Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The Wall Street Journal recently gave a plug to ActivistCash.com, a new website that claims to expose where "activists get their money." ActivistCash.com attacks environmental, health and animal rights activists as "nannies," "anti-choice zealots" and "hypocrites" who pretend to represent grassroots citizens while taking money from foundations. According to Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel, ActivistCash is needed because activist groups "have been reluctant to let anyone see their records." But ActivistCash keeps its own finances hidden, so PR Watch investigated and found (surprise, surprise) that its funding comes from the very industries that share a vested interest in attacking activists, specifically the tobacco and alcohol lobbies, as well as restaurant chains and taverns that want to keep employee wages low, avoid paying health insurance, and drive up sales of their high-markup products: booze, soda pop, fatty foods and cigarettes.