The Center for Consumer Freedom: Allow Me to Introduce You
Published October 13, 2008 @ 07:17AM PT
Wherever there is vitriolic anti–animal rights, pro–animal ag rhetoric, singing the praises of meat, dairy, and eggs and coming from a supposedly reputable source, there is often (or maybe even usually) the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which would be more aptly titled the Center for Corporate Freedom and Deception of Consumers. If you see the names Center for Consumer Freedom, Rick Berman, or David Martosko attached to any letter to the editor, press release, ad, Web site, or quotation in a news article, be aware that what you're reading is being paid for by the food (particularly meat and junk food), restaurant, and tobacco industries. And when you run into professional-looking anti–animal rights Web sites whose ownership isn't apparent, do some research to see who's really behind the sites or the organizations supposedly running them. This organization, dubiously registered as a nonprofit and run by Berman's PR company, is as much about "consumer freedom" as Ann Coulter is about intelligent thought and honesty. It is a front group.
But don't take my animal-loving, meat-hating, dairy- and egg-eschewing word for it. The PR machine also goes after environmental groups, health organizations, teachers' unions, and even Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and its deceptive front-group status and shady tactics are well documented:
- "
Beware Corporate Wolves in Consumer Watchdog Clothing," from American Chronicle - "Assholes You Should Know: Rick Berman," from La Vida Locavore
- Center for Consumer Freedom entry at SourceWatch
- "Our Pious Babylon," by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post (scroll about halfway down for the discussion of Berman, or search the page for his name):
- "Sticking Up for the Big Guys," from AlterNet
- "Don't Worry, Eat More Fish," from E Magazine
- "'Worst teachers' contest is ruse for big money agenda," from the Flint Journal
- "What's in a Name?" from USA Today
But even the MOD Squad [Merchants of Death, from the film Thank You for Smoking] is a pale imitation of the reality of the Beltway's most outrageous advocate, who goes by the name of Rick Berman. . . . Berman's salvos against unions are just the latest in a line of attacks he's leveled against drunk-driving laws, anti-smoking statutes, food safety ordinances and minimum-wage standards. He is, broadly speaking, the lobbyist for the Hobbesian state of nature.
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"Front Groups" image courtesy of SourceWatch
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Stephanie Ernst is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull. In her advocacy, she works to challenge prevailing perceptions of animals, to show the connections between animal exploitation and other injustices, to help people see that animals are more like us than different, and to encourage compassionate, nonviolent living and eating.
Woo-hoo! I love it whenever anyone calls out the CCF. Money can buy a lot of things, but clearly it can't buy a conscience.
Posted by Tracy Habenicht on 10/13/2008 @ 08:43AM PT
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This "organization" is despicable. Thanks for the post, Stephanie!
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 10/16/2008 @ 08:11AM PT
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David Berman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berman_(singer) on his father, Richard Berman (saved from a post on January 22, 2009):
"Now that the Joos (David's musical group, The Silver Jews) are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction:
My father.
You might be surprised to know he is famous, for terrible reasons.
My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor.
An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma)
You can read about him here:
http://www.bermanexposed.org/
My life is so wierd. It's allegorical to the nth. My father went to college at Transylvania University.
You see what I'm saying.
A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship.
He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We've been "estranged" for over three years.
Even as a child I disliked him. We were opposites. I wanted to read. He wanted to play games.
He is a union buster.
When I got out of college I joined the Teamsters (the guards were union organized at the Whitney).
I went off to hide in art and academia.
I fled through this art portal for twenty years. In the mean time my Dad started a very very bad company called Berman and Company.
He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke.
He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers.
His clients include everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America.
He helped ensure the minimum wage did not move a penny from 1997-2007!
The worst part for me as a writer is what he does with the english language.
Though vicious he is a doltish thinker and his spurious editorials rely on doublethink and always with the Lashon Hara.
As I studied Judaism over the years, the shame and the shanda (to do something embarrassing to Jews where non-Jews can observe it), grew almost too much. My heart was constantly on fire for justice. I could find no relief.
This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know.
Literally, if you eat food or have a job, he is reaching you.
I've always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan. The SJs have always stood autonomous and clear.
Hopefully it won't contaminate your feelings about the work.
My life has been riddled with Ibsenism. In a way I am the son of a demon come to make good the damage.
Previously I thought, through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world.
But there is the matter of Justice.
And I'll tell you it's not just a metaphor. The desire for it actually burns.
It hurts.
There needs to be something more. I'll see what that might be."
Posted by Jeffrey A. on 10/25/2009 @ 01:56PM PT
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Sorry, bad link above for David Berman. Here is the correct one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berman_(singer)
Posted by Jeffrey A. on 10/25/2009 @ 02:00PM PT
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