(Moderator's Note: Will everyone please SAVE this information and send it
immediately to any newspaper or magazine printing hysterical anti-animal
welfare rantings by Richard Berman or his "front" organization, the Center
for Consumer Freedom.)

Following the Center for Consumer Freedom's (CFC) recent USA Today op-ed
attack
on PETA, here is PETA's exposé of CCF and its founder, Richard Berman.
Note, the numbers refer to the references at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.1 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.2,3

Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way
into nonprofit societies of which he is the executive director.4 He
then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit
groups.5 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.6,7

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.8

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.9 Berman and Brinker were lobbying against raising the minimum
wage.10

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.11 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."12

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."13
Smoking won't kill you; over-regulation will.

Berman is "a one-man wrecking crew on important issues."14 His
approach has been described as "misleading" and "despicable."15,16
Berman has been called "a tobacco company whore," but he's branched
out since then.17

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.18

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.19 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.20

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.21

NOTES

1 Charles Bernstein, "The Zealot," Chain Leader, 29 Aug. 2002,
http://www.chainleader.com/archive/1299/1299thought.html

2 The Guest Choice Network Home Page, 15 Sep. 2002,
http://www.guestchoice.com/,
automatically defaults to the Center for Consumer Freedom Home Page,
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/, after the message "The Guest
Choice Network is now the Center for Consumer Freedom."

3 Marty Burlington, note to Denise Keane and Claire Carcich, Philip
Morris Incorporated Document Site, Document #2048257603, 28 Mar. 1996,

http://www.pmdocs.com/getimg.asp?pgno=0&start=30&if=avpidx&bool=%26quot%
3Bberman%2C%20rb%26quot%3B&docid=2048257603&docnum=32&summary=0&sel1=

4 Berman and Co., letter to Barbara Trach, Philip Morris Senior
Program Manager-Public Affairs, Philip Morris Incorporated Document
Site, Document #2047824003, 11 Dec. 1995,

http://www.pmdocs.com/getimg.asp?pgno=0&start=0&if=avpidx&bool=%26quot%3
Bberman%2C%20rb%26quot%3B&docid=2047824003&docnum=1&summary=0&sel1=

5 Ibid.

6 Memos reporting that sums ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 from
Philip Morris were given to Berman, Documents #2072395971,
#2072395970, #2072395969, #207395968, #2072395967, #2072396007,
#2048257603, Philip Morris Incorporated Document Site,
http://www.pmdocs.com/

7 Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for Guest
Choice Network, Employment Policy Institute 1995-2000,
http://www.guidestar.org/index.jsp

8 Barbara Trach, Inter-Office Correspondence to Ellen Merlo,
"Subject: Background for Meeting on 10/20/95, Re: Industry Leaders
and the Accommodation Program, 19 Oct. 1995," Document #2072395887,
Philip Morris Incorporated Document Site, <http://www.pmdocs.com/>.

9,10 "The Legend of the Salad Bar," prwatch archives Vol. 8, No. 1,
15 Sep. 2002,
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q1/berman2.html

Employment Policies Institute Foundation, with Berman as ED, gave a
tax-deductible gift of $25,000 to support a college course entitled
"Renewing Civilization" and taught by Gingrich that included
comments on the evils of the minimum wage.

11 Statement of Richard Berman, Legislative Counsel, American
Beverage Licensees and The American Beverage Institute, Public
Hearing on Various Approaches to Highway Safety, U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, 27 Jun. 2002,
http://www.house.gov/transportation/highway/06-27-02/berman.html

12 Online Health & Nutrition Newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 6c, 15 Jun.
2000, <http://www.healthfree.com/health/newsletter/news4_6c.htm>.

13 prwatch archives, Vol. 8, No. 1, 15 Sep. 2000
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q1/berman1.html

14 Barbara Trach, Inter-Office Correspondence to Ellen Merlo,
"Subject: Background for Meeting on 10/20/95, Re: Industry Leaders
and the Accommodation Program, 19 Oct. 1995," Document #2072395887,
Philip Morris Incorporated Document Site, <http://www.pmdocs.com/>.

15 Chuck Hurley, National Safety Council Public Affairs Executive
Director, quoted by Charles Bernstein in "The Zealot," Chain Leader
(December 1999), 29 Aug. 2002,
http://www.chainleader.com/archive/1299/1299thought.html

16 Harry Bernstein, 1992 Los Angeles Times article, quoted in prwatch
archives, Vol. 8, No. 1, 15 Sep. 2002,
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q1/berman1.html

17,18 Jeff Nelson, President, VegSource Interactive, Inc., message to
Richard Berman, Berman and Co., 18 May 2002,
http://www.parentalfreedom.com/response2berman.htm

19 "A Rogues Gallery of Industry Front Groups and Anti-Environmental
Think Tanks," ActivistCash.com,
http://www.prwatch.org/improp/ddam.html

20 Lance Gay, "Meat Industry Responds to the Beefs," Scripps Howard
News Service, 30 Oct. 2001,

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=ANIMALWELFARE-10-30-01&cat=AN

21 The Guest Choice Network Home Page, 15 Sep. 2002,
http://www.guestchoice.com/
automatically defaults to the Center For Consumer Freedom Home Page,
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/ after the message "The Guest
Choice Network is now the Center for Consumer Freedom."

22 Charles Bernstein, "The Zealot," interview with Richard Berman,
Chain Leader, 29 Aug. 2002
http://www.chainleader.com/archive/1299/1299thought.html


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world...indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!" -- Margaret Mead

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