Industry Front Groups

Environmental Science & Technology:
Hidden ties: Big environmental changes backed by big industry
"Critics of [President Bush's Healthy Forest legislation] reforms charge that they are little more than giveaways to the affected industries.... However, the reformers point to support by 'grassroots' groups as a sign that these changes are popular with citizens and not just industry. ...ES&T has found clear evidence that this 'grassroots' organization has clear ties to timber corporations -- an industry likely to benefit financially from legislative reforms."

New York Times:
Eating Well: Advisories on Fish and the Pitfalls of Good Intent

Environment News Service:
WHO Shuts Life Sciences Industry Group Out of Setting Health Standards

Mother Jones:
Paging Dr. Ross: A doctor who defends corporations from "inconvenient" science has a secret of his own.

Consumer Reports:
"Forefront of Science, or Just a Front?" (May 1994)
This investigation of front groups by Consumer Reports found that the American Council on Science and Health (EWG's most persistent critic) was funded by Dow, DuPont, Exxon, Coca-Cola, Seagram & Sons, and and other chemical and food producers.

"There was a time when one usually could tell what an advocacy group stood for - and who stood behind it - simply by its name. Today, 'councils,' 'coalitions,' 'alliances,' and groups with 'citizens' and 'consumers' in their names could as likely be fronts for corporations and trade associations as representatives of 'citizens' or 'consumers.' These public-interest pretenders work in so many ways - through advertisements, press releases, public testimony, bogus surveys, questionable public-opinion polls, and general disinformation - that it's hard to figure out who's who or what the group's real agenda might be."