Burston-Marsteller's clients - Very interesting...

[XOKCowboy]

I think that this is the article that Rachel Maddow was referencing yesterday on her radio show. This is a very unsavory company. Blackwater knew just who to hire to tidy up their reputation.

Disasters do happen. The best we can hope for is to learn from experience. This necessitates a serious debate afterwards, and to be effective such a debate needs to be balanced. Corporations that spend vast amounts on post-disaster PR are disrupting that crucial debate and evading responsibility. BM prides itself on being the leading 'crisis management' PR company. It has done the PR for the following disasters:

In India in 1984, for US company Union Carbide when its pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked more than 40 tonnes toxic gas. 2000 people were killed instantly; up to 15,000 have died since as a result of the disaster, and hundreds of thousands are suffering lung, eye and gastric complaints. Tuberculosis incidence in Bhopal is 3 times the Indian average. Following BMs work, the Indian Supreme Court dropped all charges of manslaughter against Union Carbide, although safety mechanisms at the plant were appallingly inadequate. The company has now left India, leaving most of the responsibility with the Indian government.

In 1979, when Babcock and Wilcox's nuclear reactor failed at Three Mile Island, the worst nuclear accident ever in the US. There are still over 2,000 lawsuits pending.

For the Exxon Corporation, following the Exxon-Valdez disaster in Alaska, one of the most devastating oil spillages the world has ever seen.

There is a list of companies (and countries) that have used BM's very specialized "services".


http://archive.corporatewatch.org/magazine/issue2/cw2f2.html

[Bluebear]

1. Good gravy, their "services" are indefensible, aren't they? nt

[XOKCowboy]

2. One wonders how Hillary will use those "services" nt

[Canuckistanian]

4. Excellent point

Hillary should have known the reputation of this firm.

That she's using them as the chief media strategists in her campaign is disgusting.

[populistdriven]

7. Bhopal? This is Sick!!! You do realize that those victims never collected a penny from Dow?

[papau]

3. Her Pollster Penn was hired as CEO 2 years ago - and for last year on leave

more or less to work on Hillary's campaign.

I believe you will find that the Clinton folks do not use B-M's legal services or PR services for anything.

[XOKCowboy]

6. Hey whatever it takes to win right?

Just like the Repugs. Oh and do you really believe Mr. Penn doesn't bring the full might and political power of BM with him to Hillary's campaign?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss....

[papau]

8. The full might of a PR firm is what? - and no - Penn does not bring BM in the Clinton campaign

[seemslikeadream]

5. more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1981595

Regimes
Argentina's fascist junta
Indonesian Government
El Salvadorian Government
Nigerian Government
Saudi Arabia - BKSH, a Burson Marsteller subsidiary which deals with government lobbying, was hired on Septmeber 14, to promote Saudi interest in the US following the terrorist attacks
Mexican Government (to promote NAFTA)
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu
South Korea (to avoid discussion of human rights issues during the 1988 Olympics)
UNITA - The US sponsored Angolan guerrilla army

Bhopal

Exxon Valdis

[dogindia]

9. OMG.

[dogindia]

10. google search: Burston-Marsteller...this comes in thread is number three

[Solly Mack]

11. ...

...

[starroute]

12. Olive Group -- another security firm active in Iraq

Same business as Blackwater basically, only British (at least until they moved their headquarters to Dubai) and with not quite as much of a tendency to shoot up innocent civilians.

It might be worth googling on the membership of Blackwater's International Peacekeepers Association to see if any others turn out to be Burson-Marsteller clients.