Tag Archives: Center for Union Facts

Smear Campaign Tools Exposed: Phony Op-Eds

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I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America… and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts.
— Herbert Bayard Swope, creator of the op-ed page

Op-eds and letters to the editor were intended to reflect the opinions of the American public.

Unfortunately, not only are these voices dwindling, they are being increasingly co-opted by corporate interests.

The pages of prominent newspapers are littered with propaganda from Richard Berman’s industry-funded front groups — including the Center for Consumer Freedom (also known as “HumaneWatch”), the Center for Union Facts, the Employment Policies Institute Foundation, the American Beverage Institute, and the Humane Society for Shelter Pets. These sham organizations subvert op-eds and letters to the editor, displacing opinions of real people with the PR spin of Berman’s corporate donors.

These are not opinions. They are advertisements and spin, purchased by corporations, professionally written by Berman and Company, and disseminated by unwary dupes in the media.

This deceptive tactic is another form of sockpuppetry. A Berman and Company employee masquerades as a concerned member of the public, but is, in fact, mouthing the words of its corporate client. It’s a lie that Berman took to the level of farce when the millionaire posed as a blue collar worker in an ad undermining worker benefits.

Opinion pieces are a key means by which Richard Berman funnels “nonprofit” donations into his personal and corporate bank accounts, in what former IRS director Marcus Owens called a “clear violation of the requirements for tax-exempt status.” Since 2006, Berman and Company has charged its “nonprofits” hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, flooding media outlets with more than 1600 deceptive op-eds and letters to the editor.

When you see a phony op-ed or letter to the editor from Richard Berman, Will Coggin, J. Justin Wilson, Sarah Longwell, or another Berman and Company employee, please call attention to the fact that the publication is being exploited by a notorious front group for corporate interests.

Share the graphic below. And let the public know that these “opinion pieces” are nothing more than paid propaganda defending the unsafe, unethical, and inhumane practices practices of Richard Berman’s clients.

Please feel free to save these graphics to your hard drive, link to them directly on this site, or share on social media.

http://www.stophumanewatch.org/blog/op-eds

View and share previous weeks’ graphics from our Resources page.

Rick Berman profits from nonprofits

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Nonprofit regulations are intended to ensure that nonprofit organizations exist for the public benefit, and not for the enrichment of its creators.

But when Richard Berman creates nonprofit organizations with a dubious purpose, and diverts tax exempt donations into his own coffers, he circumvents the accountability that’s meant to protect the public from fraud and abuse.

That’s why Marcus Owens, former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, says that Berman’s evasive scheme “clearly, in my view, is operating for his private benefit and for the private benefit of his clients… [That’s] a clear violation of the requirements for tax-exempt status.”

We tallied the payments to Berman and his for-profit PR firm from six of the nonprofit front groups he has created: the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), Center for Union Facts (CUF), Employment Policies Institute Foundation (EPI), American Beverage Institute (ABI), Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC), and the Humane Society for Shelter Pets (HSSP).

The results are shocking.

Payments to Richard Berman or Berman and Company, Inc.

Year CCF CUF EPI ABI EFAC HSSP Total
2011$1,307,534.00$886,769.00$1,178,459.00$1,353,364.00$74.00$765,483.00$5,491,683.00
2010$1,707,511.00$587,334.00$1,658,383.00$1,395,519.00$268,873.00$0.00$5,617,620.00
2009$1,479,597.00$596,351.00$1,843,254.00$1,296,185.00$440,765.00—$5,656,152.00
2008$1,061,604.00$784,602.00$523,910.00$1,292,850.00$897,496.00—$4,560,462.00
2007$1,580,280.00$844,535.00$912,437.00$1,304,960.00——$4,642,212.00
2006$1,208,512.00$283,016.00$1,020,547.00$1,220,079.00——$3,732,154.00
2005$1,641,186.00—————$1,641,186.00
2004$1,453,056.00—————$1,453,056.00
2003$1,261,344.00—————$1,261,344.00
2002$1,044,553.00—————$1,044,553.00
TOTAL$13,745,177.00$3,982,607.00$7,136,990.00$7,862,957.00$1,607,208.00$765,483.00$35,100,422.00

Since 2002, Rick Berman has diverted over $35 million in supposedly nonprofit donations into his personal and corporate bank accounts. In some years, as much as 93% of an organization’s revenue has been funneled into personal gain.

Berman has not yet been held accountable for his abuse of nonprofit tax code. It’s a sad indictment of the Internal Revenue Service, its inability enforce its own regulations fairly and consistently, and its unwillingness to protect consumers.

To the see the raw numbers we used, consult the Form 990 tax returns for Berman’s organizations. These forms are gathered for your convenience in our Document Library, or you may obtain them from independent charity evaluators like Guidestar.org.

The relevant figures used in this table are:

  • Gross Receipts: Line G
  • Berman’s token salary: Part VII, Section A
  • Funds diverted to Berman and Company, Inc.: Part VII, Section B (Independent Contractors)
  • Grants to Berman-run organizations: Schedule I

Further reading