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Gray
Panthers' Corporate Connection
by
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
June
21, 2003
With
millions in corporate monies marinating everything from the Congress to the
Smithsonian, little is left untouched.
From
the Nature Conservancy, to the National Consumers League, the corporate cash is
flowing, and many public interest groups are swimming in it.
Even
the Gray Panthers, that venerable public interest group started by Maggie Kuhn
to fight for the rights of seniors against the corporate goliaths, cannot stay
dry for long.
They
too have been soaked.
Earlier
this month, the Gray Panthers took out full page ads in newspapers around the
country calling on federal officials to stop awarding federal contracts to MCI
WorldCom -- which committed one of the largest corporate frauds in history.
Over
a picture of two elderly and distraught citizens, the ad screams:
"Washington
should not reward corporate criminals like MCI WorldCom with huge new
government contracts."
The
federal government announced earlier this year that it was awarding MCI
WorldCom a multimillion contract for a wireless network in Iraq.
At
the bottom of the ads, in small type, is this:
"This
ad was paid for by Gray Panthers."
In
fact, the $200,000 spent by the Gray Panthers to place the newspaper ads was
raised by Issue Dynamics Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that
represents the Baby Bells in their fight against WorldCom and that specializes
in "bridging gaps between industry and consumer groups on public policy
issues."
The
ads were placed in the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Orlando
Sentinel, Roll Call, The Hill, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Ft. Lauderdale
Sun Sentinel, among other papers.
Over
the past couple of years, Issue Dynamics played a pivotal role in turning the
National Consumers League from a consumer group into a corporate front group.
And last year, Sam Simon, Issue Dynamics' founder and president, was named
chair of the board of the National Consumers League.
One
of Issue Dynamics' major clients is Verizon Communications, which has launched
a campaign to make sure that MCI WorldCom doesn't emerge from bankruptcy.
"MCI
WorldCom committed the largest corporate fraud in American history, causing
$175 billion in investment losses by individual shareholders and pension
funds," the Gray Panthers ad reads. "Thousands upon thousands of seniors
had their retirements jeopardized. The U.S. government's reaction to the MCI
WorldCom fraud has been as shocking as the crime itself."
The
ad mimics the arguments in a five-page letter written by Verizon general
counsel William Barr last week to SEC chairman William Donaldson.
In
that letter, Barr charges that "the SEC's enforcement response to WorldCom's
crimes -- the largest corporate fraud in history -- has been to date grossly
inadequate and fundamentally misdirected."
Gray
Panthers is a small organization with a staff of three and a budget of "a
few hundred thousand dollars," according to Will Thomas, director of the
Panthers' corporate accountability project. Thomas says that the Panthers get
"zero corporate funding," although he then went on to admit that the
$200,000 to place the ads in the newspapers was raised by Issue Dynamics.
Thomas
says that the Panthers have taken corporate funds for operations in the past,
including $25,000 from AT&T in 1999 and $5,000 from SBC Communications in
2001 -- but nothing since.
The
Gray Panthers executive director, Tim Fuller, defends the practice of taking
corporate money to run ads fighting corporate crime.
"I
don't know the source of IDI's budget," Fuller says. "But I have no objection
to using the enemy to bring down the enemy. Verizon may get some benefit from
this, but it also might change their behavior."
Fuller
says it doesn't matter where the money comes from, as long as the word is
getting out about corporate reform.
"I'm
more interested in really bringing change to the corporate culture,"
Fuller says.
But
John Stauber, the executive director of Madison, Wisconsin-based Center for
Media and Democracy, says if that is the case, the Gray Panthers should
publicly disclose where the money came from for the ads.
"Well,
if it makes no difference, why not disclose it?" Stauber says.
"Lay
all the cards on the table, let's be transparent, let's make it clear who is
footing the bill. It is absolutely essential that there be transparency. If
so-called public interest groups or non-profit corporations are accepting
corporate money, lay it on the table."
Stauber
says that Issue Dynamics "is one of the leading players helping corporations
find public interest groups that will accept industry money and front for
industry causes."
"Every
public relations firm looks for the perfect third party experts who will carry
their client's message," he says. "If the Baby Bells came out and ran
these ads, it would look like one corporation waging war on a competitor. The
ideal public relations tactic is to find a trusted public interest figure or
organization and put the corporate message in its mouth."
"It
sounds like that's what is happening now with the Gray Panthers," he says.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of
the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter (http://corporatecrimereport.org).
Robert Weissman is editor of the
Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor (www.multinationalmonitor.org). They
are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the
Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).