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Anti-Worker Lobbyist: First Mothers, Next Pregnant Women
Well, the Real Facts are rolling in on Richard Berman, whose so-called Union Facts project targeting hard-working union members is just another in a long string of attack campaigns, the targets of which have included Mothers Against Drunk Driving and now it turns out, pregnant women.
According to the Jan. 17, 2006, Village Voice, Berman is behind a PR blitz encouraging pregnant women to eat tuna—never mind the mercury. For years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have warned children, pregnant women and those who might become pregnant to avoid eating more than about one serving of white albacore tuna a week because of the high mercury content. But one of Berman’s many front groups, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), is seeking to convince the public that fears about toxic levels of mercury in tuna are wildly overblown.
Berman is behind so many other toxic campaigns and front groups, it’s hard to keep track. But we’ll keep adding to the list in coming days as we learn more.
In launching a website that offers skewed information and outright distortions about America’s union movement in the purported interest of transparency, Berman created the Center for Union Facts—which describes itself as “a nonprofit organization supported by foundations, businesses, union members, and the general public.”
As Matt Stoller reports today on MyDD, such a turn toward running a nonprofit is quite remarkable for a business lobbyist.
A business lobbyist working for industries fighting against unions is suddenly running a “charity” just to educate the public. How charitable.
Stoller goes on to note that the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the IRS in November 2004 to investigate activities of CCF that it claimed would require revocation of its IRS tax-exempt status.
CREW had copied Sens. [Charles] Grassley (R-Iowa) and [Max] Baucus (D-Mont.) on the complaint, but never received a response.
CREW asked Sens. Grassley and Baucus to investigate whether CCF and CUF [Center for Union Facts] are engaged in charitable activities or whether they are in fact, merely front organizations for for-profit industry entities.
As Stoller says:
This abuse of tax status isn’t new by right-wingers, but it’s getting worse. Americans for Job Security is organized as a 501c6, a trade association, when it is engaging in electoral advocacy. And now The Center for Union Facts is filed as a charity—isn’t this something to investigate?
Given another of Berman’s front groups, ActivistCash, he should be more than willing to make public such information.
But maybe not. According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, Berman’s ActivistCash group
…states that its mission is to expose “where anti-consumer organizations and activists get their money.” It attacks activists as “nannies,” “anti-choice zealots” and “hypocrites” who pretend to represent grassroots citizens while taking money from foundations….
ActivistCash claims to be “committed to 100 percent accuracy,” and while the facts presented on the site are generally correct, they are largely hidden in a matrix of emotive terms and biased arguments….
In reality, none of the information that ActivistCash “exposes” has ever been hidden. It is available in public foundation reports and IRS tax statements that nonprofit organizations make available to anyone who asks. Most of the funding data in the ActivistCash database can already be found in public libraries or downloaded via the Internet. Nonprofit organizations are not required to disclose the names of specific individual or institutional donors, but most of the organizations attacked by ActivistCash have gone beyond the requirements of the law in providing the information which ActivistCash is now using to attack them.
As for hypocrisy, ActivistCash keeps the details of its own finances hidden to conceal the fact 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.
SourceWatch also details some of the behind the scenes info on other groups Berman heads up—FishScam, Employment Roundtable and more. It’s worth a long look.
In the interest of transparency.
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