It is not easy to keep track of what goes on in the back rooms of DC, and I admit total ignorance with respect to the subject of this article in the Guardian. Hopefully some other Kossacks will find this information new, and some will probably know of him already.
To Washington insiders he is Dr Evil: the hidden orchestrator of industry campaigns against the Humane Society, Mothers against Drunk Driving, and other seemingly uncontroversial groups.
Seems like a nice person so far...
From the offices of Berman’s PR firm in Washington, at least five new front groups have launched attack ads against the EPA, environmental groups, fishermen and sportsmen, and green building organisations. The groups all use Berman’s address.
The tactics
One prime example was the Environmental Policy Alliance – a mirror image of the government agency – which, according to the website, is “devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups and exploring the intersection between activists and government agencies”.
The group oversees four projects aimed at discrediting the government agency and environmental and conservation groups. In a full page ad in Politico last year, one of the projects, EPA Facts, asked: “What would you call a radical organisation that threatens to shut down 25% of our electrical grid?” The ad crossed off responses including anarchist, terrorist and militia before coming to Obama’s EPA.
I suggest reading the article as this spider web of deception is truly global. From Putin and the Russian Oligarchs via
Big Green Radicals which is like a conspiracy theory website, to some very murky funding indeed.
I should know this by now since we had a lobbyist in the family, but it never ceases to amaze me just how far the rot can spread. There is a scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change
The study is the most comprehensive yet and identified 4000 summaries, otherwise known as abstracts, from papers published in the past 21 years that stated a position on the cause of recent global warming -- 97 per cent of these endorsed the consensus that we are seeing human-made, or anthropogenic, global warming
Yet the
scientifically worthless manipulated data of the denial side has at least equal if not greater influence in the media and government.
We all know where the money is in this fiasco [and others] and only by following the money can this nefarious activity be truly understood. I hope the article gave some new information [it was for me] on just how far this stuff goes.