From the musical "Walmartopia"In 2005, the Edelman PR firm created the front group Working Families for Wal-Mart on behalf of their client, the retail giant. With Wal-Mart funding, Edelman ran the faux citizens' group to counter union critics like WakeUpWalMart.com, founded by the United Food and Commercial Workers and Wal-Mart Watch, founded by the Service Employees International Union. Edelman has been removed from the project due to Wal-Mart's decision to bring the front group in-house. Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar said the plan is to "retool the group and its website as a platform for employees and consumers to speak out in favor of the world's largest retailer, rather than the outside supporters it has featured so far. 'We believe the best way to tell our story is to bring Working Families for Wal-Mart 'in-house' and operate it as an internal program. We're at a point where we no longer need a separate entity.'" It doesn't appear that Wal-Mart has any qualms about publicizing the change in direct management of the Working Families organization. A visit to the group's website, www.forwalmart.com, produces this message: "Please check back soon for a new site brought to you by Wal-Mart. For now, please visit Wal-Mart Facts." Wal-Mart Facts is a site that has the heading "Get the facts and latest news about Wal-Mart from Wal-Mart."

University of California at Berkeley senior staff attorney and senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Chris Hoofnagle writes, "In my work on consumer protection, I have begun to recognize patterns" in the actions and arguments of corporations and think tanks opposing regulations and other oversight. "Whether the topic is tobacco, food and drug safety, or privacy legislation, these groups employ the same rhetorical devices to delay and stop consumer reform." Hoofnagle presents common arguments by these pro-corporate "denialists" as a deck of cards. Arguments likely to be made early on in anti-reform campaigns are lower-level cards, progressing up to the face cards. "No Problem" is the two of clubs, "Stifles Innovation" is the six of hearts, "Fake Consumer Groups" is the ten of clubs, and "We'll Lose Money!" is the ace of clubs. "I hope the Denialists' Deck of Cards has been an entertaining critique," concludes Hoofnagle, adding that it "can help consumer advocates frame the opposition that they receive."

From a Nuclear Energy Institute ad

"We just find it maddening that Hill & Knowlton, which has an $8 million account with the nuclear industry, should have such an easy time working the press," concluded the Columbia Journalism Review in an editorial in its July / August 2006 issue.

The magazine was rightly bemoaning the tendency of news outlets to present former Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore and former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman as environmentalists who support nuclear power, without noting that both are paid spokespeople for a group bankrolled by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). NEI represents nuclear power plant operators, plant designers, fuel suppliers and other sectors of the nuclear power industry. Hill & Knowlton is NEI's public relations firm, though it's not the only firm working to build support for nuclear power.

Thanks in part to an ongoing, multifaceted PR push -- along with very real concerns about energy prices, rising energy demand, aging infrastructure, sustainability and global warming -- nuclear power is attracting serious attention from reporters and policymakers alike. The question is whether a vital public debate over energy choices is being skewed by deep-pocketed interests with a dog in the fight.

The dangers of such distortions are especially acute at the state and local levels. That's where efforts to extend the licenses of existing nuclear power plants, to maintain or expand nuclear waste storage facilities, and to site new proposed nuclear power plants, are made or broken. And that's where pro-nuclear campaigners appear to be focusing, adopting the mantle and tactics of community groups while steadfastly refusing to provide details on their operations.

Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power station. Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

One-time Greenpeace activist turned corporate PR consultant, Patrick Moore, has been hired by a Vermont group called Vermont Energy Partnership to help win a 20-year extension to the operating license of the aging Vermont Yankee nuclear power station. The continued operation of the nuclear plant, which is owned by Entergy, is being opposed by Nuclear-Free Vermont. Moore said that the storage of high-level nuclear waste on the banks of the Connecticut River in dry casks is "a perfectly safe and secure way to store" it. To which the president of Vermont's Senate, Peter Shumlin, retorted "I don't believe in Santa Claus anymore." Moore is also an "adviser" to New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, which is campaigning for a 20-year license renewal for Entergy's Indian Point nuclear power plant. He is also a consultant to the Nuclear Energy Institute front group, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition.

Rick Berman, the corporate lobbyist and front group king who runs Berman and Co. is probably smiling all the way to the bank, no doubt enjoying a prominent profile in USA Today headlined "Got a nasty fight? Here's your man." The article quotes Berman's critics, including CMD's John Stauber who says "He obviously has made a very monetarily successful career out of bashing, smearing and attacking environmentalists... He's perfected the art of the personal attack and the personal smear. We know from political campaigns that it is a very effective device." Most public figures would cringe, but for Berman the piece is simply good advertising and will probably win him more corporate clients who pay him to be their high-profile attack dog while they stay hidden from scrutiny or responsibility. The USA Today article continues, "He seldom mentions his clients ... and he represents them through a variety of non-profit groups he has set up. His targets range from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to the Ralph Nader-founded Center for Science in the Public Interest, which works on food issues, to labor unions." The article notes that Berman now has a staff of 28 and an annual budget of $10 million dollars, but "only Berman and his bookkeeper/wife know for sure what he makes."

Reynolds American, the parent company of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, is spending approximately $40 million in an attempt to defeat anti-smoking ballot initiatives to be voted on in November. Part of the tobacco industry campaign involves having front groups promoting alternative measures to those proposed by tobacco control groups. In Arizona, Reynolds is backing the Non-Smoker Protection Committee, while in Ohio it is supporting Smoke Less Ohio. "It is a significant amount of money, but it's very expensive to do these because it's like a political campaign," Carole Crosslin, a Reynolds spokeswoman told Associated Press. Shelly Kiser, a spokeswoman for SmokeFreeOhio, said "the tobacco industry has fought us every step of the way. They have taken out more than 30 lawsuits against us ... It's been horrible." The domain name for the website of Smoke Less Ohio was registered by the PR and lobbying company, Strategic Public Partners.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Public Interest Watch (PIW), a non-profit 'watchdog' group which sucessfully lobbied for an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax audit of Greenpeace, has been heavily funded by ExxonMobil. Two years after PIW urged an IRS investigation, Greenpeace was subjected to a three-month long audit. Steve Stecklow reports that PIW's "most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094" came from the oil company. ExxonMobil confirmed that they had funded the group at that time but no longer do. According to Greenpeace USA executive director John Passacantando, the IRS auditor, Charles Walker, told him the investigation was in response to PIW's complaint. In March this year Greenpeace was informed that it retained its tax exempt status. PIW's Executive Director Lewis Fein has refused to disclose any of the groups current funders.