Ethics

Brewer's Mindless Tale of Headlessness

by Anne Landman — July 19, 2010 - 10:49am

Immigration has been a hot subject since Arizona passed its new law requiring police to demand papers from anyone suspected of being in the country ill

Main Source: 
Washington Post, July 11, 2010

Chez Sludge: Complaint Filed Regarding Francesca Vietor's Threat To the Guardian

by John Stauber — July 13, 2010 - 10:05pm
  • Topics: Journalism, Sludge, Ethics

    • The "Chez Sludge" scandal in San Francisco, involving the city giving away free toxic sewage sludge as "organic Biosolids compost" for gardeners, took another turn on July 13, 2010.

    Chez Sludge: How the Sewage Sludge Industry Bedded Alice Waters

    by John Stauber — July 9, 2010 - 9:28am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Crisis Management, Journalism, Sludge, Environment, Ethics, Public Relations

    • The celebrity chef Alice Waters is probably the world's most famous advocate of growing and eating local, Organic food. In February 2010 her Chez Panisse Foundation chose as its new Executive Director the wealthy "green socialite" and liberal political activist Francesca Vietor. Vietor's hiring created a serious conflict of interest that has married Waters and her Foundation to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and its scam of disposing of toxic sewage sludge waste as free "organic Biosolids compost" for gardens.

    For the first time, thanks to an ongoing "open records" investigation by the Food Rights Network, the public and the press have easy online access to dozens of internal SFPUC files (SFPUC Sludge Controversy Timeline), documenting the strange tale of Chez Sludge, or how the sewage industry bedded Alice Waters.

    Obama’s Patients’ Bill of Rights: One Important Right is Missing, Thanks to Corporate Spin and Fear-Mongering

    by Wendell Potter — June 28, 2010 - 8:41pm
  • Topics: Corporate Campaigns, Ethics, Health

    • President Obama is calling a big part of the health care reform bill he signed into law last March a "Patients' Bill of Rights", suggesting that many of the consumer protections contained in the new law were the same ones the health insurance industry succeeded in killing time and again over many years through a fear-mongering campaign it secretly financed.

    Obama is right -- but only to a point. An important right was missing from his list of consumer protections because, once again, insurers had made sure it would not be part of any bill that reached his desk.

    The insurance industry defeated many attempts to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights in the 1990s and 2000s, despite considerable bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. It did this by funneling millions of dollars through a big PR firm it hired to set up a front group -- the Health Benefits Coalition -- whose sole purpose was to scare people away from the legislation. The industry also had one especially important ally: Obama's predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush. Bush threatened to veto any Patients' Bill of Rights that he (read: the insurance industry and its business allies) didn't like. Lawmakers were never able to agree on a single bill that Senators and House members could agree to (the House approved a weakened version of the bill Bush presumably would sign but the Senate refused to weaken its bill), so they eventually just gave up.

    Rick Berman's For-Profit Non-Profits Under the Microscope

    by Anne Landman — June 20, 2010 - 11:30pm
  • Topics: Front Groups, Ethics, Lobbying, Public Relations

    • Front group king Rick Berman, who has worked in the shadows for years, is starting to draw closer scrutiny from the IRS, the media and the public for the unique, self-dealing business model he developed to champion for big business. Berman, a former lobbyist, set up six nonprofit organizations with innocuous names like the Center for Consumer Freedom, the American Beverage Institute and the Employment Policies Institute. Despite their nonprofit designation, together these groups provide as much as 70 percent of the revenues of his for-profit enterprise, Berman and Company. The Center for Consumer Freedom, for example, took in $1.5 million in revenues in 2008, of which 93 percent went to Berman and his firm. The American Beverage Institute took in $1.7 million, of which 82 percent went to Berman and his firm. None of his non-profit groups have independent offices or staff, and all of them pay Berman's for-profit business for services like accounting, copying, writing, operating Web sites, placing opinion-editorials, and bookkeeping, which is managed by Berman's wife, Dixie Lynn Berman. Rick Berman sits on the boards of his organizations, holds a total of 24 positions within them, and he serves as Executive Director for most of them. Sounds fishy, right?

    The Latest on Rick Berman, Attack Dog Extraordinaire

    by Anne Landman — June 2, 2010 - 2:57pm
  • Topics: Activism, Ethics, Lobbying

    • A new investigative report published by the Humane Society of the United States examines the self-dealing activities of front group king Rick Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF).

    Berman has developed a lucrative lobbying scheme that protects his corporate clients' anonymity while they attack the credibility of public interest groups and fight popular movements away from their products.

    Adulteration of Packaged Milk Rampant in Pakistan

    by Anne Landman — May 17, 2010 - 4:42pm

    Frame from video promoting Pakistan's dairy industry Pakistani television ads portray packaged milk as healthful, even sexy, and encourage parents to feed milk to their children, but
    the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights in

    Main Source: 
    Islamabad Frontier Star, May 10, 2010

    "Faith Based" Bank Fraud

    by Anne Landman — May 10, 2010 - 11:23am

    U.S. prosecutors charged two former executives of a "faith-based" bank with conspiracy, bribery, bank fraud and securities fraud. The case involved $80 million in fraudulently-obtained loans that helped sink Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Georgia.

    Main Source: 
    Bloomberg.com, May 7, 2010

    Payday Lenders Pressure Customers to Oppose Reform

    by Anne Landman — May 7, 2010 - 9:12pm

    Payday lenders, who charge high fees and interest rates approaching a 500% for short-term loans, are pressuring their customers to call their Senators and oppose financial reform legislation that would regulate them for the first time.

    Main Source: 
    Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2010
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