Front groups - astroturf groups. They are everywhere these days. We smoked one out during the rBST fight in Pennsylvania - PAN - Pennsylvanians for Affordable Nutrition. It turned out Bonnie McCarthy of PAN was actually a lobbyist and more pro-Monsanto and rBST than consumers. Hers was a thinly disguised front group with a phone number that actually rang in the lobbyists office and was answered as a lobbyist. Link.

How do you separate the grassroots from the astroturf?

It's hard work, so Consumer Reports and the Center for Media and Democracy have taken it on. They have created Full Frontal Scrutiny.

Full Frontal Scrutiny is a joint venture between Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Center for Media and Democracy, two non-profit organizations whose mission includes consumer education using investigative reporting. This Web site seeks to expose front groups, which are organizations that state a particular agenda, while hiding or obscuring their identity, membership or sponsorship, or all three.
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Consumer Reports WebWatch is the Internet integrity division of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports Magazine, the Consumer Reports on Health and Money Adviser newsletters, BestBuyDrugs.org, and a variety of sites advocating consumer rights in the marketplace.
. . .
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)is a non-profit, non-partisan, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism.

It's a pretty cool website with helpful links and useful information about frontgroups.

The website includes a wiki to add to the available information.

The power of all of us can shed light on these groups whose modus operandi is to hide who they are and what their goals are. They are afraid of telling us the truth, and they are a danger to democracy.

So if you see any of the following groups quoted or cited, know that they are front groups, and Full Frontal Scrutiny has the goods or bads on them.

* 60 Plus Association
* ACVA Pacific
* Beverly Hills Restaurant Association
* Bromine Science and Environmental Forum
* California Political Empowerment Committee
* Californians Against Regulatory Excess
* Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions
* Center for Union Facts
* Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
* Citizens Against Unfair Health Care Taxes
* Citizens for Sensible Energy Choices
* Citizens for a Sound Economy
* Coalition for Health Insurance Choices
* Consumer Alert
* Contributions Watch
* Don't Count Us Out
* Fairness Matters to Oregonians
* Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy
* Farmers for Clean Air and Water
* FishScam.com
* Foundation for Clean Air Progress
* Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment
* Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco
* Friends of Science
* Global Climate Coalition
* Global Climate Information Project
* Global Warming Cost website
* GreenFacts Foundation
* Greening Earth Society
* Keep America Beautiful
* National Smokers Alliance
* Oregonians Against the Blank Check
* Parents for Priorities
* Partisan Project
* Restaurants for a Sound Voluntary Policy
* Smoke Less Ohio
* Smokepeace
* Social Issues Research Centre
* Statistical Assessment Service
* Stop the Measure 50 Tax Hike
* Washington Legal Foundation
* Water Environment Federation

• astroturf,
• front-groups