front groups

As the political action committee (PAC) "Our Country Deserves Better" prepares for its national tour of "patriotic rallies" against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, columnist Bill Berkowitz interviews the PAC's coordinator, Joe Wierzbicki. Like many of the PAC's officers, Wierzbicki works for the Republican-associated PR firm Russo Marsh & Rogers and with the pro-war group Move America Forward. Wierzbicki said the PAC hopes to "raise in excess of $1 million by Election Day," and run ads in "ten states." In regards to the PAC's ad that questions Obama's statements on religion, Wierzbicki asked, "Is Barack Obama's faith the Muslim registration listed by his family when he was a student growing up in Indonesia? Or is it the black liberation theology espoused by Reverend Jeremiah Wright...? Or is it the mainstream Christianity he identified with in the forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren?" But Wierzbicki claimed his PAC isn't "Swiftboating" Obama, because, for example, "We've not used the photographs of Barack Obama in what some call 'Muslim garb' because the photos by themselves are inconclusive." They also decided, "despite the controversy that her words created," not to "use Michelle Obama's comments about this being the first time in her adult life that she was proud to be an American." Move America Forward also launched the MAF Freedom PAC, which opposes Obama and supports various Republican Congressional candidates.

Americans for American Energy (AAE), an energy front group established by the public relations firm Pac/West Communications, asked Congress to investigate "possible illegal coordination between U.S. Interior Department officials and several national environmental groups." At issue are contacts between the Department's National Landscape Conservation System and the Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation -- groups AAE accuses of "pursuing an anti-American energy political agenda." According to Representative Rob Bishop, a Republican from Utah, the Interior Department's inspector general is already looking into the matter. Federal employees are generally prohibited "from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress." The Deseret News notes that the probe "comes after the Interior Department ... found that officials at its Minerals Management Service engaged in sexual relationships with energy industry representatives, and accepted gifts from them."

In an opinion column, former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant Patrick Moore waxes lyrical about a proposal by Luminant to build two new reactors at its Comanche Peak nuclear power station in Texas. Luminant's new reactors, he wrote, would produce "electricity from virtually carbon-free nuclear power." Moore's brief biographical note states only that he is "co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a national grass-roots coalition that promotes nuclear power." What neither Moore nor the Dallas Morning News discloses to readers of the column is that he is a consultant for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which funds the "coalition." Luminant is a member (pdf) of the NEI. A New York Times blog post referring to Moore also fails to refer the coalition's NEI link, describing it only as a "pro-nuclear group."

Kevin Anderson, blog editor for the UK Guardian, was bemused by an advertisement posted in the Washington DC subway. "This ad of a man's beer belly stuffed with bills railing away against trial lawyers probably makes little sense to the average American. ... Figuring out who is behind ads like this is even more interesting. The ad highlights an innocuous sounding website www.ConsumerFreedom.com (because who would be against consumer freedom?). What is this group? SourceWatch gives the history and current campaigns of the Center for Consumer Freedom. They originally started to fight against smoking restrictions in restaurants backed with money from tobacco giant Philip Morris. They have since expanded into other areas including anti-anti-obesity. Hard-hitting news funny man Stephen Colbert gets to the bottom of the story in this interview of Rick Berman, the PR man behind the Center for Consumer Freedom."

To develop its new website that tries to help the public understand direct-to-consumer drug ads, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "turned to a nonprofit front group erected by Shaw Science Partners, a public relations firm that specializes in launching new drugs," according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). EthicAd, the nonprofit behind the FDA site, is funded by Shaw Science and its own board members. Shaw Group founder Michael Shaw admitted that "if not all, almost all" of EthicAd's funders "do work for industry." EthicAd also "shares the same physical address as Shaw Science Partners." CSPI gives a negative review of the FDA site, calling it "jargon-filled" and lacking advice on how to evaluate messages about drug side effects, among other consumer topics. CSPI is calling on the FDA "to scuttle the web site, to terminate its relationship with the drug companies' PR firm, and to seek out advice from leading physicians, pharmacists, or consumer groups."

"A new group financed by a Texas billionaire and organized by some of the same political operatives and donors behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004 plans to begin running television ads attacking Barack Obama," report Matthew Mosk and Chris Cillizza. The American Issues Project, funded by Dallas businessman Harold Simmons, has amassed a multimillion-dollar fund to run the ads. Republican activists Chris LaCivita and Tony Feather are also involved in organizing the group. "The resurgence on the right appears as though it will not go unanswered," add Mosk and Cillizza. "The Service Employees International Union is set to unveil a multimillion-dollar television campaign on Monday, and other liberal and Democratic-aligned groups are rushing to establish financing for efforts over the final weeks of the campaign."

Image from CleanSkies.tvFaced with "public complaints about its new drilling in an urban area" -- Fort Worth, Texas -- the natural gas company Chesapeake Energy is about to launch its own "brand-new media source," Shale.tv. The online video channel will be produced by "three Dallas-area former journalists," and is named after the Barnett Shale natural gas formation in North Texas. In response to questions about Shale.tv's objectivity, Chesapeake spokesperson Julie Wilson pointed out, "We pay those journalists -- whether on Channel 8 or Channel 11 or the [Fort Worth] Star-Telegram -- in terms of advertising support. ... Instead of running ads on the program, we're just writing the check direct." Chesapeake has also hired actor Tommy Lee Jones, "to help deliver its point of view." And, since April, the Chesapeake-funded group American Clean Skies Foundation has run CleanSkies.tv. The online video channel "has applied for press credentials that would place its reporters and crew inside the U.S. Capitol," reports Dow Jones. The CleanSkies.tv program "Clean Skies Sunday," which is anchored by former CBS Morning News host Susan McGinnis, is also broadcast on WJLA-7, the ABC affiliate in Washington DC. A recent show featured Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon discussing a Clean Skies Foundation report that concluded that "natural gas supplies are vast enough to meet current demand for more than 100 years, a key talking point by the natural gas industry in its congressional lobbying efforts."

From a Center for Union Facts adThe Center for Union Facts, one of lobbyist Rick Berman's front groups, is railing against the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would "allow employees at a work place to unionize as soon as a majority signs cards expressing support to join a union." Labor rights advocates say the bill is needed, because of employer intimidation and union-busting tactics. Berman's Center, as the "Employee Freedom Action Committee," says the bill would allow "union bosses" to "stand over workers' shoulders and use coercion." It's launched a $30 million campaign, including radio, television, print and online ads and "a substantial grassroots organizing effort." The "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace," which is comprised of "virtually hundreds of businesses, chambers of commerce and trade associations," is also spending millions to defeat the bill. Both groups are targeting Senators "in what they see as key states," including Maine and New Hampshire. The bill has passed the House and is before the Senate. "The folks behind the ad campaign fear that if Sen. Barack Obama, an Employee Free Choice Act sponsor, is elected president and power shifts to the Democrats in the Senate, the bill will become law."

An industry front group best known for opposing the BTU tax (an energy tax based on consumption) in the 1990s has resurfaced in New Mexico, where it's running radio ads attacking congressman Tom Udall for his opposition to oil drilling. According to Time magazine, the American Energy Alliance was created in 1993 when the National Manufacturers Association "got together with the American Petroleum Institute, 1,600 large companies, small businesses and farmers to form ... a group designed solely to defeat the BTU tax. The coalition paid more than $1 million to Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm, to deploy nearly 45 staff members in 23 states during the past two months. Burson's goal was to drum up as much grass-roots outrage about the BTU tax as possible and direct it at the swing Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee." Matthew Reichbach, who reported on the group's current attacks on Udall, noted that "Information on the group is hard to come by. There are no online Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings, no Internal Revenue Service filings and no way to contact the group."

Monsanto, Dupont, Archer Daniels Midland and the PR giant Burson-Marsteller are some of the corporations behind the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy. No doubt feel-good ads from this front group will soon fill the airwaves, especially in Washington DC. The Washington Post reports, "A group of the world's biggest agribusiness companies announced it will use lobbyists on Capitol Hill and national ads to build the case for fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, even as grain prices climb worldwide. The biofuels industry has blossomed under federal mandates requiring the United States to increase alternative fuel usage by 2009. The mandates are under attack from groups who blame the new industry for rising food prices that have sparked riots and hoarding in several countries. ... The alliance has a budget of several million dollars for the campaign, but it did not disclose the exact amount."