Background ProgressNow Colorado (PNC) is one of 20 state-level progressive groups under the ProgressNow umbrella. It was founded in Denver in 2003 as the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network in an attempt to replicate the success of the state’s conservative Independence Institute. It bills itself as part of a network of state-based communications hubs that function […]
General Far from being “humane” to people it disagrees with, The Humane League has a history of unlawful activity conducted in the name of animal rights. If you go The Humane League’s website, you’ll likely see a cute picture of an animal or two, but the organization’s real goal is to harass businesses that serve […]
Why is an “angling” group concerned about world population? At a Glance Posing as an angling group, the Izaak Walton League of America receives streams of money for a variety of pet environmentalist causes, ranging from anti-energy campaigns to population control. Background Founded in 1922 by 54 anglers and named after a 17th Century author, […]
Overview Keystone Progress bills itself as an altruistic organization fighting for progressive causes and seeking to build “grassroots democracy through community organizing” in Pennsylvania. In reality, Keystone Progress is a union-funded, highly partisan organization that reportedly falls under the empire of the George Soros-funded Democracy Alliance – a secretive network of billionaires that steers public […]
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is an IRS tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that purports to document supposed conservative media bias. Media Matters Action Network (MMAN) is the affiliated 501(c)(4) organization that is the advocacy arm of MMfA. Media Matters original goal was to serve as a “fact-checker” that focused on conservative media programming. But in practice, […]
Former board member, National Clean Air Coalition; former board member, California Common Cause; former board member, Public Interest Economics Inc.; former Political Director, Zero Population Growth
Common Cause is a Washington D.C.-based progressive organization that aims to “restore the core values of American democracy,” fighting to combat problems such as political corruption and the control of politics by big money. While Common Cause claims to be a non-partisan “watchdog,” in reality the organization does nothing more than act as a safeguard […]
The Center for Media & Democracy (CMD) is a counterculture public relations effort disguised as an independent media organization. CMD isn’t really a center it would be more accurate to call it a partnership, since it is essentially a two-person operation.
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber operate, as do most self-anointed progressive watchdogs, from the presumption that any communication issued from a corporate headquarters must be viewed with a jaundiced eye. In their own quarterly PR Watch newsletter, they recently referred to corporate PR as a propaganda industry, misleading citizens and manipulating minds in the service of special interests. Ironically, Rampton and Stauber have elected to dip into the deep pockets of multi-million-dollar foundations with special interest agendas of their own.
Their books Mad Cow U.S.A. and Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! were produced and promoted using grant monies from the Foundation for Deep Ecology ($25,000) and the Education Foundation of America ($20,000), among others. Along with the more recent Trust Us: We’re Experts, these books are scare-mongering tales about a corporate culture out of control, and each implies that the public needs rescuing. Guess who the heroes in this fantasy are?
Despite his wild claims that federal agencies have covered up U.S. mad cow disease cases, John Stauber has become a quotable celebrity on the subject. In 1997, at the height of the initial mad-cow panic, a CMD press release warned: Evidence suggests there may already be a mad-cow-type of disease infecting both U.S. pigs and cattle. Rampton and Stauber have never provided any documentation to back up this reckless claim; no cases of mad-cow disease have ever been documented in U.S. livestock. John Stauber was one of only four mad-cow experts offered to reporters by Fenton Communications’ media arm, Environmental Media Services.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is the utility infielder of nanny groups. Because its name implies a wide-ranging universe of issues, the group can be counted on to inject itself into just about any debate where there’s an environmental argument to be made. Washington PR firm Fenton Communications has made use of the NRDC in a variety of public campaigns, the most famous example of which was the 1989 “Alar-on-apples” food scare.
Following the release of a report called “Intolerable Risk” — which claimed that Alar was “the most potent cancer-causing agent in our food supply” and blamed the chemical for “as many as 5,300” childhood cancer cases — Fenton and NRDC went on a five-month media blitz. The campaign kicked off with a CBS 60 Minutes feature seen by over 50 million Americans. Despite the fact that the claims were completely unfounded, hysteria set in. Apples were pulled off of grocery shelves, schools stopped serving them at lunch, and apple growers nationwide lost over $250 million.
Currently, NRDC is focusing a great deal of its vast resources fighting against genetically improved foods.
The Economic Policy Institute (EcPI) calls itself a “nonprofit, nonpartisan” think tank. But behind its façade of political balance lays an agenda-driven organization. EcPI has roots in radical leftist politics, and it receives a large portion of its funding from organized labor. EcPI‘s donors have on at least one occasion been allowed to review its research prior to publication.
The Economic Policy Institute was founded in 1986 by Jeff Faux, who was previously the co-director of the National Center for Economic Alternatives (NCEA). As its name suggests, the NCEA specialized in offering “alternatives”—alternatives characterized as “radical” in The New York Times—to mainstream U.S. domestic policy.
NCEA‘s co-director was Gar Alperovitz, now a University of Maryland professor and author of America Beyond Capitalism. Prior to working at the NCEA, Alperovitz co-authored the essay collection Strategy and Program: Two Essays Toward a New American Socialism, where he advocated using socialist ideas to make the United States a “fairer” nation.
Together, Faux and Alperovitz advocated reindustrialization, a scheme that required a national committee to review and guide the re-development of selected major industries in the United States. One professor at Columbia University, writing in The New York Times, called their ideas “a poorly disguised version of national planning.”
At NCEA, Faux and Alperovitz promoted public ownership of energy, defense, and transportation corporations, and economic planning handled through local councils. Over time, they envisioned the replacement of large U.S. corporations with new institutions directly accountable to the public.
