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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCorporate Propagandist Richard Berman Secretly Taped Bragging About How He Smears Progressives
http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/corporate-propagandist-richard-berman-secretly-taped-braggingOne of corporate Americas most notorious political hitmen, Richard Berman, whose ugly campaigns almost always rely on smears and fake front groups that hide sponsors identities, has been secretly tape-recorded bragging about his dirt-filled tactics.
Think of this as an endless war, told a group of oil and gas industry executives at a June meeting of the Western Energy Alliance in Colorado Springs, as he sought to raise $3 million for a campaign called Big Green Radicals aimed at environmentalists and fracking opponents. You can either win ugly or lose pretty.
Bermans remarks were secretly recorded by an attendee who gave them to the Center for Media and Democracy. His speech was filled with the inflammatory rhetoric and bruising tactics that he has used for decades in corporate propaganda campaigns to smear, discredit and destroy public-interest causes and groups. As a lengthy profile in AlterNet detailed, Bermanlabeled Dr. Evil by CBSs 60 Minutesis known for pioneering a toxic mix of front groups, distortion-filled attacks, ridicule and bullying to stoke prejudice and hatred as a means of turning public attention and regulators away from clients business practices.
Berman has gone after a whos who of progressive causes: fast food workers seeking raises, advocates pushing for higher minimum wages, any union organizing effort, lawyers defending the right to a trial by jury, animal rights groups concerned about treatment of animals; environmentalists worried about mercury in fish, nutritionists worried about trans fat in diets, physicians worried about how high-fructose corn syrup induces obesity, and more. He came to Colorado this past June to build on a new anti-fracking campaign that already has run aggressive ads in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C., CMD reported.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)malaise
(268,978 posts)If people on this planet had a clue, many would jump
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)People that don't believe that politics abounds in conspiracies should take note.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Some place where a lot of progressives like to gather?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)"go after" progressives.
calimary
(81,238 posts)The only thing these guys understand is scorched-earth. WHEN are our guys gonna start fighting fire with FIRE, rather than with crumpled wads of paper? Actually, our guys should start fighting fire with NAPALM.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Corruption Inc
(1,568 posts)Too bad nobody is going to do a F-ing thing about it as we're told to "look forward".
MisterP
(23,730 posts)and gets to present as "the one true scientific oneTM" in TV and newspapers
http://www.citizensforethics.org/pages/category-results/c/richard-berman
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Berman
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ron_Arnold
http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Sludge-Good-For-You/dp/1567510604
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585421391/
http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Greens-Wise-Use-Movement/dp/1555663281/