Pay No Attention to the Industry-Funded Group Behind the Website
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
To develop its new website that tries to help the public understand direct-to-consumer drug ads, the U.S.
No
Front Groups
Return of the Swift Boaters
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"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.
No
Main Source:
Chesapeake's Gas-Powered News
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Faced 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.
No
Anti-Union Groups Run Orwellian Ads
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The Center for Union Facts, one of lobbyist Rick Berman's front groups, is railing against the
No
Main Source:
Return of the "American Energy Alliance"
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
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."
No
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Ethanol Lobby's "Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy" Seeks to Gorge on Tax Subsidies
Submitted by John Stauber on
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
Main Source:
Drilling Away at Poverty
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
On July 15, "an unlikely alliance" rallied in Washington DC to "stop the war on the poor" by increasing U.S. domestic oil and gas production.
No
Main Source:
Prescription Propaganda
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a recently created front group for pharmaceutical interests, has been churning out industry-funded propaganda that demonizes evidence-based medicine, universal health care, the government, and all critics of pharma while attempting to portray industry as a selfless provider of cures and education," write Norman Kelley and Adriane Fugh-Berman.
No
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Meet the Nuclear Power Lobby
The following article appeared in the June 2008 issue of The Progressive magazine.
The nuclear power industry is seeing its fortunes rise. "Seventeen entities developing license applications for up to thirty-one new [nuclear] reactors did not just happen," boasted Frank "Skip" Bowman. "It has been carefully planned."
Bowman heads the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the main lobbying group for the industry. His remarks (PDF), at a February gathering of more than 100 Wall Street analysts, were part of a presentation on "reasoned expectations for new nuclear plant construction."
Bowman knew it was important to impress his audience of wary potential investors. "We are where we are today because this industry started many years ago on a systematic program to identify what went wrong the last time," he said, "and develop ways to eliminate or manage those risks."
Whitman's New Nuclear Job
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
At the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI's) recent conference, Penn, Schoen & Berland pollster
No
Main Source:
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