Center for Consumer Freedom

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The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF; formerly the Guest Choice Network), is a U.S. nonprofit organization funded, according to its website, by restaurants, food companies and "more than 1,000 concerned individuals".^[1] It describes its mission as defending the "right of adults and parents to choose what they eat, drink, and how they enjoy themselves." CCF opposes compulsory warning labels on food, bans on smoking in restaurants, lawsuits against obesity, and similar activities. It runs media campaigns and gives out annual "Nanny Awards" to "those groups and individuals who would protect us from ourselves."^[2] CCF has campaigned against positions held by Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Oceana.

[edit] History

The group was created in 1995 as the Guest Choice Network by Richard Berman, executive director of the public affairs firm Berman and Company, with $600,000 from the Philip Morris tobacco company.^[3] The concept of the group, according to a letter by Richard Berman to Barbara Trach, who at the time was Philip Morris's senior program manager for public affairs, was "to unite the restaurant and hospitality industries in a campaign to defend their consumers and marketing programs against attacks from anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-meat, etc. activists ..." Its purpose, according to a planning document by Berman, was to encourage operators of "restaurants, hotels, casinos, bowling alleys, taverns, stadiums, and university hospitality educators" to "support [the] mentality of 'smokers rights' by encouraging responsibility to protect 'guest choice'."^[4] Internal documents from Philip Morris reveal that it donated $2.95 million to the organization between 1995 and 1998.^[5]

The Guest Choice Network argued that restaurants should be allowed to maintain smoking sections, and against restaurant-related initiatives from environmental, animal rights and anti-alcohol organizations,^[6] and straightedgers.^[7] In November 2001, the group expanded its criticism of activist groups with the launch of ActivistCash.com, which compiled information gathered from IRS documents and media reports, describing the funding and activities of groups it opposed, and listed key activists and celebrity links.

In January 2002 the Guest Choice Network became the Center for Consumer Freedom, a change the group said reflected that "the anti-consumer forces [were] expanding their reach beyond restaurants and taverns [and] going into your communities and even your homes," claiming that a broader organization was needed to act "wherever they try to take away your consumer freedom".^[8]

[edit] Activities

A print ad by the center criticizing PETA President's statement that opposed animal research to cure AIDS, terming it an "extremist agenda".

The group defines its mission as fighting against "a growing cabal of food cops, health care enforcers, militant activists, meddling bureaucrats, and violent radicals who think they know what's best for you, [who] are pushing against our basic freedoms."^[9]

CCF has argued against smoking bans and for keeping the legal blood-alcohol level for drivers at 0.10. It questions the dangers of red meat consumption and pesticides.^{[10][11][12][13]}

In a 1999 interview with the Chain Leader, a trade publication for restaurant chains, Berman said his organization attacks activists more aggressively than other lobbyists. "We always have a knife in our teeth", he said. Claiming that 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."^[14]

In 2002 CCF spokesman John Doyle described nationwide radio ads put out by the group as efforts to attract people to their website and "draw attention to our enemies: just about every consumer and environmental group, chef, legislator or doctor who raises objections to things like pesticide use, genetic engineering of crops or antibiotic use in beef and poultry."^[15]

CCF has posted a number of videos to YouTube.^[16] It posted the trailer for children's movie Charlotte's Web, claiming that the movie 'encourages kids to "say no to bacon" and print out stickers reading "Tofu Rulez"' and links to groups it claims are "extremist", such as the Humane Society of the United States.^[17]

CCF criticizes statistics used by nutrition groups to describe a global "obesity epidemic", and in 2005 filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to a CDC study claiming that 400,000 Americans die each year as a consequence of being obese.^[18] After the CCF campaign CDC reduced its estimates to 112,000 annual deaths, leading the CCF to advertise widely that it had discredited the study.^[3]

[edit] Activism websites

The Center for Consumer Freedom publishes the website PetaKillsAnimals.com, a website to oppose animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The site claims its aim is to "stand up to malicious animal-rights activists ... who claim to 'know what's best' for you."^[19] The website hosts court documents that it purports show that PETA unnecessarily euthanizes animals in its care,^[20], and portrays its staff, leaders, and supporters in a negative light. The CCF has also produced anti-PETA advertising and performed publicity stunts outside PETA meetings.^[21]

CCF runs ActivistCash.com, a website that claims it "provides the public and media with in-depth profiles of anti-consumer activist groups, along with information about the sources of what is called their exorbitant funding".^[22] The site features generally negative profiles of various groups it believes oppose consumer freedom, such as Greenpeace, PETA and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It also hosts "biographies" offering negative portrayals of key activists and celebrity supporters for various groups. The site reports what it claims are links between profiled groups and extremism, and in general argues that the groups profiled hold extreme views that are contrary to the public interest. It claims to have examined 500,000 IRS documents in its profiling, listing for each group major donors, income and expenditure, key supporters and connections with other groups.

CCF operates a number of other websites, including PhysicianScam.com, Trans-FatFacts.com, Animalscam.com, Obesitymyths.com, and CSPIScam.com. MercuryFacts.com and FishScam.com contain a mercury calculator that offers an alternative calculation of amount of a fish that can be eaten before getting an unsafe dose of mercury, calculated as ten times the reference dose recommended by the EPA.

[edit] Domain name disputes

CCF has created sites with similar domain names to organizations it opposes. In January 2002, CCF had to transfer the domain name chefscollaborative.info to the owner of the "Chefs Collaborative" trademark (see http://www.chefscollaborative.org/).^[23] In October 2002, after the CCF registered two domain names, cspinot.com and smartmouth.org, similar to those used by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), CSPI filed a complaint, which was upheld, and the two domain names were transferred to the CSPI.^{[24][25] [26]}

[edit] Organization and finance

CCF is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) U.S. nonprofit organization.^[9] As such it does not disclose the identity of its funders. However, some information is available from statements made by CCF and its funders, and on yearly IRS Form 990 filings.

Initial funding for the Guest Choice Network organization came from Philip Morris, with the initial donation of $600,000 followed by a $300,000 donation the following year. Philip Morris attorney Marty Barrington wrote in a 1996 internal company memorandum: "As of this writing, PM USA is still the only contributor, though Berman continues to promise others any day now." ^[27] By December, 1996, supporters included Alliance Gaming (slot machines), Anheuser-Busch (beer), Bruss Company (steaks and chops), Cargill Processed Meat Products, Davidoff (cigars), Harrah's (casinos), Overhill Farms (frozen foods), Philip Morris, and Standard Meat Company (steaks). The group's advisory panel comprised representatives from most of these companies, plus further representatives from the restaurant industry, Senator George McGovern, and Carl Vogt of law firm Fulbright & Jaworski^[28]

In subsequent years, GCN acquired more donors, but was still largely funded by large corporations. The IRS Form 990 for the six-month period from July to December 1999 shows income for that period was $111,642, of which $105,000 came from six unnamed donors. Form 990s for the Center for Consumer Freedom are available for years 2002-2004 on the GuideStar website.^[29][30][31] For the last available year, 2004, revenues were $3.6 million, while expenses reached $3.25 million.

By 2005 the group reported having over 1,000 individual supporters^[9][3] and, according to Berman, about 100 corporate supporters^[32] Other companies that have publicly acknowledged making donations to CCF include Coca-Cola; Wendy's; Tyson Foods; and Pilgrim's Pride.^[3][32][33]

[edit] Personnel

The latest available IRS Form 990 for the 2004 calendar year lists Richard Berman, Jacob Dweck, David Browne and Lane Cardwell as directors and John Doyle as secretary and treasurer. All received nominal $250 salaries, except Berman, who received $18,000.

Several Berman & Co employees and associates have associations with CCF. Doyle is a Berman senior vice president, David Martosko has been described in news stories as CCF director of research,^[34] and Justin Wilson is cited as a CCF senior research analyst and has appeared multiple times on television networks including CNBC to debate the issue of "trans-fats bans".^[35][36]

[edit] Criticism

The Center for Consumer Freedom has drawn criticism from several groups for its startup funding from the Philip Morris tobacco company. It has been described as an astroturf group that portrays itself as a grassroots organization while actually being largely funded by the fast food, meat, and tobacco industries.^{[37][3][38][39][40]} It is also criticized its efforts to portray groups such as the Humane Society of the United States as "violent" and "extreme", and for its opposition to banning the use of trans fats.^{[41][42][43][44][45]} The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has also campaigned against the CCF's validity as a non-profit tax exempt charitable organization, filing an IRS complaint in 2004 attacking CCF's claims that its advocacy campaigns were "educational" in nature.^[46][47][3] Some corporations, including PepsiCo and Kraft Foods, have declined to work with CCF, saying they do not agree with some of the group's arguments or its approach to advocacy.^[32]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] CCF-operated websites

• ConsumerFreedom.com Official website
• PetaKillsAnimals.com
• ActivistCash.com
• PhysicianScam.com
• Trans-FatFacts.com
• AnimalScam.com
• ObesityMyths.com
• CSPIScam.com.
• MercuryFacts.com
• FishScam.com

[edit] Other

• ParentalFreedom.com Center for Parental Choice A website funded by VegSource.com, opposing the CCF.
• ConsumerDeception.com Documentation and history of Rick Berman and CCF.
• Sourcewatch: Center for Consumer Freedom A wiki hosted by the Center for Media and Democracy that criticizes the CCF.