PR Firm Gets 'Public Interest' Groups Fronting for Industry

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"[T]he Gray Panthers, a public interest group that defends the rights of senior citizens, took out full page ads in newspapers around the country calling on federal officials to stop awarding federal contracts to MCI WorldCom -- which committed one of the largest corporate frauds in history. ... At the bottom of the ads, in small type, is this: 'This ad was paid for by Gray Panthers.' In fact, the $200,000 spent by the Gray Panthers to place the newspaper ads was raised by Issue Dynamics Inc., a
Washington, D.C.-based [PR] consulting firm that represents the Baby Bells in their fight against WorldCom and that specializes in 'bridging gaps between industry and consumer groups on public policy issues.' ... Over the past couple of years, Issue Dynamics played a pivotal role in turning the National Consumers League from a consumer group into a corporate front group. And last year, Sam Simon, Issue Dynamics' founder and president, was named chairman of the board of the National Consumers League ."