Activism

One Hand Gives, The Other Takes Away

One of the projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been to immunize children living in Ebocha, Nigeria. But at the same time the foundation owns shares in the French oil company, Eni, that pollutes the residents air and water by the open air burning of gas considered to be waste.

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More Nukes? Moore Spin

Patrick Moore, a former environmental activist who left Greenpeace twenty years ago and is now a PR consultant, argues "it is now far more effective to work with governments and industries to encourage positive change." As a consultant, Moore has dismissed concerns about the impact of logging in the Amazon, supported Newmont Mining over controversies at its mines in the U.S., Ghana and Peru, defended the use of PVC in plastics and e

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Former FCC General Counsel: Fake TV News Must Be Disclosed

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Publicist Mike Morris, identified as a reporter during a VNR broadcast

"Congress and the courts have stressed that as fiduciaries given the free use of the public airwaves, broadcasters are obligated to operate in the public interest. Flagrantly deceptive practices are inconsistent with that obligation and can find no sanction in the First Amendment."

Those words were written by Henry Geller, a former general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission and assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information. Today, the StarTribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul published an op/ed that Geller and I co-authored. The piece (copied below) describes why full disclosure of video news releases (VNRs) is both vital to the public interest and supported by legal precedent.

If you think the public should be told where its news really comes from, you can still support VNR disclosure, via the online action hosted by our colleagues at Free Press.

Front Groups Lobbying Spurs Thoughts of Non-Profit Reform

Citing instances where groups like Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform have accepted corporate funding to lobby for their donors' causes, journalist Bill Adair explores whether greater disclosure by non-profit groups is warranted.

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Slim Pickings For Rich

Organizations backed by Howard Rich, a wealthy New York conservative activist and chairman of Americans for Limited Government, spent over $8.6 million in eight states promoting 'takings' initiatives. 'Takings' promoters seek to limit the role of regulation by requiring compensation to be paid to property owners if a regulation has an impact on the value of their property.

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Logging Company Stumps Up Millions More for SLAPP Against Activists

Tasmanian logging company Gunns has told shareholders that it plans to spend $A2 million pursuing SLAPPs against a group of environmentalists, known as the Gunns 20. So far the court has thrown out all three of the company's statements of claim and ordered it to pay the defendants legal costs.

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