Richard Berman: Anti-Vegan
Print This Post
The biggest anti-vegan is probably Richard Berman. His organizations probably spread the most anti-vegan, anti-animal, anti-health, anti-justice, and anti-freedom propaganda on the web.
Here’s a bit about him:
“Richard Berman is the longtime president of the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and consulting firm, Berman & Company, Inc. (“BCI”) which specializes in strategic research and communications. Throughout the years Berman has been a stalwart supporter of business and industry over consumer, safety and environmental groups. Berman has fought unions, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, PETA and other watchdog groups in their efforts to raise awareness about obesity, the dangers of smoking, mad cow disease, drunk driving, the minimum wage and other causes. He has been described in the press as a ‘notorious D.C. lobbyist.’
“Berman founded and runs four tax-exempt front groups and a number of linked projects, focusing on food, tobacco, alcoholic beverages and labor. He is well-paid by the represented industries to serve as the executive director of all four organizations. Berman then uses his own lobbying and public relations firm to do work for the organizations, thereby channeling between 49% and 79% of all donations made to the groups into his own pocket.
“These organizations include:
- The Center for Consumer Freedom (“CCF”, formerly Guest Choice Network, “GCN”), which attacks anyone who criticizes smoking, fast food or alcohol;
- The Employment Policies Institute (“EPI”) which opposes increasing the minimum wage and promotes the specious concept that an increased minimum wage would drive the poor and uneducated out of the job market;
- The American Beverage Institute (“ABI”) which fights laws designed to curb drunk driving;
- The Center for Union Facts (“CUF”) which promotes disparaging information about unions;
- Bowling Proprietors Association of America, which lists the same word-for-word issues as the ABI on their lobbying disclosure forms; and
- First Jobs Institute, which promotes personal finance advice to young people from a pro-business perspective.”
For more information, check out Berman Exposed >>
(Emphasis added. Hat tip: Tracy)
I had heard of Berman, but I didn’t know any specifics about him – thanks for the info.
This post does have an ad hominem tone to it, though, that I prefer to avoid. If Ingrid Newkirk was found to be pocketing 50% of PETA’s endorsements, it’s not hard to imagine that fact being (unfairly) used against vegetarianism proper. It might be slightly more relevant to use personal embezzlement as an argument against business lobbying (greed is fundamental in both cases), but I’d rather stick to the front-line issues.
(Issues like, for example, whether consumers are actually free to avoid steak and cigarettes..)
Jay, an ad hominem argument attacks the source of, or person making, a claim rather than addressing the substance of the claim. Saying that Berman and his “companies” are corrupt and pointing out that he pockets 50% of the donations to his so-called non-profit companies is not an ad hominem attack. It is directly relevant to the argument.
While it would be an ad hominem argument to use the fact that Ingrid Newkirk pocketed 50% of the donations made to PETA as an attack against vegetarianism in general, it would not be an ad hominem argument to use that fact in an argument against donating to PETA.
For the record, Ingrid Newkirk’s salary is less than $30,000 a year. Berman skims millions of his so called non-profit companies.
I think it’s important to identify the barriers to freedom. In this case it’s an actual person.
Here’s a quote from an anti-HSUS, anti-PETA essay from arbreptiles.com:
“So what does the HSUS do with that $38 million, besides print pamphlets and lobby congress to eliminate our pets? For one thing they pay very well. The HSUS Chief Executive Officer John A. Hoyt receives a salary of $237,871. In 1986 the HSUS bought a home in Germantown Maryland for Hoyt for the sum of $310,000. Hoyt lived there until 1992 when he purchased a home in Virginia.”
Just as in the Berman piece, there is no explicit justification for the talk of money. Still, I think I know why they put it in there. It paints Berman and Hoyt as bad guys, and the authors hope our distaste subtly reflects onto their respective organizations. What else could it be? Don’t we, as vegans, *want* The Center for Consumer Freedom to be corrupt? If Berman pockets 80% of their donations, doesn’t that mean CCF is 20% as strong as it could be in defending fast food joints and discrediting AR work?
(Speaking of which, here’s an article that might bring a smile to your face: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/3807 )
Jay, you’re missing the first half of the equation: “Berman has fought unions, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, PETA and other watchdog groups in their efforts to raise awareness about obesity, the dangers of smoking, mad cow disease, drunk driving, the minimum wage and other causes. He has been described in the press as a ‘notorious D.C. lobbyist.’”
It’s not that he gets paid well. It’s that he gets paid well for doing what he does, which is attack watchdog groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Analogy: Two doctors earn six figures each. One doctor saves lives the other doctor takes lives. Doesn’t the salary of the bad doctor make what she does MORE horrifying?
More horrifying, sure, and I think that’s roughly what the Berman article (and the Hoyt quote) are trying to achieve (partially, anyway). We are already resentful of those who rake in excess cash, and associating that behavior with a cause we are predisposed to dislike produces (irrationally, I’m suggesting) something like horror.
Logically speaking, though, I don’t think Berman’s – or Hoyt’s, or the doctor’s – greed reflects on the worthiness of their respective organizations’ goals.
Berman, it could easily be argued, kills people by spreading misinformation about the dangers of smoking, alcohol, and fast food. And he gets paid for it.
Feel free to disagree, but I think that’s relevant.
Hey thanks for the pro-fast food link, I can use that to fight you vegan idiots. Up till now the best I’d managed was the Weston A Price foundatiion, and they’re too anti-supermarket and pro-farm.