PR Watch, Second Quarter 1996, Volume 3, No. 2

by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

A PR executive for DuPont once asked us, "Are you the people picking on Jack Mongoven?"

Yes, we are, and happy to oblige.

The first issue of PR Watch, published in October 1993, featured a lengthy exposé of the Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin PR firm, documenting instances in which MBD employees have lied and used other unsavory tactics to gather information used to defeat environmental and consumer groups.

Mongoven told a reporter he was "outraged" by what we had written.

by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

"The battleground for chlorine will be women's issues," reveals a recently-leaked document from the notorious MBD "public affairs" firm that specializes in targeting and defeating citizen groups.

The document, an example of cynical disregard for human safety that defies parody, is one of several confidential memos delivered to Greenpeace by an anonymous corporate whistleblower.

by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

The excerpts below are taken from a series of confidential "Update and Analysis" reports written for the Chlorine Chemistry Council by PR research firm Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin.

"They are taking us more seriously than we sometimes take ourselves," commented Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse and director of Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste. "I think of myself as jaded," Brody said after reviewing the leaked documents, "but it still takes my breath away to see a professional, totally amoral directive that editorial visits be done because the scientific information that Devra Lee Davis has is too dangerous to go unfiltered."

Brody was also struck by MBD's "recommendations that the chlorine industry should go to health groups and sign them up to defend the benefits of chlorine, without telling them what they are really signing up for, and before we can get to them and talk about how dioxins and other endocrine disrupters are harming their health.

The following document by the secretive PR firm of Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin (MBD) was leaked to the public by a whistleblower and was published in the 2nd Quarter 1996 issue of PR Watch, the quarterly newsletter of the Center for Media & Democracy. It offers a revealing example of the extent to which the chlorine industry is engaged in surveillance activities against environmentalists. Read it and weep!

The following document by the secretive PR firm of Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin (MBD) was leaked to the public by a whistleblower and was published in the 2nd Quarter 1996 issue of PR Watch, the quarterly newsletter of the Center for Media & Democracy. It offers a revealing example of the extent to which the chlorine industry is engaged in surveillance activities against environmentalists. Read it and weep!

by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

Have you ever wondered what it's like to talk to a spy? The experience is quite a bit less dramatic than the scenarios you see in Mission Impossible, according to activists who have recently been targeted by phone calls and other information-gathering efforts.

The field operatives who gather information for Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin are typically polite, low-key and do their best to sound sympathic to the people they are interrogating.

The following documents by the PR firm of Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin (MBD) exemplify the sneaky tactics used by corporate flacks to collect information on environmentalists and other citizen activists. They were provided to us by an outraged target of MBD's surveillance.

1. Letter dated January 25, 1995

Executive Director
The Wilderness Society
1A James Lane
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

Dear Sir or Madame,

We kindly invite your assistance in a significant research undertaking.

Bob Burton of Wilderness International, an Australian environmentalist group, sent the following letter to the PR firm of Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin (MBD), in response to MBD's misleading "survey" of environmental groups:

Response from Wilderness Society, May 26, 1995

Dear Bartholomew,

Thank you for your letter and survey of 25th January 1995 seeking details of environmental NGOs in the Asian region.

by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

Shell Oil and Nigeria's military dictatorship are using a black-against-black "divide and confuse" PR strategy to deflect criticism following Nigeria's executions of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental and human rights activists.

Their approach resembles the "Neptune Strategy" developed a decade ago by Jack Mongoven's former PR firm to defend Shell's dealings in South Africa.

Following the hanging of Saro-Wiwa in November of last year, Shell and Nigeria each launched separate massive PR campaigns claiming that they are participating in a "transition to democracy" in Nigeria.

Nigeria's $10.7 million campaign employed eight U.S.