Fenton Communications

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Fenton Communications is a public relations firm which specialises in PR for not-for-profit organizations, liberal advocacy groups and companies with a claim for social responsibility. They are probably best known for their represenation of MoveOn. It was founded by David Fenton in 1982 and now has offices in New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

In April 2004 O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that Fenton ran the following ad on Air America Radio, which it launched with Dan Klores Communications:

"Public relations. Monty Python called it a modern useless profession. Too bad they were wrong. PR has become the way crafty corporations and even the leader of the free world convince people that pollution is harmless, war is peace and greed is good. No wonder we at Fenton Communications don't like to be asked at parties what we do for a living."

Lisa Witter, an executive VP, told O'Dwyer's that FC does not like to be called a PR firm. "We're generally described as a public interest communications firm," she said. [1]

Criticism from the right

Fenton Communications' history of working for environment and other non-profits has drawn criticism the conservative Hudson Institute affiliated project, the Center for Global Food Issues. The CFGI champions genetically engineered crops and disputed concerns about mad cow disease. In February 2002 CFGI produced a report The Fear Profiteers edited by Bonner Cohen, John Carlisle, Michael Fumento, Michael Gough, Henry Miller, Steven J. Milloy, Kenneth Smith, Elizabeth Whelan.

They wrote of Fenton Communications that "it is a founding member of the so-called Business for Social Responsibility. Yet Fenton has played a key role in a growing number of health scare campaigns involving both his non-profit and for-profit clients." [2]

"Their practices combine junk science with a hidden agenda to scare consumers away from safe products, supposedly all in the name of protecting public health and the environment." ... including scares about Alar and apples, swordfish, leaky breast implants, Health Care Without Harm ("danger of phthalates, chemicals used to make plastic flexible for products such as IV bags, teethers, nipples, and toys"), the book "Our Stolen Future" ("alleged that synthetic chemicals were causing developmental and reproductive problems in humans, such as low sperm counts, impotence and even homosexuality"), Bovine Growth Hormone," Cohen wrote.

"If you have been scared about food or pesticides in the last 10 years, chances are Fenton Communications played a key role in provoking that fear. The scares just don't ever stop. But they all have one thing in common -- a lack of evidence and abundance of deceit. The claims involved in the scares have all been refuted in public. By the time the scares have been debunked, however, the campaigns have taken such a strong hold that the truth usually is irrelevant," he wrote.

The report stated that it was published "through the efforts of the National Center for Public Policy and Junkscience.com".

Clients

Fention lists their current and former clients on their site as including: [3]

• Air America Radio
• AFL-CIO
• America Coming Together
• American Medical Association
• American Trial Lawyers Association
• Amnesty International
• Ben and Jerry's
• Body Shop
• Bioneers
• Breast Cancer Action
• Businesses for Social Responsibility
• California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG)
• Carbon Disclosure Project
• Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Consumers Union
• Current TV (Al Gore)
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Energy Foundation
• Evangelical Environmental Network
• Environmental Media Services
• Environmental Working Group
• Economic Policy Institute
• Global Exchange
• Goldman Environmental Foundation
• Heinz Family Foundation
• Institute for Policy Studies
• John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• Greenpeace
• Harvard School of Public Health
• Health Care Without Harm
• International Criminal Court
• International Forum on Globalization
• Million Mom March
• MoveOn.org
• National Environmental Trust
• National Sleep Foundation
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• NARAL Pro-Choice America
• Open Society Institute
• Outfoxed (Robert Greenwald)
• Pew Charitable Trusts
• People For the American Way
• Planned Parenthood Action Fund
• Pro-choice Public Education Project
• Public Citizen
• The Foundation Center
• The Nature Conservancy
• Tides Foundation
• True Majority
• Turner Foundation
• Patagonia
• Rainforest Action Network
• Salon.com
• Sierra Club
• World Resources Institute
• World Wildlife Fund
• Working Assets Long Distance

It manages the Iraq Policy Information Project.

Personnel

Management team

• David Fenton - CEO
• Lisa Witter - Chief Operating Officer
• Parker Blackman - Deputy General manager and Managing Director of San Francisco Office
• Ira Arlook - Managing Director, DC Office

Other staff

• Josh Baran - Senior Vice President heading Fenton's "green-tech division, focusing on renewable energy, environmentally sound technologies and innovation"
• Beth Bogart
• Scott Shapiro
• George Lakoff - strategic consultant

SourceWatch resources

• Katherine Magraw
• 99% Spring
• MoveOn

Contact information

182 Second Street
Fourth Floor
San Francisco, CA
94105 U.S.A.
Ph: 415.901.0111
Fx: 415.901.0110

260 Fifth Avenue
Ninth Floor
New York, NY
10001 U.S.A.
Ph: 212.584.5000
Fx: 212.584.5045

1320 18th Street N.W.
Fifth Floor
Washington, DC
20036 U.S.A.

Ph: 202.822.5200
Fx: 202.822.4787

Web: http://www.fenton.com

External links

Articles

• John Stauber, The Progressive Movement is a PR Front for Rich Democrats, March 15, 2013, CounterPunch.
• Bonner Cohen, et al., ed., "The Fear Profiteers: Do 'Socially Responsible' Businesses Sow Health Scares to Reap Monetary Rewards?", February 2002.
• "Don't Call Us a PR Firm", O'Dwyers PR Daily, April 7, 2004.

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