Scott Walter. It received $2.5 million from Bradley between 1998-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for all intents and purposes, the Bradley foundation is underwriting the activities of three people: Berman and Co. President Richard Berman, Vice President Sarah Longwell (who is often listed as the contact for Center for Consumer Freedom and many other Berman groups), and Vice President Michael Saltsman (who is also listed as the head of the Employment Policy Institute, which is located within Berman's offices).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley bankrolls Berman for at least three sets of activities:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disseminating studies via the Interstate Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommending state infrastructure investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coaching on "crisis communication" and opposition research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dissemination of Studies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's Employment Policies Institute (EPI) was named to confuse the public with an actual think tank, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which employs a host of PhD-level economists and other support staff. Berman's EPI has no economists on staff, but does employ "Research Director" Michael Saltsman, who has no advanced degree. MSNBC's Chris Hayes pinned Saltsman down on that point in a remarkable interview.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2013, Bradley earmarked $300,000 for a new Berman project within EPI called the Interstate Policy Alliance (IPA). In 2014, the grant for the same work doubled to $600,000 and included "crisis communication" for Bradley-funded groups on the receiving end of bad publicity, and in 2015, Bradley provided $400,000. Click here for a full list of Berman IPA groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley documents describe IPA as a "discrete channel" for "studies" that could be utilized by state-based groups "to achieve maximum credibility in local and social media outlets."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Created at Bradley's behest in 2012 and with continuing Bradley support since then, IPA is a discreet channel for the better coordination and presentation of helpful, high-quality research on existing and proposed state-level, free-market policies around the country. It provides this research, too often out of reach for many small state think tanks, and customizes it for each state to achieve maximum credibility in local- and social-media outlets. The Searle Freedom Trust has joined Bradley in support of the project" (Barder Fund, August 18, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State think tanks participating in Berman's IPA, which include Wisconsin's Bradley-supported MacIver Institute, do not have to pay for the research or its packaging or dissemination. They are able to easily access data that has been uploaded to a password-protected website. As needed, Berman's IPA also helps with report writing, graphic design, news release preparation, op-ed placement and the scheduling of interviews, (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015 ).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute revealed how IPA operated, when it reported that the Beacon Hill Institute was releasing misleading studies attacking President Obama's Clean Power Plan, an ambitious multi-year effort to cut carbon pollution and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. The funding for the study came through the previously unknown group called the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In many of its sponsored research "studies," IPA promotes fossil fuel development over renewables. This has been a long-term agenda item of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate funded bill mill and many State Policy Network "think tanks" and advocacy groups funded by Bradley. In addition, the Bradley documents examined by CMD show Bradley is funding numerous climate denial groups, including Myron Ebell's Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One IPA report, touts the tens of billions of revenue North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia might gain from offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic Ocean.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another report argues that fossil fuel development of federal lands in seven Rocky Mountain states will grow the economies at a faster pace than renewables.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another promotes the transfer of federal lands to states, claiming that revenues from taxes and fees will rapidly flow to states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet another study criticizes the Renewable Portfolio Standards in 29 states and D.C. as costly to consumers, while ignoring any benefits to jobs or the environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Infrastructure Investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files reveal that the foundation has a previously undisclosed stream of funding to build right-wing infrastructure nationwide and is using a metric to assess the strength and depth of the infrastructure in individual states a phenomenon that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has dubbed the Bradley Blueprint.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, Bradley asked Berman's IPA and the allied Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. to conduct an assessment of "second tier" states for consideration as "potential targets of opportunity" to enhance their infrastructure investments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files also laud Berman & Co.'s Vice President Saltsman, who is described variously in Bradley documents as the "executive director" of EPI and "executive director" of IPA. "The talented and energetic Saltsman's IPA experience has exposed him to many of the strengths and weaknesses of the mid-sized state think tanks and conservative infrastructure around the country."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CRC/IPA evaluation of the quality and potential of states' existing conservative infrastructure and recommended investments in eight states: Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and California in that order. The documents note "(Given IPA's Bradley supported role in trying to help all state think tanks, they were quite keen on the report's contents being kept confidential)" (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley asked Saltsman "to discreetly consult with ALEC's Lisa Nelson, ATRF's Grover Norquist, and Ned Ryun of the also Bradley-supported American Majority" on what states should get funding (Barder Fund, 8/18/15).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The advisors named Colorado a top tier priority. Not only is Colorado an important swing state, but Coloradan Terry Considine is on the Bradley Board of Directors. Considine is a failed Colorado politician, but a dedicated right-winger who has long served on the Board of Directors of Club for Growth, the national dark money group. AIMCP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The political nature of Bradley's investment in this swing state is made clear in a report "Colorado state-infrastructure recommendations" included in the Bradley documents. "Colorado is an important swing state with a broad base of center-right organizations and donors," writes Bradley. The report discusses "The Gang of Four" liberal funders in the state who were featured in an "attention-getting" book called "The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care)," which details how a small group of Democratic donors helped turn the state blue. The book made a big impression on Bradley staff; a picture of the cover is included in the Bradley documents multiple times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Bradley wants to fund institutions in Colorado in an effort to swing the pendulum back again. Bradley recommends five specific grants, including two that illustrate the political nature of the endeavor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommends $125,000 to American Majority for 2016. The grant asks for support for a new field office in the I-25 corridor, an executive director, field staffer and intern. "They would coordinate with Centennial [Institute] and Independence [Institute] to identify, train and nurture mentoring relationships with conservative Coloradans." American Majority is an organization that trains candidates to run for office. It claims to be nonpartisan, but was founded by Republicans to train Republicans (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommended $250,000 to the Independence Institute in 2016. The Independence Institute is a State Policy Network member heavily funded by Bradley for both its work on climate issues and its anti-union work. The Bradley documents say it is led by "the charmingly bombastic Jon Caldara" "who has lead the creation of one of the more-effective conservative state infrastructures." But that infrastructure has a problem. "Colorado has 3,600 local governments."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Not only does the left exercise its power and coercion through these governments, he and [the Independence Institute] believe, but it uses them as farm teams to groom people for higher office." Caldera wants to counter this problem and "build a better bench" for the right-wing by compiling a database of every appointed and elected position in Jefferson County and conducting outreach to these officials. The Institute would coordinate its activities with American Majority, the Centennial Institute and the Leadership Program of the Rockies. Staff recommended $75,000 for this later institution (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These two investments appear to be exactly the type of political spending that might run afoul of IRS rules for permissible non-profit activity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other Colorado grantees included Colorado Christian University for its Centennial Institute ($75,000), Leadership Program of the Rockies ($75,000) and the Steamboat Institute ($50,000).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Crisis Communications" and Opposition Research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley has also bankrolled the Berman team for a communications program for many years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Also at Bradley's behest in 2012, CCF [Center for Consumer Freedom] created a related crisis-communications program for state infrastructures. It has been led by Berman vice president Sarah Longwell, formerly director of public affairs at the Bradly-supported Intercollegiate Studies Institute... CCF has consistently exposed the agenda of the activist groups that seek to attack personal freedom and its allies" (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This crisis communication work as described by Bradley relates directly to the successful, grassroots campaigning against ALEC that was sparked in 2011 after CMD published more than 800 ALEC "model bills" secretly voted on by corporate lobbyists and legislators on its website ALECexposed.org in 2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To quote from the Bradley files:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In the wake of the media firestorm that engulfed the American Legislative Exchange Council last year, it was clear that a new group of influential, media-savvy activist outfits have emerged—along with a new group of targets that includes state think tanks and other entities including foundations. The Gates Foundation, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Walmart, Johnson and Johnson, McDonalds and Wendy's are just a few of the funders that cut ties to ALEC following the media onslaught generated by activists who successfully linked it to the shooting of Trayvon Martin."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"ALEC never saw it coming. Neither really did the Heartland Institute or Chick-fil-A see what was coming when they subsequently have been on the receiving end of similar onslaughts. Caught flat footed as the media charged ahead with the 'Stand Your Ground' story, ALEC had no rapid-response strategy in place to combat this runaway narrative. Berman and Co.'s advice to ALEC to be more aggressive in its response was not followed. The 'I stand with ALEC website' came much too late and brought far too little to its defense" (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are "case studies," writes Bradley staff, and "cautionary tales" for any conservative organization. Now Bradley wants to fund CCF for an "off the shelf public relations strategy for use by any such conservative outfit caught in the media crosshairs."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Already-prepared "well sourced opposition research" is key, says the Bradley grant document:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Just as CMD was able build an online dossier on ALEC that provided activists and sympathetic journalists with a base of research, so too is CCF using its data and information to build a 'bigger and better clearinghouse of research on groups within the wider left-wing network' as part of a rapid response strategy."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF boasts of training Bradley-supported "think tanks" across the nation that are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), such as North Carolina's Civitas Institute, Michigan's Mackinac Center, and Washington State's Freedom Foundation. CCF asks Bradley for support to expand this type of opposition research and training to the rest of the SPN network and the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a grant proposal record, "Full Service Menu" of Berman Center for Consumer Freedom services would include, 1) support for two or three studies a year, 2) op-ed drafting and placement, 3) drafting and sending of news releases on the groups behalf, 4) compiling a media list of reporter contacts, 5) ad buying for television, radio, print and online, 6) crisis communication assistance and in-state infrastructure seminars (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley is recommending a $200,000 grant in renewed support for ALEC in 2016 as it continues to build a "comprehensive communications infrastructure" in response to citizen campaigns targeting its funders. The grant summary reads: "ALEC has been under sustained, organized attack from the Left for several years, as well-documented in Bradley Prize recipient Kimberly Strassel's new book The Intimidation Game: How the Left Silences Free Speech. Under Executive Director Lisa Nelson and at Bradley's urging, ALEC is aggressively, but thoughtfully responding." "The plan consciously mimics the Left's Citizen Engagement Laboratory (CEL)...the parent organization of Forecast the Facts and Color of Change."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC also redesigned and beefed up its website, deployed more social media, and partnered with CrowdSkout a data analytics company to track, view and engage supporters (ALEC, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley outlines the bigger game plan for ALEC: "The larger plan also has an important component for aggressive 'opposition research,' which has yielded many beneficial outcomes, including to Strassel for her helpful book, among others." This last comment in the Bradley documents suggests that ALEC provided Wall Street Journal editorial writer Kim Strassel with information for her book Intimidation Game. In it, Strassel portrayed the sustained citizen campaigning against ALEC as a well-funded, nefarious effort to crush the "free speech" rights of ALEC and its enormous funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and ALTRIA/Phillip Morris (Strassel received a $250,000 Bradley Prize in 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of its opposition research funding, Bradley recommended $115,000 in 2016 for the Capital Research Center run by Bradley-ally Scott Walter to develop "an online encyclopedia of the left" in conjunction with Berman that mimics the Center for Media and Democracy's Sourcewatch.org wiki. CRC wants to focus on the anti-ALEC groups and the Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal funders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This will be a comprehensive, wiki-style resource that provides in-depth profiles of left-of-center individuals and organizations based on the model of the Center for Media and Democracy's website Sourcewatch.org…CRC plans to take a page out of Sourcewatch's playbook by ensuring that its new, wiki-style encyclopedia of the left is thorough, regularly updated and written in a manner that is accurate and measured in order to attract and retain a larger audience. The website will be constructed and in partnership with Berman and Company [where Walter worked briefly as director of development], and CRC is collaborating with ALEC and the Heartland Institute to make use of their data as it builds the new website's profile list," (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Sourcewatch is a widely used resource that significantly influences public opinion regarding the activities of center-right groups and individuals. While there are a number of conservative resources that profile organizations and individuals on the Left (such as David Horowitz's DiscoverTheNetworks.org, Heartland Institute's LeftExposed.org, Berman and Company's ActivistFacts.org and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise's UndueInfluence.com) CDC will build upon and complement their efforts adding value through its more comprehensive coverage, superior search engine optimization, and wiki-style format," (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current members of the Bradley Foundation Board are Richard W. Graber (President), Art Pope (Chairman; Variety Wholesalers), Patrick J. English (Vice Chairman; Fiduciary Management, Inc.), Terry Considine (AIMCO), Curt S. Culver (MGIC), Robert P. George (Princeton University), Victor Davis Hanson (Hoover Institution), Diane Hendricks (ABC Supply Co. and Hendricks Holding Co.), Cleta Mitchell (Foley & Lardner), and James T. Barry III (The Barry Company). Former board members include Michael W. Grebe and George F. Will.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/05/09/bradley-foundation-bankrolls-front-groups-richard-berman/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) pull back the curtain on the highly politicized funding of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and its relationship with Richard Berman, the public relations spin doctor dubbed a “hired gun” for corporate America by 60 Minutes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley is bankrolling multiple Berman front groups along with groups across the nation that are working to “defund Big Labor” and to destroy unions, the most significant advocate for higher wages and better working conditions in America. Berman was caught on tape telling prospective funders: “I get up every morning and I try and figure out how to screw with the labor unions” and “marginalize the people on the other side,” as CMD helped reveal in 2014.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The highly political nature of Bradley’s efforts is underscored by Bradley grantees who boast in major newspapers and in Bradley-funded publications like the Daily Signal that the evisceration of public and private sector unions in states like Wisconsin and Michigan was successful in turning blue states red in the last presidential election cycle. Bradley even has a promotional video “Blue Lakes Red States,” boasting of the success of its numerous grantees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has mastered the dark art of dissemination disinformation though front groups, websites, TV and print ads and paid social media campaigns. While most of Berman’s front groups are no more than a website, a few of them have been incorporated as non-profit “charitable” organizations. They may even have an employee attached to them and a specific focus, but as the New York Times detailed in 2016, employees are generally housed at the PR firm Berman and Co. and report to the boss, Rick Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These “charities” serve the function of allowing groups like Bradley to send tax-exempt funds, which are then funneled into Berman’s wholly-owned for-profit entity, Berman and Co., under the rubric of “management fees.” This scheme has prompted Charity Navigator, an independent authority on charitable giving, to issue donor warnings on Berman front groups. It has also prompted serious complaints against Berman and Co. for abusing the tax code and engaging in activities for private benefit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley Files suggest that the foundation is quite comfortable with the Berman shell game. Bradley board documents characterize Berman’s confusing jumble of front groups and websites as a “collaborative cluster of nonprofit groups” and reveal for the first time that Bradley itself created a Berman project called the “Interstate Policy Alliance” within Berman’s Employment Policies Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an ethics watchdog group, filed an IRS complaint against Berman some years ago and helps track the flack’s activities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When a company or a foundation gives money to Richard Berman or one of the groups set up and run by his consulting firm, they’re investing in his way of doing business, which includes exploiting ‘fear and anger’ to ‘shoot the messenger,’ usually in defense of issues his clients don’t want to be publicly identified with,” said Matt Corley, CREW Research Director.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One example is Berman’s “BigGreenRadicals.com” website, an attack on four environmental organizations, the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Food and Water Watch. The website says it is a project of the “Environmental Policy Alliance” and does not disclose Berman’s involvement. The Bradley files reveal for the first time that the foundation gave $150,000 to a Berman front group to fund this website under the misnomer “public education” (Center for Consumer Freedom, Grant Proposal Record, 11/12/2013).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent years, the site has been trashing environmental activists in Colorado. There has been a multi-year throw down between anti-fracking community groups battling it out against the oil and gas industry, and the national environmental groups have been lending a hand.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Richard Berman is a go-to hire for corporate bullies. If the Bradley Foundation is paying groups to focus more on political bullying, it makes sense they would support Berman’s attacks on environmental advocates,” said Connor Gibson of Greenpeace’s investigations team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More recently, Bradley has funded another Berman front group to “expose Big Labor’s strategies and tactics, including in the policymaking arena.” Materials included in the Bradley files as examples of Berman’s work are a series of print ads accusing teachers of treating kids like garbage and ads that liken teachers’ unions to roach traps (Center for Union Facts, Grant Proposal Record, 1/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sidebar- Bradley Enemies ListBradley even has an enemies list.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In board meetings and committee meetings in 2014, Bradley Foundation staff distributed and discussed a chart of “Organizations that Attack Conservatives.” The chart lists 17 groups with information about their size, funders, and leadership. The groups are a mixture of good government groups, media groups, public relations firms, and funding organizations including, in alphabetical order:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alliance for Justice; American Bridge, BerlinRosen; Center for American Progress/Think Progress Blog; Center for Media and Democracy; Change.org; Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW); Color of Change; Common Cause; Democracy Alliance; Fenton Communications; FitzGibbon Media; Media Matters for America; Mother Jones, One Wisconsin Now; Open Society Institute; and Progress Now.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A note with the chart says Bradley wanted to “survey the landscape of such groups for a more informed perspective about that which could perhaps be done to mitigate the damage they could do.” The note says the information about the groups came from two Berman websites “Activistfacts.com and CREWexposed.com, projects of the Bradley-supported Center for Consumer Freedom” (Meeting of the Implementation and Impact Committee, October 14, 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through Berman, the Bradley Foundation can engage in unseemly opposition research and disinformation campaigns, while still keeping the appearance of a staid, philanthropic institution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the Bradley Files, Bradley has given Berman groups at least $6.5 million. Bradley gave Berman’s “Employment Policies Institute,” an organization that spreads misinformation about the effects of minimum wage increases and other workplace reforms, a total of $3,650,000 between 2009-2015; Berman’s “Center for Consumer Freedom,” a front group created to undermine public support for food-safety and animal welfare groups, $625,000 between 2009-2013; Berman’s “Center for Union Facts,” created to attack and undermine unions and collective bargaining, $2,240,000 between 2006-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley funds the “Capital Research Center” to work with Berman on projects. The Center is not part of the Berman operation, but is run by a former Berman employee, Scott Walter. It received $2.5 million from Bradley between 1998-2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But for all intents and purposes, the Bradley foundation is underwriting the activities of three people: Berman and Co. President Richard Berman, Vice President Sarah Longwell (who is often listed as the contact for Center for Consumer Freedom and many other Berman groups), and Vice President Michael Saltsman (who is also listed as the head of the Employment Policy Institute, which is located within Berman’s offices).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley bankrolls Berman for at least three sets of activities:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disseminating studies via the Interstate Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommending state infrastructure investments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coaching on “crisis communication” and opposition research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DISSEMINATION OF STUDIES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman’s Employment Policies Institute (EPI) was named to confuse the public with an actual think tank, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which employs a host of PhD-level economists and other support staff. Berman’s EPI has no economists on staff, but does employ “Research Director” Michael Saltsman, who has no advanced degree. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes pinned Saltsman down on that point in a remarkable interview.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2013, Bradley earmarked $300,000 for a new Berman project within EPI called the Interstate Policy Alliance (IPA). In 2014, the grant for the same work doubled to $600,000 and included “crisis communication” for Bradley-funded groups on the receiving end of bad publicity, and in 2015, Bradley provided $400,000. Click here for a full list of Berman IPA groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley documents describe IPA as a “discrete channel” for “studies” that could be utilized by state-based groups “to achieve maximum credibility in local and social media outlets.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Created at Bradley’s behest in 2012 and with continuing Bradley support since then, IPA is a discreet channel for the better coordination and presentation of helpful, high-quality research on existing and proposed state-level, free-market policies around the country. It provides this research, too often out of reach for many small state think tanks, and customizes it for each state to achieve maximum credibility in local- and social-media outlets. The Searle Freedom Trust has joined Bradley in support of the project” (Barder Fund, August 18, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State think tanks participating in Berman’s IPA, which include Wisconsin’s Bradley-supported MacIver Institute, do not have to pay for the research or its packaging or dissemination. They are able to easily access data that has been uploaded to a password-protected website. As needed, Berman’s IPA also helps with report writing, graphic design, news release preparation, op-ed placement and the scheduling of interviews, (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015 ).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute revealed how IPA operated, when it reported that the Beacon Hill Institute was releasing misleading studies attacking President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, an ambitious multi-year effort to cut carbon pollution and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. The funding for the study came through the previously unknown group called the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In many of its sponsored research “studies,” IPA promotes fossil fuel development over renewables. This has been a long-term agenda item of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate funded bill mill and many State Policy Network “think tanks” and advocacy groups funded by Bradley. In addition, the Bradley documents examined by CMD show Bradley is funding numerous climate denial groups, including Myron Ebell’s Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One IPA report, touts the tens of billions of revenue North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia might gain from offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic Ocean.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another report argues that fossil fuel development of federal lands in seven Rocky Mountain states will grow the economies at a faster pace than renewables.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another promotes the transfer of federal lands to states, claiming that revenues from taxes and fees will rapidly flow to states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet another study criticizes the Renewable Portfolio Standards in 29 states and D.C. as costly to consumers, while ignoring any benefits to jobs or the environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files reveal that the foundation has a previously undisclosed stream of funding to build right-wing infrastructure nationwide and is using a metric to assess the strength and depth of the infrastructure in individual states a phenomenon that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has dubbed the Bradley Blueprint.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, Bradley asked Berman’s IPA and the allied Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. to conduct an assessment of “second tier” states for consideration as “potential targets of opportunity” to enhance their infrastructure investments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bradley files also laud Berman & Co.’s Vice President Saltsman, who is described variously in Bradley documents as the “executive director” of EPI and “executive director” of IPA. “The talented and energetic Saltsman’s IPA experience has exposed him to many of the strengths and weaknesses of the mid-sized state think tanks and conservative infrastructure around the country.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CRC/IPA evaluation of the quality and potential of states’ existing conservative infrastructure and recommended investments in eight states: Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and California in that order. The documents note “(Given IPA’s Bradley supported role in trying to help all state think tanks, they were quite keen on the report’s contents being kept confidential)” (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley asked Saltsman “to discreetly consult with ALEC’s Lisa Nelson, ATRF’s Grover Norquist, and Ned Ryun of the also Bradley-supported American Majority” on what states should get funding (Barder Fund, 8/18/15).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The advisors named Colorado a top tier priority. Not only is Colorado an important swing state, but Coloradan Terry Considine is on the Bradley Board of Directors. Considine is a failed Colorado politician, but a dedicated right-winger who has long served on the Board of Directors of Club for Growth, the national dark money group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The political nature of Bradley’s investment in this swing state is made clear in a report “Colorado state-infrastructure recommendations” included in the Bradley documents. “Colorado is an important swing state with a broad base of center-right organizations and donors,” writes Bradley. The report discusses “The Gang of Four” liberal funders in the state who were featured in an “attention-getting” book called “The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care),” which details how a small group of Democratic donors helped turn the state blue. The book made a big impression on Bradley staff; a picture of the cover is included in the Bradley documents multiple times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Bradley wants to fund institutions in Colorado in an effort to swing the pendulum back again. Bradley recommends five specific grants, including two that illustrate the political nature of the endeavor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommends $125,000 to American Majority for 2016. The grant asks for support for a new field office in the I-25 corridor, an executive director, field staffer and intern. “They would coordinate with Centennial [Institute] and Independence [Institute] to identify, train and nurture mentoring relationships with conservative Coloradans.” American Majority is an organization that trains candidates to run for office. It claims to be nonpartisan, but was founded by Republicans to train Republicans (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley recommended $250,000 to the Independence Institute in 2016. The Independence Institute is a State Policy Network member heavily funded by Bradley for both its work on climate issues and its anti-union work. The Bradley documents say it is led by “the charmingly bombastic Jon Caldara” “who has lead the creation of one of the more-effective conservative state infrastructures.” But that infrastructure has a problem. “Colorado has 3,600 local governments.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Not only does the left exercise its power and coercion through these governments, he and [the Independence Institute] believe, but it uses them as farm teams to groom people for higher office.” Caldera wants to counter this problem and “build a better bench” for the right-wing by compiling a database of every appointed and elected position in Jefferson County and conducting outreach to these officials. The Institute would coordinate its activities with American Majority, the Centennial Institute and the Leadership Program of the Rockies. Staff recommended $75,000 for this later institution (Barder Fund, Nov. 10, 2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These two investments appear to be exactly the type of political spending that might run afoul of IRS rules for permissible non-profit activity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other Colorado grantees included Colorado Christian University for its Centennial Institute ($75,000), Leadership Program of the Rockies ($75,000) and the Steamboat Institute ($50,000).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS” AND OPPOSITION RESEARCH</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley has also bankrolled the Berman team for a communications program for many years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Also at Bradley’s behest in 2012, CCF [Center for Consumer Freedom] created a related crisis-communications program for state infrastructures. It has been led by Berman vice president Sarah Longwell, formerly director of public affairs at the Bradly-supported Intercollegiate Studies Institute… CCF has consistently exposed the agenda of the activist groups that seek to attack personal freedom and its allies” (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/2015).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This crisis communication work as described by Bradley relates directly to the successful, grassroots campaigning against ALEC that was sparked in 2011 after CMD published more than 800 ALEC “model bills” secretly voted on by corporate lobbyists and legislators on its website ALECexposed.org in 2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To quote from the Bradley files:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In the wake of the media firestorm that engulfed the American Legislative Exchange Council last year, it was clear that a new group of influential, media-savvy activist outfits have emerged—along with a new group of targets that includes state think tanks and other entities including foundations. The Gates Foundation, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Walmart, Johnson and Johnson, McDonalds and Wendy’s are just a few of the funders that cut ties to ALEC following the media onslaught generated by activists who successfully linked it to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“ALEC never saw it coming. Neither really did the Heartland Institute or Chick-fil-A see what was coming when they subsequently have been on the receiving end of similar onslaughts. Caught flat footed as the media charged ahead with the ‘Stand Your Ground’ story, ALEC had no rapid-response strategy in place to combat this runaway narrative. Berman and Co.’s advice to ALEC to be more aggressive in its response was not followed. The ‘I stand with ALEC website’ came much too late and brought far too little to its defense” (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are “case studies,” writes Bradley staff, and “cautionary tales” for any conservative organization. Now Bradley wants to fund CCF for an “off the shelf public relations strategy for use by any such conservative outfit caught in the media crosshairs.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Already-prepared “well sourced opposition research” is key, says the Bradley grant document:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Just as CMD was able build an online dossier on ALEC that provided activists and sympathetic journalists with a base of research, so too is CCF using its data and information to build a ‘bigger and better clearinghouse of research on groups within the wider left-wing network’ as part of a rapid response strategy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF boasts of training Bradley-supported “think tanks” across the nation that are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), such as North Carolina’s Civitas Institute, Michigan’s Mackinac Center, and Washington State’s Freedom Foundation. CCF asks Bradley for support to expand this type of opposition research and training to the rest of the SPN network and the Interstate Policy Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a grant proposal record, “Full Service Menu” of Berman Center for Consumer Freedom services would include, 1) support for two or three studies a year, 2) op-ed drafting and placement, 3) drafting and sending of news releases on the groups behalf, 4) compiling a media list of reporter contacts, 5) ad buying for television, radio, print and online, 6) crisis communication assistance and in-state infrastructure seminars (EPI, Grant Proposal Record, 11/11/2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, Bradley is recommending a $200,000 grant in renewed support for ALEC in 2016 as it continues to build a “comprehensive communications infrastructure” in response to citizen campaigns targeting its funders. The grant summary reads: “ALEC has been under sustained, organized attack from the Left for several years, as well-documented in Bradley Prize recipient Kimberly Strassel’s new book The Intimidation Game: How the Left Silences Free Speech. Under Executive Director Lisa Nelson and at Bradley’s urging, ALEC is aggressively, but thoughtfully responding.” “The plan consciously mimics the Left’s Citizen Engagement Laboratory (CEL)…the parent organization of Forecast the Facts and Color of Change.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC also redesigned and beefed up its website, deployed more social media, and partnered with CrowdSkout a data analytics company to track, view and engage supporters (ALEC, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bradley outlines the bigger game plan for ALEC: “The larger plan also has an important component for aggressive ‘opposition research,’ which has yielded many beneficial outcomes, including to Strassel for her helpful book, among others.” This last comment in the Bradley documents suggests that ALEC provided Wall Street Journal editorial writer Kim Strassel with information for her book Intimidation Game. In it, Strassel portrayed the sustained citizen campaigning against ALEC as a well-funded, nefarious effort to crush the “free speech” rights of ALEC and its enormous funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and ALTRIA/Phillip Morris (Strassel received a $250,000 Bradley Prize in 2014).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of its opposition research funding, Bradley recommended $115,000 in 2016 for the Capital Research Center run by Bradley-ally Scott Walter to develop “an online encyclopedia of the left” in conjunction with Berman that mimics the Center for Media and Democracy’s Sourcewatch.org wiki. CRC wants to focus on the anti-ALEC groups and the Democracy Alliance, a group of liberal funders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This will be a comprehensive, wiki-style resource that provides in-depth profiles of left-of-center individuals and organizations based on the model of the Center for Media and Democracy’s website Sourcewatch.org…CRC plans to take a page out of Sourcewatch’s playbook by ensuring that its new, wiki-style encyclopedia of the left is thorough, regularly updated and written in a manner that is accurate and measured in order to attract and retain a larger audience. The website will be constructed and in partnership with Berman and Company [where Walter worked briefly as director of development], and CRC is collaborating with ALEC and the Heartland Institute to make use of their data as it builds the new website’s profile list,” (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Sourcewatch is a widely used resource that significantly influences public opinion regarding the activities of center-right groups and individuals. While there are a number of conservative resources that profile organizations and individuals on the Left (such as David Horowitz’s DiscoverTheNetworks.org, Heartland Institute’s LeftExposed.org, Berman and Company’s ActivistFacts.org and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise’s UndueInfluence.com) CDC will build upon and complement their efforts adding value through its more comprehensive coverage, superior search engine optimization, and wiki-style format,” (Capital Research Center, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Current members of the Bradley Foundation Board are Richard W. Graber (President), Art Pope (Chairman; Variety Wholesalers), Patrick J. English (Vice Chairman; Fiduciary Management, Inc.), Terry Considine (AIMCO), Curt S. Culver (MGIC), Robert P. George (Princeton University), Victor Davis Hanson (Hoover Institution), Diane Hendricks (ABC Supply Co. and Hendricks Holding Co.), Cleta Mitchell (Foley & Lardner), and James T. Barry III (The Barry Company). Former board members include Michael W. Grebe and George F. Will.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Armiak, Evan James, Nick Surgey, and Lisa Graves contributed research to this series.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see ~ CPP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">suffolk, beacon hill he paid for BS study, used by Alford?  team red AG?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.bermanco.com/rick-berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vid incl PSA's http://www.bermanco.com/television-video/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tag line from 60 min wmd </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PApCMdZQnuQ</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">colbert trms 60 mon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlZAeYMPEbE upload 0ct 09  Rachel Maddow-Confronting Rick Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HE links, in fact features 3 vids</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bulldog Public Relations Awards are a distinguished honor in the public relations industry, judged annually by a blue-ribbon panel of journalists and PR professionals. Berman and Company has won 16 Bulldog awards since 2002, including the competition's Overall Grand Prize in 2005.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Pollie Awards recognize outstanding creativity in advertising and public affairs. They are awarded annually by the American Association of Political Consultants, a bipartisan organization of political professionals from the local level to the White House. Berman and Company has claimed 52 Pollies, including Gold awards for Internet websites, and for print, broadcast, and outdoor advertising. In the past decade, Berman and Company has won more Pollie Awards for humor than any other firm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American Inhouse Design Awards from Graphic Design USA magazine honor in-house graphic design excellence, and recognize designers working within corporations, media companies, nonprofits, government, and educational institutions. InHouse Design Awards have been presented to Berman and Company 32 times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Aegis Awards are the video industry's premier peer-recognition competition for outstanding video productions and non-network TV commercials. Berman and Company's video work has won 16 Aegis Awards.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Telly Awards are the most prestigious awards honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, and video and film production at the highest levels. Berman and Company has received 7 Telly Award</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.consumerfreedom.com/about/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.consumerfreedom.com/press/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">_CREW, chipotle</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">will coggin research</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">--</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">eg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kicks Crop Science and Supports Green Effort to Limit Consumer Food Choice</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(August 4th, 2014)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By: Will Coggin Newspaper: The Blaze There is an ongoing battle over genetically engineered foods and Chuck Norris has entered the fray – and knocked himself out. In a recent column at WorldNetDaily, Norris saddled up with left-wing environmentalist groups … Continue reading ?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">read more here »</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flack? Polticical operative?  PR? watchdog?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bush 43 recess apt to ? nope, micael NRLB</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Recess_appointments_made_by_President_George_W._Bush</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom rolls to srcwtch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">srcwtch 7/16</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">other Berman Front Groups</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ActivistCash.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFT Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Beverage Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AnimalScam.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green Radicals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Consumer Freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Organizational Research and Education</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Union Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMDScam.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREW Exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CSPI Scam</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Defeat the Debt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EmployeeRightsAct.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employment Policies Institute</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enterprise Freedom Action Committee</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Decoys</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hands Off My Bacon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HumaneWatch.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interlock Facts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Interstate Policy Alliance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LaborPains.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LEED Exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maternity Pens</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MinimumWage.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NegligentDriving.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No Drink Tax</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ObesityMyths.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PETA Kills Animals</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Physician Scam</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Protecting Bad Teachers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Responsible Limits</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rethink Reform</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rotten ACORN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Teachers Union Exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New Prohibition</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tipped Wage</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unite Here Exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vote Our Future</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WorkerCenters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related PRWatch Articles</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anne Landman, Rick Berman's For-Profit Non-Profits Under the Microscope, PRWatch.org, June 20, 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anne Landman, Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society, PRWatch.org, February 17, 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Berman & Co.: "Nonprofit" Hustlers for the Food & Booze Biz, PRWatch, First Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 1.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LI</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Independent Accounting Professional</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington D.C. Metro AreaAccounting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dl pix</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrea Roberts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">at</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zeynep Dayar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zeynep Dayar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Software Engineer at Zoetis</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Brown</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Brown</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Management Consultant at Blockbusters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greg Racioppo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greg Racioppo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IT Staffing at Software Guidance & Assistance</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nicholas Cramer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nicholas Cramer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bringing the bees to the cloud.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Bryant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Bryant</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Solutions Architect at EST Group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barclay Palmer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barclay Palmer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Executive Producer at IBT Media</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">--</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">intelius</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also Known As</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie L Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Age</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie L Berman is in her 60's</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie Has Lived In</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Orlando, FL</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mc Lean, VA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie's Relatives</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joshua Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seth Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5557 Oxxxxx Ixxx Ln</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Orlando FL</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dn@.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dn@*.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sername Matches</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DixieBerman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BermanDixie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie.Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman.Dixie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie_Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman_Dixie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dixie-Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman-Dixie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">intelis finds:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.consumerdeception.com/index.asp</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995, Berman and Norm Brinker, his former boss at Steak and Ale Restaurants, were identified as the special-interest lobbyists who donated the $25,000 that disgraced then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was hauled before the House Ethics Committee for influence-peddling over the money. Berman and Brinker were lobbying against raising the minimum wage. Richard Berman is a spin doctor. For example, he has argued against a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) initiative to lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers by claiming that the stricter limits would punish responsible social drinkers. He has claimed that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warnings about salmonella-related food poisoning are just "whipping up fear over food." Here's how an internal Philip Morris memo described Berman's spin: "His proposed solution would broaden the focus of the 'smoking issue,' and expand into the bigger picture of over-regulation. Smoking won't kill you; over-regulation will. Berman is "a one-man wrecking crew on important issues. His approach has been described as "misleading" and "despicable. Berman has been called "a tobacco company whore," but he's branched out since then. Using "freedom of choice" as his battle cry, Berman has now taken on PETA and a number of other groups and organizations whose points of view could have an impact on the profits of his clients by waking consumers up. Berman's Guest Choice Network has an "advisory panel" whose members in 1998 included officials representing companies ranging from Cargill Processed Meat Products and Outback Steakhouse to Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association and Sutter Home Winery. Berman's clients are companies with vested interests in low employee wages; cheap, unhealthy restaurant-chain food, particularly meat; and tobacco, soft drink, and alcohol consumption—companies like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Armour Swift, and Philip Morris, whose product line includes Kraft Foods and everything from Marlboro cigarettes to Oscar Meyer wieners and which is a major shareholder in its former subsidiary Miller Brewing, now known as SABMiller. PETA's recent successes in gaining fast-food industry concessions for more humane conditions for farm animals have sent ripples of fear through the food and beverage service industry. About the same time that McDonald's buckled to PETA's demands, Richard Berman changed his front group's name and stepped up his attacks. The key to Berman's aggressive strategy is, in his own words, "to shoot the messenger ... we've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons,"—an interesting remark from someone whose background and funding so severely challenge his own credibility. PETA has since created a response site, PETA Saves, which discusses Richard Berman and the CCF's smear campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">popeo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Steve_Bartlett</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steve Bartlett, a former Member of Congress, is President and CEO of The Financial Services Roundtable, a peak organization for the financial services industry in the United States. 2m$/yr ceo $</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://fsroundtable.org/bits/about/bio/sbartlett.htm 404</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bartlett</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harry Steven Bartlett, known as Steve Bartlett (born September 19, 1947) is the former President and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, an advocacy group lobbying the U.S. federal government on financial services legislation, a position which he held from 1999 to 2012.[2] He is a former U.S. congressman from Texas's 3rd congressional district, a mayor of Dallas, Texas, and member of the Dallas City Council.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Piling On: EFAC in Berman Anti-Union Context & Oregon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHRIS LOWE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(This column began life as a comment on Carla Axtman's Boogeyman Boogie column, but couldn't get through the spam filter, so I am offering it separately as an adjunct background piece. Hat-tip, apologies and thanks to Carla. CL)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carl Axtman has drawn attention to Oregon's U.S. Senate race being one of several in the cross-hairs of an organized big business campaign aimed simultaneously at fighting off the challenge of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would widen the means by which workers could form unions, and at defeating Democratic senatorial candidates who might provide the margins allowing EFCA to pass. This column has a narrower focus on one of the main forces behind that campaign, lobbyist Rick Berman's astroturf empire, how it works, and why Jeff Merkley may have emerged as a particular Berman target.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To start, let us note the acronyms of the Employee Free Choice Act and the Employee Freedom Action Committee: EFCA and EFAC. This is not an accident, but a standard confusion sowing operating procedure in Rick Berman's stable of pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-health astroturf groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Carla's WW link also points out, we've already seen the beginning of this national anti-union, anti-Democratic campaign in Oregon. Jeff Merkley was the very first of the candidates targeted by Berman & Co. The anti-Merkley anti-union broadcast and print ads that appeared shortly before the May primary were EFAC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you go to the "States" section of the EFAC website you can tell which campaigns are being targeted by the fact that they start by saying "[Name of candidate] is doing labor union bosses' dirty work" followed by other cookie-cutter smeary boilerplate. Since you have to click on states one at a time, and only six of 33 races are targeted so far, this limited cut-and-paste lack of content takes patiences to discover. The other states just have some facts about donations to candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to Merkley, Tom Allen of Maine, Bruce Lunsford of Kentucky and Al Franken of Minnesota, whom Carla mentions, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana also are on the Berman/EFAC hit list (so far).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Jeff Merkley was first. At the end of May, no other candidate was doing labor union bosses' dirty work, or if one was, EFAC's site didn't tell you that. A peek into Berman & Co.'s operations may show why.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let's start with Berman & Co. itself. Suppose you wanted to contact Rick. Here's how: Mailing address: 1090 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005; Telephone: 202-463-7100; Fax: 202-463-7107; Email: Rick@bermanco.com.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now let's turn to labor. We find a triangular stool. One leg is EFAC. EFAC is a 501(c)4, meaning a tax-exempt non-profit corporation allowed to conduct education and advocacy around issues and legislation. Who is EFAC's Communications Director? Tim Miller. Suppose you wanted to contact Tim. Here's how: Mailing address: 1090 Vermont Ave NW. Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005; Tel.: (202) 420-7864; Fax: (202) 463-7107.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hey, look at that! Same address, and Tim and Rick have the same fax machine!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Next leg is the Center for Union Facts. The Center for Union Facts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, i.e. supposedly restricted to charitable and educational activities. You may remember CUF from the primary season too. They were the ones who ran some random-seeming anti-union ads with the tag line "Thanks, Union Bosses!" Who's their Communication Director? Well, the website doesn't say.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So how would you contact them? Mailing address -- you guessed it -- is: 1090 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005; tel.: 202-463-7106. Be careful! If you dial one digit wrong, your ear will buzz from Rick & Tim's fax machine! Remember that number.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, it turns out that CUF has a subsidiary website Teachers Union Facts, with an interesting URL: teachersunionexposed.com. Suppose you wanted "interviews, comments, or information," whom would you contact?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why, Tim Miller! E-mail miller@unionfacts.com, or call (yes!) 202-463-7106. But don't get that last digit wrong, unless you want your ear to buzz! (Wonder if that's ever happened to Bill Sizemore?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The third anti-labor leg is the oldest, and indeed may be the oldest of Rick Berman's large Augean stable of front groups, into which following anti-union work only begins to penetrate: The Employment Policies Institute, a policy research non-profit, tax status not stated, which these days seems much concerned with the dangers of excessive minimum wages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who is their Communications Director? Yup, Tim Miller. I know, I know. But if you think this game is too easy, don't blame me. Take it up with Rick and Tim. Mailing address (ho hum): 1090 Vermont Ave. NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20005; Tel: 202-463-7650 ext. 109; Fax (there it is again): 202-463-7107.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, to get at a couple of other interesting things, we have to take brief excursion outside of labor and anti-union matters, though not outside of scurrilously mendacious and nasty class warfare. Let's pay a visit to The Center for Consumer Freedom, another 501(3)c.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their Communications Director? Why, that extremely busy fellow, Tim Miller, of course. No mailing address supplied this time, but his phone contact, 202-463-7112, is eerily familiar (old parodic images of multi-phone movie mogul desks pop into my mind).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, what's so interesting about the CCF? Actually, too much to go into here entirely.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But one thing is that CCF provides insight into the whole structure of Berman's activities. It seems that in 2005, for example, "over 40% of the expenditure" of this "charitable and educational non-profit" was paid to Berman and Company, Rick's very much for profit organization, for "management services." The pattern is standard....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/08/this-column-beg/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">eg csm op ed payday</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2008/0506/p09s01-coop.html [ggl ban ads?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://epafacts.com/epa-awards-sexual-harassment-and-porn-watching-with-promotions-and-bonuses/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cats:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://epafacts.com/transparency-problems/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://epafacts.com/agenda-driven-science/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://epafacts.com/agenda-driven-science/bullying-scientists/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no bylines</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ggl finds vnr shop from berman?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a brief profile accompanying its endorsement of a telecom company, Home Front Communications has a staff of six people and was co-founded by Paul Frick. [5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Karen_Ryan ket5chum</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alberto Garcia appeared as a 'journalist' in one of the video news releases produced for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by the PR company Home Front Communications. The video extolled the virtues of the Bush Administration's changes in late 2003 to Medicare.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Home Front Communications</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2030 M Street, NW Suite 750</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phone: 202-544-8400</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fax: 202-544-5448</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Home_Front_Communications</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">60 MINUTES POLITICS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meet Dr. Evil</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meet Rick Berman, A.K.A. "Dr. Evil"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Morley Safer Speaks To A Lobbyist Some People Love To Hate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CORRESPONDENT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Schorn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This segment was originally broadcast on April 8, 2007. It was updated on July 17, 2007.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman takes a certain pride, even joy, in the nickname "Dr. Evil." But the people who use it see nothing funny about it—they mean it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His real name is Rick Berman, a Washington lobbyist and arch-enemy of other lobbyists and do-gooders who would have government control—and even ban-a myriad of products they claim are killing us, products like caffeine, salt, fast food and the oil they fry it in. He's against Mothers Against Drunk Driving, animal rights activists, food watchdog groups and unions of every kind. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As correspondent Morley Safer reports, Berman believes we are fast becoming a nation of passive children ruled by the iron thumb of self-appointed "nannies" and he gets paid good money to keep all those "Mary Poppinses" at bay. And they have reserved a special place in hell for him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Let me just take you through some of the things your critics have said about you. Sleazy, greedy, outrageous, deceptive, ineffective except when it comes to making money for yourself, corporate lackey who is one of the scariest people in America," Safer remarks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You know, I grew up in the Bronx. Name-calling is not the worst thing that I've been subjected to," Berman replies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Berman is lawyer and a lobbyist, which some might say is bad enough, but he would say lawyer and lobbyist for personal freedom.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"If the government is truly interested in my health and welfare, I'm appreciative of it. But, I think I can take care of myself," Berman tells Safer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman claims that we are quickly becoming a "nanny state," an overregulated society with ever-declining freedom of choice from how much we earn, to when we may drive, to what we eat. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has particular contempt for so-called "food cops" who claim to know what's best for us.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They create this Chicken Little mentality that the sky is falling over everything," Berman says. "You know, the latest study says this, the latest study says that. And they drive the government to satisfy that artificial public need."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman blames activist, safety and watchdog groups—"do-gooders run amok" he calls them—for trying to scare America into submission. He points to those endless reports, often contradictory, which offer us a dizzying array of fearful news about everyday food and drink that might just kill you: like tuna fish, chicken, diet soda, salt, and that demon, trans-fats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I don't think that the other side should be allowed to talk and the response be intimidated into submission or silence. And so I'm the other side," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The other side as in big business, mainly the food, beverage and restaurant business, which have a vested interest in encouraging people to continue to eat, drink and be merry to their heart's delight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman's the booze and food industry's 6'4", 64-year-old weapon of mass destruction. They hire him to front for them in the "food wars."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The businesses themselves don't find it convenient to take on causes that might seem politically incorrect, and I'm not afraid to do that," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked if has become a major tool for corporate America, Berman says, "My mission is not to defend corporate America."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You're a hired gun," Safer remarks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Well, I go out to people and I say, 'Look, if you believe in what I believe, will you help fund it?' Now, I don't know if that's a hired gun or not. But, the point is, yes, I do get paid for educating people. If that's my biggest crime, I stand accused," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it's not just the "food police" Berman goes after: it's anyone who seeks to limit or regulate our way of life, like animal rights activists, trial lawyers, and his current favorite, union leaders.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Berman uses ads to drive home the message.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You know what I love? Paying union dues, just so I can keep my job," one TV ad says. "I really like how the union discriminates against minorities!" "Nothing makes me feel better than knowing that I'm supporting their fat-cat lifestyles. Find out the facts about union officials at unionfacts.com" "Thanks, union bosses!"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"There's no sense in putting out a 17 page scientific report that nobody will read. So, I put out a 30 second commercial that makes the point," Berman explains.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prev Next 1 / 3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2: But the "point" is not made by Berman and Company. He has come up with a clever system of non-profit educational entities. Companies can make charitable donations to these groups, which have names like Center for Consumer Freedom and Center for Union Facts. They are neutral sounding but "educating," with a particular point of view, all perfectly legal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman and his staff of young crusaders attack the nanny culture by combing through watchdog and government reports, seeking inconsistencies, overstatements, seizing on the one fact here or there that might discredit the research. And Berman says he's rarely disappointed. OPPO</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He blasts MADD for no longer being run by mothers, and PETA, who he accused of killing animals in its care. And he questions the danger of mercury in tuna; he says it's massively over-hyped. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Web sites devoted to nanny bashing and ads showing children being exploited by union bosses are all in a day's work for Rick Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the end, Berman says it's all about "shooting the messenger."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Shooting the messenger means getting people to understand that this messenger is not as credible as their name would suggest," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While those tactics have made him rich and powerful, they have also made him mightily unpopular. Even in a mudslinging city like Washington, it's difficult to find someone who provokes as much venom as Rick Berman.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He's a one-man goon squad for any company that's willing to hire him," says Dr. Michael Jacobson, who heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a healthy food advocacy group. Jacobson has been the point man in the "food wars" for decades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jacobson's declaration of war on obesity has often brought him face to face with "Dr. Evil."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Berman is against every single measure, no matter how sensible. He'd have no restrictions on tobacco advertising, junk foods galore in schools. No minimum wage," Jacobson tells Safer. "He wants to leave corporate America unfettered of any regulations that protect the public's health."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jacobson says corporate America simply hires Berman to say the nasty things they wouldn't dare say themselves.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He's a hit man. He's dishonest, deceptive, he makes things up," Jacobson says. "He does things that the companies can't do or say themselves, badmouthing just about anybody who says anything critical of industry."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who are the companies that support Berman?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The food industry, the beverage industry, alcoholic beverage industry, the restaurant industry's a major supporter. He doesn't disclose the names of his funders," Jacobson says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But a partial list of Berman's clients was leaked to the media some years back. Names included Coca-Cola, Tyson Chicken, Outback Steakhouse and Wendy's. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman will not confirm or deny. "You're not going to get a lot of companies who want to say that I'm funding Rick Berman to go after you. They're just not going to do it," he says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked if these companies are embarrassed about being associated with him, Berman says, "I think it all comes down to not wanting to be targeted. I mean, I get attacked. But, I don't get attacked for my information. I get attacked personally."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And though his business rakes in millions, Berman says it's not about the cash. He says it's a calling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I didn't need to be doing this. I'm doing this because it's a passion of mind. I believe in what I'm doing," Berman tells Safer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"But, you're also doing it for the money. C'mon, admit it," Safer says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I was making a lot of money before I ever started this firm. I do it because I believe in it. I do it because it's the right thing to do," Berman replies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman says his methods are fair, and that he is only responding to his opponents, who consistently use scare tactic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has spoken out against trans-fat, that controversial frying oil under attack by city councils around the country. Berman says it's hardly the poison its enemies claim it is.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"People should not be led around by the nose with bad information," Berman says. "You can make up your own mind as to whether or not margarine is really rat poison as some people have said."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Oh come on…," Safer remarks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"But, that's what they've said," Berman replies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You just love it when they do that, though, don't you?" Safer asks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Well, they're so stupid when they do that because they leave themselves open for criticism," Berman says. "And that's the tension between these communication battles. Somebody exaggerating the hell out of a story and someone like myself coming in and saying, 'What in the world were you thinking.'"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And on the very genuine issue of increasing obesity in this country, Berman's blood boils when people describe it as an "epidemic" or "disease."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"There are people, the morbidly obese who truly do have a problem in this country. I mean, these are the people who when you see them walk down the street, you get the feeling that their butt is another zip code. OK, I understand that. Okay? That's a problem. Those people are at a health risk. But this whole issue that it's a disease, that it's not your fault that you're fat. I mean, if this is a disease, this is going to be the only disease in the country that you could solve by taking long walks and keeping your mouth shut. This is a personal responsibility issue in most cases," Berman says. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I understand that and a lot of social activists and the government to some extent is trying to get these people to change these bad habits," Safer remarks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I have no problem with education. But, education turns into regulation, you know?" Berman says. "As the government gets deeper and deeper into people's lives, they start to dictate more and more. If a bartender can cut you off for visibly being intoxicated, why won't we get to the point where a restaurant operator is not allowed to let you order dessert? I mean, you could get there."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Oh, it sounds ridiculous, right? 'Well, I can't imagine that.' But, imagine ten steps to get there and all of the sudden it doesn't appear so crazy," Berman adds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And that is how Dr. Evil frames almost any issue he fights—resist or big nanny will crush you.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He says MADD won't be happy until there is a breathalyzer in every car. Caffeine and salt will disappear, America will be regulated to a police state, one without French fries or foie gras. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I am not opposed to stopping any of the stuff that's really bad. But, I am opposed to making the problem seem worse than it is. And these groups will make it seem so bad so it justifies their Draconian solutions," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Michael Jacobson says Berman, in his malevolence, is distorting deathly serious issues that will have long term effects on Americans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"An occasional hot dog is not gonna kill anybody. But, when you're having fettuccini Alfredo one night and the next day you have a double whopper with cheese at Burger King and the next day you go over to Denny's and you have one of their enormous breakfasts, that's what's killing us. Half a million people die every year of heart disease," Jacobson says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked if Berman believes in what he does, Jacobson says, "He's a PR guy. How you can believe anything he says? I think he's in favor of making a lot of money."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"But I think he does hit a nerve in this country when he goes after the nanny state that everything you do is being controlled by Big Mother," Safer remarks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Yeah. Isn't it terrible? We have health departments that are trying to clean up restaurants, environmental agencies that are trying to clean the air and the water. It's just terrible," Jacobson says. "I think it's great that government sometimes protects the public's welfare. And he's there protecting industry."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman concedes government has a role, but says for the most part the marketplace will self-regulate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"If the other side thinks that I'm all of these bad things, the one thing that they must think is I'm effective, or else they wouldn't be bitching about it so much," Berman says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The fact is you enjoy being the contrarian. You like to be out there," Safer says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Well, I don't want to be in a business where it's a me-too thing, where everybody's saying the same thing, and I'm saying, 'Oh by the way, I agree,'" Berman replies. "I'm not afraid to say that the emperor has no clothes."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman says he rates his success by one simple measure: is he making people think twice? DOUBT = WIN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for his critics, Berman says, "I say to them, 'Look, once you get past the name-calling, tell me what's wrong with our statistics. Tell me what's wrong with our science.' Have I said anything that's wrong, or am I just objectionable? And if I'm objectionable, I say, 'Take a deep breath and get over it. I'm not going away.'"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Produced By Deirdre Naphin and Katy Textor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2x?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a beta version of NNDB</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard B. Berman</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Born: c. 1942</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Birthplace: Bronx, NY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gender: Male</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Race or Ethnicity: White</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sexual orientation: Straight</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Occupation: Activist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Party Affiliation: Republican</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nationality: United States</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Executive summary: Astroturf spindoctor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Public relations maven and owner of Berman & Company, a DC-based PR firm known for setting up political groups designed to look like grassroots efforts, but funded by corporate interests backing the tobacco industry, restaurant chains, beer conglomerates, etc.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    University: Transylvania University, Lexington, KY (1964)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Law School: JD, College of William and Mary</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    American Beverage Institute </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Center for Consumer Freedom </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Center for Union Facts </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Employment Policies Institute </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Brinker International Lobbyist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Pillsbury Executive Vice President, Pillsbury Restaurant Group (1984-86)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Steak and Ale Senior Vice President (1975-84)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    US Chamber of Commerce Labor law director (1972-74)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Dana corporate lawyer (1969-72)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Bethlehem Steel labor law attorney (1967-69)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    DeMint for Senate Committee </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    George W. Bush for President </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    John McCain 2008 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    National Republican Senatorial Committee </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Newt 2012 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    The Western Way PAC </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    District of Columbia Bar 21-Jan-1975</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">    Virginia Bar Association </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nndb.com/people/392/000130999/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">coc 3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://shutthechamber.org/news/american-rights-work-us-chambers-anti-union-agenda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s most powerful business lobbying organization1, has been campaigning against unions, fair labor practices, increases in the minimum wage, and legal protections for America’s workers for nearly a century.  The Chamber’s anti-union initiatives are just one part of its multi-issue agenda.  Unlike other anti-union organizations, this prominent lobbying force does not hide its alignment with big business.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Chamber has an annual budget of $150 million2 and 300 staff members.3  With President Thomas J. Donohue at the helm, annual contributions to the hamber from its largest corporate members rose from $600,000 to $90 million in less than a decade.4  Since he took office in 1997, Donohue has built a more aggressive and politically-powerful Chamber not afraid to take on controversial issues at the request of its large corporate donors and the Bush White House.5  This direction has caused the Business Roundtable and other moderate members of the business community to distance themselves from the organization.6</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even when Donohue first took office Business Week expressed caution at his “frontal assault on unions,” commenting that “Polls show strong public support for giving workers their piece of an expanding economic pie.”7  Although an increasing number of its member organizations pursue cooperative and socially-responsible labor relations, the Chamber continues to advocate against unions, and appears to be ramping up its attack. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Role of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the Anti-Union Network</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lobbying</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2004, the Chamber spent $24.5 million lobbying the federal government.8</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber works closely with the Bush administration9 and prominent anti-labor conservatives on Capitol Hill such as Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), head of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.  An anti-workplace safety zealot, Norwood was given the Chamber’s Spirit of Enterprise Award for his pro-Chamber voting record.  Norwood caused controversy this year for his insensitivity during Congressional hearings on the Sago mineworkers tragedy, and for lobbying loudly against renewal of the Voting Rights Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber lobbies to oppose pro-worker legislation, including the Family Time and Workplace Flexibility Act, Fair Minimum Wage Act, and an expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act.10</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the Chamber’s legislative priorities is opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act , which would strengthen labor law and provide workers with the right to union representation via the card check process when a majority present signed union authorization cards to their employers.11  On May 4, 2006, the Chamber sent a letter to all Republican members of Congress urging them to support the Secret Ballot Protection Act,12 which would outlaw union recognition through card check.  The Chamber also operates a website urging its members to pressure Congress on the issue.13</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Litigation</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Its recent litigation efforts include an attempt to strike down a California law prohibiting the use of tax dollars for anti-union activity, and litigation to overturn county “Peace Agreement” ordinances.14</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber recently filed amicus briefs in two significant cases before the National Labor Relations Board to argue for rulings that limit the ability of workers to form unions.  One case could define millions of workers as supervisors, revoking their right to organize, and the other could effectively quash the card check method of organizing.15</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber has also lobbied the Bush administration on nominations to the National Labor Relations Board,16 and succeeded in placing one of their staffers on the Board.  In 2002, President Bush appointed Michael Bartlett, then Director of Labor Law Policy for the Chamber, to sit on the five-member Board in a recess appointment that lasted nearly one year. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sponsoring propaganda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For decades, labor-community coalitions have joined together to hold corporations accountable for their treatment of employees.  Recently, the Chamber published a briefing book aimed at attacking the motives and methods of these so-called ‘corporate campaigns.’17  The author, Jarol B. Manheim, a George Washington University political scientist, not only villifies corporate campaigns, but finds danger in any critique of the corporate world.  Manheim previously testified about the subject before Rep. Norwood’s House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections in 2002,18 and also serves as a consultant on anti-union matters, having written a confidential “Positioning Memo” to help Verizon in its intense efforts to fight its employees’ union activity.19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber is reportedly behind the launch of a new, aggressive propaganda campaign against unions by “notorious DC lobbyist” Richard Berman.  In February 2006, with the assistance of Chamber labor lobbyist Randel Johnson,20 Berman created the Center for Union Facts, a new front group responsible for a steady stream of anti-union TV commercials and full-page ads in major daily newspapers. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Union Facts’ legislative agenda is strikingly similar to the Chamber’s.  Berman has admitted to launching the Center for the purpose of halting workers’ ability to form unions through card check and to support the Chamber-backed Secret Ballot Protection Act sponsored by Charlie Norwood, which would outlaw the currently voluntary card check process.21  Berman also recently divulged to The Wall Street Journal that the Center was formed to “wage a campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act,” bipartisan legislation that would require employers to recognize unions formed by the card check process, which the Chamber also adamantly opposes.22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman has utilized Chamber connections for fundraising. Berman told The New York Times that he asked Chamber of Commerce officials at a state conference to recommend that businesses in their states donate to his anti-union campaign.23  Berman has declined to say who has pumped $3 millioninto his group, beyond claiming that funding comes from corporations, foundations, trade associations, and individuals.24  Randel Johnson has repeatedly denied any Chamber funding of the Center, yet admitted “he had served as an adviser to the Center.”25</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman does have longstanding ties with the Chamber, having served as its labor law director, planning union avoidance strategies for the organization from 1972-74.26</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Connections to players in the anti-union movement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A number of key players in the conservative movement have worked for the Chamber, including Grover Norquist, who served as the Chamber’s chief speechwriter in the 1980s.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Chamber does not pursue its anti-union agenda alone, it coordinates with a number of players in the anti-union movement.  For instance, it participates in Grover Norquist’s Alliance for Worker Freedom “Labor Reform Working Group” meetings.  The agenda of the December 2005 meeting of this group focused on a range of union-related issues, including card check, project labor agreements, and the Department of Labor’s new database on union information.27  Attendees included Richard Berman, along with representatives from the Chamber, the DOL, the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors, Senator Bill Frist’s office, and Rep. Charlie Norwood’s office.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You'd think a group called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) would be dedicated to promoting the needs and desires of America's workers. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, CDW spreads half-truths and lies about the Employee Free Choice Act to wage an ill-conceived assault on the rights and opportunities of millions of men and women across the country.  </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's the real scoop on the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CDW is a front group for business associations, industry lobbying groups, and right-wing policy centers who are against workers getting a fair shake in this economy. Its financial backers include some of the most virulent anti-worker and anti-union organizations in the country, including:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s most powerful business lobbying organization,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a group whose biggest member is Wal-Mart, the poster child for low wages,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and the Associated Builders and Contractors, an association of anti-union contractors who fight against workers having unions to improve their wages and safety on the job.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CDW is doing the dirty work for CEOs and corporate special interests. Too ashamed to be fighting publicly against policies that would provide workers with real economic opportunities, these companies instead use their deep pockets and powerful influence to fund CDW’s dishonest PR and lobbying campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CEOs and multimillion dollar business industry groups backing CDW don’t care about democracy or privacy. They’re distorting the truth because they want to stop workers from having a better standard of living, access to health care, job security, and the rest of the benefits that accompany union membership.  These same groups oppose everything from paid sick days to fair pay and even the hugely popular Family and Medical Leave Act. It's unbelievable that business interests would suddenly care about privacy now, when corporations increasingly monitor employees’ every move – including e-mail, phone calls, personal belongings, and even interactions outside of the workplace.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CDW spreads misinformation.  Contrary to the lies and distortions displayed in CDW’s new TV ad and on its website, the Employee Free Choice Act does not take secret ballots away from workers. The legislation instead offers employees an alternative to the current, broken system that is slanted heavily in favor of management against workers. In fact, the bill would ensure that workers can choose their own union formation process, either through majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board election.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CDW’s own data and research is flawed. Instead of using well-respected academic research and public opinion surveys to test the merits and support for the Employee Free Choice Act, CDW released a poll in April 2008 claiming widespread opposition to the bill. However, even the most conservative political scientists and pundits could easily review the poll’s loaded questions and determine that it in no way accurately tested the public’s perceptions on the issue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My colleagues Aliya Haq and Laurie Johnson recently exposed the new hack-job attacks on the Clean Power Plan by Berman and Associates, an aggressive, polluter-funded public relations firm based in Washington, DC. Berman's 'study' (really a gross attempt at stacking up worse-than-worst-case costs and ignoring the benefits) includes attacks on clean energy in Nevada and New Mexico. The reports don't say much about methodology, but as my colleague Laurie points out, there isn't much to it. It's so filled with inaccuracies and blatant falsehoods hard to know where to begin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My question: Who asked Berman to bring his junk science out west?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New Mexico and Nevada are both in great positions to meet and beat EPA's Clean Power plan: utilities in both states have plans to retire part (in NM) or all (in NV) of their dirty coal assets over the coming years and few states have better clean energy opportunities (check out the NREL solar, wind and geothermal potential maps). Costs for wind and solar in the West are at all-time lows and both states could see huge benefits from increasing clean energy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New Mexico and Colorado utility regulators recently approved a wind power purchase by utilities because it was cheaper than any fossil alternative.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nevada is already exporting solar power to California and with the rise of the new joint energy market with California; it is poised to sell even more. Nevada's Republican Governor Brian Sandoval signed legislation supported by the state's largest utility to end dependence on coal and bring in more renewable energy. That legislation will make compliance with EPA's proposed standard remarkably easy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In New Mexico the 'report' is being released by the Rio Grande Foundation, a right-wing group funded by the Koch brothers. But it's not Berman's first hit-piece in New Mexico. Last year, one of his employees published an attack on clean energy in the Albuquerque Journal. Which begs the question: who is paying Berman to attack clean energy in the west?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Berman brags about his his ability to hide his funders. The Guardian reports:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"People always ask me one question all the time: 'How do I know that I won't be found out as a supporter of what you're doing?'" Berman told a conference of energy executives last year. The talk was secretly recorded and leaked to the New York Times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We run all of this stuff through non-profit organisations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don't know who supports us," Berman told the energy executives.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps the funders of this latest attack will remain in the dark. Fine, but let's leave their 'reports' out with the trash.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TAGS:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">actonclimatealecbermancarbonpollutionstandardscleanenergycleanpowerplanclimatechangenevadanewmexicorenewableenergysolarwind</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">top dark $</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enterprise Freedom Action Cmte</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hides all info</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div>