Dr. Evil Is Defending Big Oil — Is Anyone Defending Climate the Same Way? - by David Roberts

There was a story in The New York Times last October that didn’t get the attention it deserved.  It was about a speech given last June in Colorado Springs to a bunch of energy executives by “Dr. Evil,” i.e., Richard Berman, the guy who does PR for pretty much every nasty industry you can name.

Berman is notorious.  This Boston Globe investigation is probably the best single-serving account of his history and tactics, but you can find similarly damning stories in The New York Times, Mother Jones, 60 Minutes, and many other outlets. And you can peruse Berman Exposed, a project of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Berman’s genius lies in exploiting what is legal.  If a business or industry wants to fight off a public-interest campaign — against corn syrup, say, or against fracking — it can hire PR firms itself.  But that leaves it open to negative public opinion.  No business wants to be the face of a controversial campaign.

What Berman does is start nonprofit “educational” groups as a thin front for his business.  The Center for Consumer Freedom works to discredit anti-obesity campaigns.  The Employment Policies Institute battles campaigns to raise the minimum wage.  And so on.  (He’s got dozens). These groups often have no address but that of Berman and Company, no employees but Berman, and no one on their boards but industry reps and current and former Berman and Company employees.

The nonprofits then hire Berman and Company to run PR campaigns.  The beauty of this arrangement, from industry’s perspective, is that nonprofits don’t have to disclose their donors. So industries can funnel money to Berman without being identified with it.  And he can say and do things they would never, ever be publicly associated with.  The nonprofit groups serve, effectively, as money laundering/anonymizing operations.

What’s more, the media is very often too lazy to check into legit-sounding nonprofits, so these front groups get op-eds placed, representatives on news shows, and “studies” reported to the public, all without being identified as agents of industry.  It’s quite the racket.

Berman’s latest target is greens.  He’s got front groups going after EPA power plant rules, the fossil-fuel divestment movement, and anti-fracking activists.  For a taste, you can check out his BigGreenRadicals.com, which is worth your time if only to appreciate the hilariously evil-looking picture of Bill McKibben they dug up.


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