Watchdog Watchdog on Your Side

January 5, 2002 12:54 PM

Watchdog Watchdog on Your Side "ActivistCash.com states that its mission is to expose 'where anti-consumer organizations and activists get their money.' ... ActivistCash is one of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman. Berman & Co. represents the tobacco industry as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains." Not a new phenomenon, but a helpful accounting.
posted by Joe Hutch (6 comments total)

Set irony detectors on "kill." Someone who does that for a living setting up a group to uncover the "secrets" behind his clients' opponents.

I'm sick and tired of front groups used to disguise their real agenda behind an innocent-sounding name. (Industry organizations seem to be the worst offenders, IMHO. Exhibit A: "Citizens for Better Medicare," brought to you by the pharmaceutical industry.)

You wanna convince me of something? Tell me who you really are and where your financial backing really comes from.

Here's a handy list of advocacy groups that have aired issue ads (and who they really are, if applicable).
posted by pmurray63 at 1:36 PM on January 5, 2002

Hilarious. Hope this dries up some of the funding for the more radical of these groups which participate in eco-terrorism. For example, i won't be eating anymore ben & jerry's ice cream given that they gave 100,000 to RuckusSociety. If they are anti-consumer, then I'll be happy to indulge them by not consuming their product.
posted by prodigal at 2:52 PM on January 5, 2002

Word.
posted by dong_resin at 5:22 PM on January 5, 2002

prodigal, what did you think about their description of greenpeace?
posted by MarkO at 3:10 PM on January 6, 2002

Unless I'm misremembering, Ben and Jerry's is now owned by the British/Dutch conglomorate Unilever, maker of (among others) Lipton tea, Ragu pasta sauces, Hellman's mayonaise, Breyer's ice cream, Snuggles fabric softener, Dove and Pond's skin care products, Calvin Klein cologne, and Vaseline. Good luck with your efforts -- make sure to write them to let them know why you're boycotting their products. Mind you, given the decades-long failure of boycott efforts against the Swiss conglomorate Nestle in protest of their baby formula marketing practices, I doubt that your grassroots efforts against Unilever will do any good, but it's nice to see someone trying to put their beliefs into action. Perhaps you could take on the price-fixing folks at ADM next and bring us a better future with cheaper soda!
posted by snarkout at 4:04 PM on January 6, 2002

WARNING - This appears to be another biased website posing as an objective "watchdog" organization.

It is clearly right-leaning in its criticisms and offers a one-sided view. As usual, take any "information" or "facts" you find on activistcash.com with a grain of salt...
posted by OldGuard at 12:36 PM on January 7, 2002