Alarmed at its rival Google's proposed purchase of the internet marketing firm DoubleClick, Microsoft is seeking to stoke opposition to the deal through its PR firm, Burson-Marsteller (B-M). B-M sent emails "to a number of top UK businesses," reports The Observer, urging board members "to raise the issue of Google's dominance of search engines with politicians, regulators and the media." The email, from B-M director Jonathan Dinkeldein, also invited companies "to join a new organisation -- Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces -- which in the next few weeks will make a series of announcements on Google, internet privacy and copyright." Dinkeldein later admitted that the group was formed by Microsoft, though his email did not disclose Microsoft's role. In the U.S., B-M pitched cautionary stories on the Google-DoubleClick deal. The Wall Street Journal received an email from B-M warning about "what is not known about Google's handling of personal data and their related privacy practices." The email, which also didn't disclose the Microsoft connection, went on to say "it would be a powerful consumer service to delve into these issues with journalistic vigor."

Patrick Michaels (Source: Cato Institute)"Patrick J. Michaels, one of the global warming skeptics most often interviewed by news media, withdrew as an expert in a high-profile Vermont court case rather than disclose his funding sources," reports the Society of Environmental Journalists. Michaels is a University of Virginia professor and Cato Institute fellow who edits the "World Climate Report," a web publication "heavily funded by coal and electric utility industries with a large financial stake in preventing regulation of greenhouse emissions." In the Vermont case, automakers challenged the state's right to regulate greenhouse gases, and hired Michaels as an expert witness. Michaels told the court that he was dependent on income from his firm, New Hope Environmental Services, and that some of his clients require their funding to be confidential. When auto industry lawyers told Michaels that his financial information might be made public, due to the environmental group Greenpeace's request for disclosure, Michaels withdrew as a witness in the case. In court filings, Michaels blamed 2006 news reports naming the Colorado-based coal-burning utility Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) as one of his clients with the loss of funding from IREA and another utility, Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association.