Rick Berman's Web of Deception
by Lisa G. Leming
www.crittersong.org

Center for Consumer Freedom - is one of the more active of several front groups created by Berman & Co., a public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman. Based in Washington, DC, Berman & Co. represents the tobacco industry as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns and restaurant chains.

Contributors to this corporate lobby (which advertises itself as a nonprofit but is funded entirely by corporate donors and even pretends to solicit donations in the help us section of it's website) reads like a who's who for the corporate food industry. They include: Armour-Swift, Bestfoods, Max & Erma's, Applebee's, Custom Cuts, Ruby Tuesday, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Coca Cola, Marie Calendar, Outback Steakhouse, Sugar Foods, National Steak and Poultry, Tyson Foods, Wendy's, White Castle, Cracker Barrel, Hooters, International House of Pancakes, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Steak & Ale, TGI Friday's, Uno's Restaurants and Perdue Farms as well as many others. Their many websites such as Center for Consumer Freedom and Activisticash.com attack activists groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(1) and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers as well as television and written ads attacking everything from labor unions to health and diet advocates. Among their many targets perceived as threats to their corporate masters in the alcohol, tobacco, hotel, meat and dairy industries are: animal rights groups, health advocates, smoking advocates, living wage advocates, labor unions, environmentalists and anyone who opposes the corporate interests of their clients who remain comfortably in the background. They actively opposes smoking bans, lowering the legal blood-alcohol level and minimum wage increases. This information was obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy through a whistleblower. The IRS Form 990 which it filed for the 6 month period from July to December 1999 (under the name of Guest Choice Network) showed that almost all of it's financial support came from a handful of anonymous sources. It received no income from membership dues. Like other Berman & Co. front groups, CCF is headquartered at the following address:

Berman & Co.
1775 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
202 463-7100
rberman@new-reality.com

In a 1999 interview with the Chain Leader, a trade publication for restaurant chains, Berman boasted that he attacks activists more aggressively than other lobbyists. "We always have a knife in our teeth," he said. Since activists "drive consumer behavior on meat, alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine," his strategy is "to shoot the messenger. ... We've got to attack their credibility as spokespersons."