What Is the Center for Consumer Freedom

[Guest guest]

http://www.consumerdeception.com

 

What Is the Center for Consumer Freedom,

and Why Is It Attacking PETA?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.