Public Relations

PR trade newsletter The Holmes Report credits good public relations as part of the nuclear industry's come back, noting that ongoing campaigns in Washington DC have been very successful in winning the support of opinion leaders. Companies have also been active on the "grassroots" front. The Exelon Corporation, which owns almost one-fifth of the nation's 103 nuclear facilities, points to its open houses and media roundtables for building industry credibility.

Fenton Communications is helping the Rainforest Action Network respond to a conservative non-profit group's claims that RAN illegally uses tax-deductible donations to fund its advocacy campaigns. In a move that could begin what the Wall Street Journal called a "war of the non-profits," Washington, D.C.-based Frontiers of Freedom, which bills itself the "antithesis" of the green movement, has urged the Internal Revenue Service to revoke RAN's tax-exempt status.

PR firm giant Weber Shandwick Worldwide will represent McDonald's in the United Kingdom. WSW will address food safety issues and how McDonald's will deal with the UK's plan to restructure its agriculture sector in the aftermath of mad cow and foot and mouth disease.

Lobbyist Rick Berman runs the DC-based Guest Choice Network, a mean and nasty PR operation serving the tobacco, booze and food industries. (See PR Watch Volume 8 #1 for the inside scoop on Berman & Co.) His favorite target is often Michael Jacobson's "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).