Should someone who worked for one the world's biggest tobacco companies be celebrated as a national role model?

The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-headquartered think tank that has taken on the role of trying to coordinate the disparate global warming skeptics, has organized yet another conference to be held in Washington this week disputing the reality of global warming. "The real science and economics of climate change support the view that global warming is not a crisis and that immediate action to reduce emissions is not necessary," they claim.

Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow with the the Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank, is one of the leading global warming skeptics. Back in 1994, when his media profile as Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Virgina and a global warming skeptic was taking off, Michaels founded New Hope Environmental Services.

Medialink Worldwide, the largest producer of video news releases and audio news releases, may be crashing and burning with the market downturn but the company's President, CEO and Chairman, Larry Moskowitz, has a nice golden parachute in reserve. In fact, the generous termination provisions of Moskowitz's employment agreement may give pause to companies casting their eyes in Medialink's direction, pondering purchase of the fake news titan.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) have more in common than being major industry lobby groups. Both have hired former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant Patrick Moore to deflect environmental and public health criticisms.