The Center for Consumer Freedom

Richard Berman, a professional lobbyist, and head of the organization, Center for Consumer Freedom (which ultimately is a shill for fast food, tobacco and other industries that have a vested interest in smokescreening concern over carcinogens and wholesale animal cruelty & slaughter) has in the past criticized anyone who threatened the profitability of his clients, whether it was to discredit Mothers Against Drunk Driving, stop government education to consumers on the dangers of Salmonella, or sabotaging efforts to raise minimum wage by purchasing influence among politicians such as Newt Gingrich. This high powered professional propagandist organization's next target? PETA, who has managed to get some fast food places to pay more attention to their meat harvesting procedures.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit corporation run by lobbyist Richard Berman through his Washington, D.C.-based for-profit public relations company, Berman & Co. The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by Berman with a $600,000 “donation” from tobacco company Philip Morris.

Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into nonprofit societies of which he is the executive director. He then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit groups. Of the millions of dollars “donated” by Philip Morris between the years 1995 and 1998, 49 percent to 79 percent went directly to Berman or Berman & Co.

Richard Berman is an influence peddler. He has worked out a scheme to funnel charitable donations from wealthy corporations into his own pocket. In exchange, he provides a flurry of disinformation, flawed studies, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and trade-industry articles, as well as access to his high-level government contacts, who are servants of the industries he represents.