Corporate front group attacking PETA and others

Corporate front group attacking PETA and others

The Center for Consumer Freedom is on a mission.

But read between the lines in the front group's mission statement:

"The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices." (emphasis and de-emphasis added)

How many "consumers" do you think are really involved with this? It's just another industry front group, no doubt. The story below, about a demo at an Ingrid Newkirk booksigning today, says "representatives" will be on hand at booksigning -- that means "paid staff" most likely -- not regular volunteer Joes standing up for the little guy. (It's kind of like the fake, bussed-in protesters that stopped the vote-counting in Fla in 2000, or more like the countless initiatives placed on the ballot in California by friendly-sounding groups like "Upstanding Taxpayers for Citizen Environmental Justice" that really represent big polluters.)

In their mission statement, "personal responsibility" and "consumer choice" sure sound like code words for "food industry is not responsible for unhealthy crap they foist on public" and "these companies should have unfettered rights to sell their highest profit foods no matter how noxious." Yes, snacks, soft drinks, liquor, and meat need an advocacy group these days.

The crux of their true mission, though, becomes obvious in their fight in the US Congress for bills such as the one that "protects restaurants and food service companies from an expected onslaught of frivolous litigation," dubbed the "Cheeseburger Bill." What was that, "Expected onslaught of frivolous litigation"? hmmmm. And that's what their real concern is, not a handful of ELF or ALF members. These companies are actually afraid of bigtime mainstream movements for health. They're terrified that what became of the tobacco industry ™ vis-a-vi lawsuits and the industry's requirements to accept responsibility for the damage their products do ™ might come home to roost for the giant food manufacturers as well.

See how it works? Protect profits at all costs by denying responsibility, legally reduce citizens' input into what foods are offered, and distract the public's attention by attacking PETA and other "fringe" groups.

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Consumer Group Protests Ingrid Newkirk's Washington Book-Signing,
Blames PETA for Bankrolling "Unkind" Arsonists

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Dressed as eco-terrorists, carrying a comically large gasoline can and matches, and holding a banner depicting an arson fire under the words "PETA's Kind Choice," representatives from the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) will gather to protest the Washington book- signing appearance of Ingrid Newkirk. Newkirk, the president and co-founder of the radical group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is promoting a new animal-rights book misleadingly titled "Making Kind Choices."

Date: Monday, January 24
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: Borders Bookstore
1801 K Street, NW

A CCF spokesperson will be on-hand with leaflets detailing PETA's shameful history and tactics, and a list of Ingrid Newkirk's most controversial quotables. Meanwhile, other CCF advocates will appear dressed in the all-black garb of the PETA-funded Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group of arsonists and violent saboteurs describes by the FBI as a "domestic terror organization." In 2001 PETA made a large cash contribution to the ELF, the only such donation ever publicly acknowledged.

"Ingrid Newkirk would love to rehabilitate her group's image by promoting tofu with a smile on her face," said CCF Director of Research David Martosko. "But PETA's own history shows that its idea of 'kindness' includes arson and other violent crimes."

In a 2002 animal-rights convention speech, Newkirk described PETA's overall goal as "total animal liberation." At the same event one year earlier, PETA vegetarian campaign director Bruce Friedrich endorsed "blowing stuff up and smashing windows" as "a great way to bring about animal liberation." Friedrich added that "it would be great if all the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow ... Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it."

PETA's own literature includes a leaflet describing the terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF) as "An Army of the Kind." The ALF has been responsible for over $100 million in arson damage, including a Michigan State University research laboratory fire in which Newkirk herself was implicated by a federal prosecutor.

"Americans shouldn't be fooled into thinking that PETA is warm and fuzzy," added Martosko. "It's a band of radicals intent on abolishing meat, milk, cheese, circuses, zoos, wool, leather, hunting, fishing, and the very medical research that will bring us a cure for AIDS. Even if you agree with this lunacy, PETA's so-called 'kind' choices shouldn't include bankrolling arsonists."

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.

SOURCE Center for Consumer Freedom
Web Site: www.consumerfreedom.com

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It's no concidence that the PETA protest story appeared on business news website www.prnewswire.com and not www.consumerreports.org. Just savor the irony: a group that uses the internet domain "consumerfreedom" is busily working to pass bills that protect businesses from consumers.