Share this [5]
Former President Bill Clinton [6] established the Clinton Global Initiative [7] (CGI) in 2005 to implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, like hunger, poverty and access to health care. By some accounts [8], CGI's effectiveness rivals that of the United Nations [9] in this regard. Ironically, CGI selected APCO Worldwide [10] to help organize its 2010 annual meeting. APCO is the same public relations [11] firm that helped Philip Morris [12] organize a damaging front group [13] in October, 1993 called The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition [14] that helped the tobacco industry fight public health efforts to control secondhand tobacco smoke [15] after the EPA [16] rated it a Group A Human Carcinogen. APCO has also helped industry pin the label of "junk science" on environmentalists. APCO also managed a massive, tobacco industry-funded, below-the-radar national effort aimed at altering the American judicial system to make it more hostile towards product liability lawsuits. The effort, also known as tort reform [17], was actually an internal corporate program of Philip Morris (PM). PM hired APCO to create fake "grassroots" organizations around the country called "(insert state name here) Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse [18], e.g., "Alabama Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse." Creating the appearance of a "tort reform movement" was a massive undertaking. It involved convincing other industries to join the so-called "movement" to help obscure the fact that Philip Morris was the organizer.
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/5684/anne-landman
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/astroturf
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/corporations/corporate-campaigns
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/corporations
[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2010%2F09%2F9469%2Fclinton-global-initiative-hires-apco-worldwide&linkname=Clinton%20Global%20Initiative%20Hires%20APCO%20Worldwide%20
[6] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bill_Clinton
[7] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Clinton_Global_Initiative
[8] http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-20/is-clintons-cgi-the-new-un/
[9] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/United_Nations
[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/APCO_Worldwide
[11] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/public_relations
[12] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Philip_Morris
[13] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/front_group
[14] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Advancement_of_Sound_Science_Coalition
[15] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/secondhand_smoke
[16] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/U.S._Environmental_Protection_Agency
[17] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/tort_reform
[18] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Citizens_Against_Lawsuit_Abuse
[19] http://holmesreport.com/fullstory.cfm?edit_id=11856&typeid=1&nlid=222