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David Martosko

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This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. Help expose the truth about the tobacco industry.

David Martosko is a spokesperson various front groups, most notably the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), where he is the Director of research.

Contents

CCF & Berman & Co.

CCF is an industry-funded organization and front group for the restaurant, alcohol, tobacco and other industries. It is a non-profit organization and tax exempt under the IRS code 501(c)(3). Over 40% of the group's 2005 expenditure was paid to Rick Berman's PR company, Berman & Co. for "management services". [1]

Anti-activist campaigns

Animal advocacy

CCF provides virtually no referencing, yet their statements are circulated by other industry groups, animal breeders and brokers, news wires and even some media outlets. CCF does not link back to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), nor any sites of groups or individuals purportedly being "exposed." Richard Berman and CCF clients have included Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Tyson Foods and Coca Cola. Tyson is also a major supplier of restaurant chains, including Kentucky Fried Chicken [2] and McDonalds. [3] Monsanto contracts product toxicity testing on animals out to Huntingdon Life Sciences. [4] All of these corporations, as well as Phillip Morris, contract laboratory Covance Laboratories, have been subjects of campaigns and investigations by PETA and/or other groups. See also Richard Berman cares about animals: clients exposed.

Drunk driving

CCF runs ad campaigns against lowering the legal blood alcohol limits. According to David Martosko:

"Government statistics and independent science confirms very clearly that the drunk driving problem in this country has been reduced to a small hard core of repeat offenders."

In fact, government statistics show that the majority of arrests are first-timers.[5]

Health & diet

Health advocates are "food police". In CCF ad campaigns, they take ice cream away from children and grab hot dogs out of your hand. According to Mr. Martosko, "activists are trying to scare us." One of those advocates is Dr. Jane Hightower, who published a report linking the coronary artery disease in her patients with the large amounts of tuna and swordfish they were eating. According to Dr. Hightower:

"I didn't get paid to do this study. I did it because people were not feeling well and they all had elevated mercury levels."

Her research is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which warns pregnant women not to eat swordfish. However, according to David Martosko, "Dr. Hightower I think is three parts activist and one part scientist."

Mr. Martosko has no background in either science or advocacy. He was a music major in college and then an AM radio talk show producer before becoming chief researcher for CCF. [6]

David Martosko on funding

CCF is headquartered in the offices of Richard Berman, a lobbyist for the tobbacco, restaurant, alcohol various other industries. Mr. Berman set up CCF and a number of other tax exempt groups, which all seem to support messages which dove tail nicely with his industry lobbying. However, according to David Martosko in a May of 2006 interview with ABC News, this is simply "the way things tend to be done" in Washington. Furthermore, he has no idea, nor does he want to know who funds CCF:

"I don't know the firms that send the Center for Consumer Freedom money. I don't want to know. It's not my business to know." [7]

In January of 2006, Martosko was asked, in the context of CCF's campaign dismissing concerns about mercury concentration in seafood, whether they received funding from the seafood industry, from coal companies or utilities:

"Well, I know that we never accepted money from utilities or coal companies. I don't know exactly which companies in the food sector support us. You know, it's not my job to know. I really don't pay attention. I do know that the vast majority of our, say, institutional funding, comes from the food sector. Beyond that, I just don't know. [8]

Media

An April of 2004 episode of the Showtime network television show Penn and Teller: Bullshit! was heavily critical of PETA. The program featured the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE) and David Martosko as a "consumer advocate". See also Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Articles & sources

Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. ↑ The Center for Consumer Freedom, Form 990, 2005, p.3.
  2. ↑ Tortured by Tyson, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed June 2009
  3. ↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007
  4. ↑ Inside Customers, SHAC.net, accessed December 2009
  5. ↑ Mark Matthews Lobbyists Hide Behind Non-Profit Fronts, ABC News/KGO San Francisco, May 3, 2006
  6. ↑ Mark Matthews Lobbyists Hide Behind Non-Profit Fronts, ABC News/KGO San Francisco, May 3, 2006
  7. ↑ Mark Matthews Lobbyists Hide Behind Non-Profit Fronts, ABC News/KGO San Francisco, May 3, 2006
  8. ↑ Bruce Gellerman, "Mercury in Fish: Casting Caution to the Wind?", Living on Earth, January 13, 2006

External articles

Articles & testimony by David Martosko

External resources

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Martosko"
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