by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

PR Watch has obtained documents detailing the secret relationship between Philip Morris, the tobacco-and-food conglomerate, and "Contributions Watch," a PR front group which poses as a "public interest" campaign reform organization. CW's hidden agenda is to dig up dirt at the state level for the corporate clients of its creator, a Washington, DC public relations firm called the State Affairs Company (SAC). SAC and CW work to attack the political enemies of their clients, and to smear the "hidden, undisclosed consumerist agendas" of real public interest groups like Consumers Union, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Ralph Nader's Public Interest Research Group, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

When PR Watch phoned CW Executive Director Warren Miller on September 26, he refused to take our call. We left a question on his voicemail anyway: "Who funds Contributions Watch, and what is the connection between it and the State Affairs Company?" Miller never responded, but we suspect the question must have put his hair on end.