How the World Works

[Guest guest]

*PLEASE CIRCULATE within your network/organisation and to any other

groups and individuals you think may be interested.*

Almost every day in countries right around the world, campaigners on

conservation, development, justice, agriculture, health and other

issues find themselves under attack in the media or in their localities.

How can you fight back?

By knowing your enemy: where they come from, what their agenda is, and

crucially, who funds them.

Media experts estimate that 40 percent of all "news" comes virtually

unedited from public relations offices acting on behalf of corporate

and political clients. The PR industry's proudest boast is that "the

best PR is never noticed".

Few people have the time to look behind the ever-increasing number of

innocuous-sounding front groups and not-so-"independent experts"

mouthing the message of industries that have one key concern - their

own financial bottom line.

WE CAN HELP

Our new website - http://www.lobbywatch.org

- has been set up to track deceptive PR.

The LobbyWatch site is an invaluable resource for journalists,

campaigners and concerned citizens. It provides an A-Z directory of

lobbyists, corporate front groups, political networks, PR firms, "think

tanks" and industry-friendly scientists and other "experts".

Even if you can't find exactly what you're looking for in the

LobbyWatch directory, it can give you access to other useful sources of

information. It also provides the tools to investigate and track those

who aim to distort your message and mislead the public and media.

The well-known British journalist and author Monbiot has said of

LobbyWatch, "If you want to know how the world works, this is the place

to start. I cannot think of a more necessary set of facts than these.

Lobbywatch.org permits us to

peer into the crucible of politics, to see how public perceptions and

government policies are smelted and forged by corporations and their

front organisations."

WHO ARE WE?

LobbyWatch is an off-shoot of the work of GM Watch (www.gmwatch.org) which reports on

the massive PR push behind genetically modified (GM) foods.

In the course of investigating independent-seeming "third parties"

promoting GM we came across an array of organisations and individuals

around the globe active in often undisclosed corporate and political

advocacy across a wide range of environmental, agricultural, health,

development, trade and other issues. It is this information that

lobbywatch.org is designed to share.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

It's vital to all our futures that LobbyWatch's information and links

to resources get out there and are used to expose deceptive PR and

media misinformation.

Ways you can help:

**Please circulate this email within your network/organisation and to

any other groups and individuals you think may be interested. Whatever

their area of concern and campaigning, they need to be able to track

those seeking to undermine

their work.

**If you have a website, please consider providing a link to www.lobbywatch.org. Because of

the way some search engines work, our site is more likely to show up

prominently in a search if there are plenty of links to it. This will

be a big help to individuals and organisations searching for

information on particular lobby groups etc.

**You can tackle deceptive PR. You might write a 'letter to the editor'

of a publication that has unquestioningly published the industry line;

you might publish an article that helps set the record straight; or you

might circulate an email or give a

talk to your fellow campaigners to help them take informed action.

For examples of articles arising out of our investigative work, see:

The Fake Parade by s

multinational corporations are manufacturing the poor

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/print.asp?id=254

Corporate Phantoms by Monbiot

the corporate web of deceit around GM food (US)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,723899,00.html

For links to more articles: http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=36 & page=1

www.lobbywatch.org

-- Peace, love and light,

Don Quai

"Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man."