Welcome to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy!
The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch, this collaborative resource for citizens and journalists looking for documented information about the corporations, industries, and people trying to influence public policy and public opinion. We believe in telling the truth about the most powerful interests in society—not just relating their self-serving press releases or letting real facts be bleached away by spin. With the help of volunteer editors, SourceWatch focuses on the for-profit corporations, non-profit corporate front groups, PR teams, and so-called "experts" trying to influence public opinion on behalf of global corporations and the government agencies they have captured. Please check out our other sites: PRWatch, BanksterUSA, and ALECexposed. —Lisa Graves, Executive Director
Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, recently unsealed as part of a major lawsuit against Syngenta, reveal how the global chemical company's PR team investigated the press and spent millions to spin news coverage and public perceptions in the face of growing concerns about potential health risks from the widely used weed-killer "atrazine." Two years ago, on March 2, 2010, Huffington Post Investigative Fund (HuffPo) reporter Danielle Ivory contacted Syngenta Corporation Director of Corporate Communications-North America Paul Minehart and asked, as reporters do, a few questions. Little did she know her questions to Syngenta would provoke the creation of a secret dossier on her. Read the rest of this item here.
'Cracked Matador' (Source: Chris Dunn (chris-dunn.co.uk))
Atrazine is an herbicide primarily manufactured by the multinational conglomerate Syngenta and commonly used on commodity crops, forests, and golf courses. Its potential harmful effects on human health have been documented since the 1990s.
As a consequence, atrazine has been “unauthorized” in the European Union since 2004 (and in some European countries since 1991). However, it is one of the most heavily used herbicides in the United States. Syngenta, atrazine’s primary manufacturer, has spent hundreds of millions combined on marketing, public relations (PR) campaigns, and lobbying to maintain its market and fight calls to phase the product out of use in the U.S. Read the rest of this item here.
While the popular understanding of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision is that it opened the door to unlimited corporate spending, last week's FEC filings showed that many of the millions that Super PACs received in 2011 came not from corporations, but from deep-pocketed individuals and corporate CEOs. What remains unknown is just how much corporate money is secretly flowing through another vehicle being used to influence political outcomes, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit.
Notably, the Tea Party-affiliated FreedomWorks Super PAC received more than $1.3 million in contributions from its associated 501(c)(4). Under current law, the FreedomWorks (c)(4) is not required to disclose its donors to the public—unlike a Super PAC— suggesting one way that corporate donors can disguise their political spending. Read the rest of the item here.
Wisconsin made a brief, unexpected appearance at the Super Bowl yesterday. A new ad by Chrysler, “It’s Half Time in America,” voiced by Clint Eastwood, included a short clip of the historic Wisconsin protests from February 2011. Recognizing the shot, Wisconsinites went wild on Facebook and Twitter. But what the cheeseheads quickly started to realize is that they did not recognize the protest signs in the shot. Read the rest of this item here.
Anheuser-Busch's United Kingdom division, InBev, employed a lobbying firm to edit the Wikipedia entry about its Stella Artois brand of lager to delete a negative reference to the brand. Portland Communications, a lobbying firm run by a former adviser to Tony Blair, deleted the term "wife-beater" from the Wikipedia article about Stella Artois, reportedly to "challenge any connections between the brand and domestic violence." Stella Artois, one of the biggest brands of lager in the UK, in recent years has earned the nickname "wife beater" because of its high alcohol content and apparent popularity among rowdy soccer players. The changes on Wikipedia were made by a user named Portlander10, who had an IP address traceable to Portland Communications. Portland maintains that the changes were made openly and within Wikipedia's rules. In the wake of this revelation, though, a meeting has been scheduled between the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Wikipedia to give PR professionals guidance for working on Wikipedia, and to develop a code of conduct for PR professionals to help minimize attempts to mask the true identity of PR pros seeking to edit the site.
Hundreds of thousands of people surrounded the Wisconsin State Capitol building a year ago in response and protest of Governor Scott Walker's radical agenda, including his proposed "budget repair bill" to balance the budget on the back of state workers. There to document history in the making, was independent filmmaker Sam Mayfield from Burlington, Vermont. Sam was seen everywhere with her high definition camcorder, at Walker press conferences and climbing though Capitol windows with protesters. In the many months she was in Wisconsin, she obtained hundreds of hours of footage -- often at moments when hers was the only camera present. But in order to turn her footage into a feature-length documentary, Mayfield needs financial support. She has launched a "kickstarter campaign" to raise $40,000 of the $200,000 needed to complete the film. Kickstarter is an online funding tool for creative projects. If she does not receive that full amount in pledges by January 21, she won't receive any of the funding. As the anniversary of the Wisconsin uprising approaches, Mayfield is seeking support to kickstart her project. You can see her trailer and make pledges to support "Wisconsin Rising" by clicking here to access the kickstarter website.
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Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, recently unsealed as part of a major lawsuit against Syngenta, reveal that the global chemical company's PR team had a multi-million dollar budget to pay surrogates and others who helped advance its messages about the weed-killer "atrazine." This story is part two of a series about Syngenta's PR campaign to influence the media, potential jurors, potential plaintiffs, farmers, politicians, scientists, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the midst of reviews of the weed-killer's potential to act as an endocrine disruptor.
These documents reveal a string of money going from Syngenta to pundits, economists, scientists, and others. Below is a sample of some of the "third party" surrogates who have been financially supported by Syngenta. Read the rest of this item here.
While volunteer after volunteer from each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties marched into the state’s election board to deposit over one million signatures for the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Walker was no where to be found. At the hour petitions were being deposited on January 17, Mother Jones revealed that Walker was scheduled to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in the heart of the New York’s financial district at 339 Park Avenue -- the towering headquarters for global financial giant Citigroup. The $5,000 per couple fundraiser was hosted by none other than Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former CEO of AIG. Walker’s choice to be on Wall Street the day of the recall filing is so astounding, for many it goes far beyond the notion of a tin ear. "Walker could not have sent a clearer signal to Wall Street, that he is on the side of the 1 percent ready to do their bidding and take the heat," said Scot Ross of the Wisconsin group, One Wisconsin Now. Ross points to the data his group compiled to support his claim that Walker is constructing an economy that only the 1 percent could love. Read the rest of this item here.
Something reeks at Bank of America. This behemoth bank has assets equivalent to 15% of our entire economy. So why are its shares trading in the $5 range? Because BofA is a zombie bank. And now this zombie is trying to move $22 trillion in dangerous derivatives from one division into its FDIC-insured division. Tell President Obama, no more bailouts! Break up Bank of America before it breaks us. Sign the petition here.
A new project by filmmaker Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation aims to shine a spotlight on the 1 percent, the wealthiest Americans who manipulate our democracy for their own private benefit. According to Greenwald: "We will highlight the villains in America's economic story, drawing a straight line between their actions and the broken economy we're now stuck with." The fun part is that you get a vote on who the filmaker should profile. The project, "Who are the 1%? We Film. You Decide," asks people to go to the Brave New Foundation's website and nominate their favorite one-percenters. The Foundation will then make videos about the selected nominees. Center for Media and Democracy is a partner in the project, which was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Other partners include AlterNet, TruthOut, The Nation, PoliticsUSA, Care2 Make a Difference, Free Speech TV, the Thom Hartmann program, The Young Turks and the Campaign for America's Future. Whom to choose? Jamie Dimon, David Koch, Lloyd Blankfein? There is no shortage of candidates. Nominate your favorite here.
Spoof of the front group "Energy Citizens" 2012 "I Vote" ad campaign promoting drilling for oil and gas
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"The folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have done incredible work documenting fake grassroots ("astroturf") groups. Here, they're helping protect the rights of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. They are completely non-partisan. These guys are the real deal."
—Craig Newmark, Craig's List
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—David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.
"The troublemakers at the Center for Media and Democracy, for example, point to dozens of examples of "greenwashing," which they defined as the "unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government or even a non-government organization to sell a product, a policy" or rehabilitate an image. In the center's view, many enterprises labeled green don't deserve the name.
—Jack Shafer, "Green Is the New Yellow: On the excesses of 'green' journalism," Slate.
"As a journalist frequently on the receiving end of various PR campaigns, some of them based on disinformation, others front groups for undisclosed interests, [CMD's SourceWatch] is an invaluable resource."
—Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire
"Thanks for all your help. There's no way I could have done my piece on big PR and global warming without CMD [the Center for Media and Democracy] and your fabulous websites."
—Zoe Cormier, journalist, Canada
"The dearth of information on the [U.S.] government [lobbying] disclosure forms about the other business-backed coalitions comes in stark contrast to the data about them culled from media reports, websites, press releases and Internal Revenue Service documents and posted by SourceWatch, a website that tracks advocacy groups."
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