Mark Matthews, reporter for KGO, the ABC TV affiliate in San Francisco, traveled to Washington, DC, to investigate Rick Berman [3], the booze, food and tobacco lobbyist behind ActivistCash [4].com and many other front groups [5]. Reports Matthews, "Berman set up the Center for Consumer Freedom [6] and a number of other tax exempt educational organizations. And those educational non-profits all seem to support messages that dove tail nicely with the food beverage and tobacco industries that have hired Richard Berman [7]. ... When we tried to ask Rick Berman himself about that, he ducked out of our interview. ... Berman wouldn't talk with us about how his non-profits are connected financially to his lobbying business, and his research director (David Martosko [8]) didn't tell us. 'I don't know the firms that send the Center for Consumer Freedom money. I don't want to know. It's not my business to know.' ... The most recent available tax records for the Center for Consumer Freedom show in 2004 Berman and Co. [9] took in a million-and-a-half dollars from the Center for Consumer Freedom [6]. ... Representative Pete Stark [10] of Fremont, calls Berman's operation an abuse."