More about Fenton the lefty PR firm doing a new anti Israel campaign

more info about Fenton
“Reading about MoveOn.org’s huge discount on their New York Times ad makes me wonder if Shellenberger had access to that kind of discount…
According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, “the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692.”
A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to The Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for the ad – a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.”
From watch paul
“

• Foremost public relations firm of the political left
• Past clients have included Marxist dictatorships in Central America
• Represents environmentalist groups, pro-Democratic political action committees, labor unions, and the anti-war movement
• Launched misleading media campaigns against Alar and silicone breast implants

Founded in 1982 by activist and public relations veteran David Fenton, Fenton Communications (FC) is the leading advertising and public relations firm for advocacy groups on the political left, with locations in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco.
FC serves as an “umbrella” for “three independent nonprofit organizations” which it co-founded. These include: Environmental Media Services, which manages publicity efforts for environmental groups; New Economy Communications, a social justice group; and the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty lobby.
FC expressly refuses to represent “clients and projects that we don’t believe in ourselves.” Among the clients and projects that FC has worked for are Marxist-Leninist regimes in Central America and Africa, environmental groups, labor unions, and anti-war organizations. In addition, FC has offered its services to pro-Democrat political action committees and law firms, as well as to political campaigns against the death penalty and gun-ownership rights.
Throughout the 1980s, FC represented a number of Marxist governments and their supporters. Most prominent among these was the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, which the firm defended against foreign criticism while casting its internal opponents — the Contra guerrillas — as “death squads.” David Fenton acknowledged earning $100,000 annually for three years from contracts with Sandinista authorities.
FC also conducted publicity campaigns on behalf of Grenada’s Marxist dictator Maurice Bishop and El Salvador’s Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization, the FMLN.
Another FC client was Jennifer Harbury, a far-left attorney and activist who charged that her husband, a Marxist guerrilla in Guatemala, had been killed with the complicity of the CIA.
In Africa, FC signed on to represent Angola’s MPLA regime, a Soviet puppet state. When anti-MPLA rebel leader Jonas Savimibi visited the United States in mid-1980s, FC, working for the Angolan government, placed ads in theNew York Times and other leading newspapers denouncing him as “South Africa’s secret agent.”
Equally noteworthy has been FC’s business partnership with environmental groups. In 1988 and 1989, FC helped one such organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), promote misleading claims about the dangers of Alar, a pesticide then in use by the apple industry. On the basis of NRDC’s study of Alar, itself based on exaggerated probabilities rather than concrete empirical data, FC launched a media campaign that stoked consumers’ fears and captured the interest of television news programs, daily newspapers and daytime talk shows, fueling a backlash against apple growers. By some estimates, the apple industry suffered $200 million in lost revenue as a result of the FC campaign.
By contrast, FC and its client prospered. David Fenton subsequently boasted that his firm had “designed” the media campaign “so that revenue would flow back to NRDC from the public,” noting that FC had gained “$700,000 in net revenues from it.” Fenton Communications today cites the Alar campaign as a significant contribution to the “national debate” on pesticides.
Such fear-mongering has also worked for ice cream producers Ben & Jerry’s, another client of FC. Starting with a series of press conferences in the late 1990s, the FC-founded Environmental Media Services promoted claims that a hormone given to dairy cows to produce milk could cause cancer, though the FDA had found the hormone to be safe. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream manufacturers stood to gain from the bad press aimed at the dairy industry because their ice cream was made with hormone-free milk.
Joining forces with the Environmental Working Group, FC has also engineered media campaigns exaggerating the dangers posed by pesticides in tap water and baby food.
In 2003 FC created an ad campaign targeting the automotive industry for the Evangelical Environmental Network. The controversial ads alleged that consumers who bought sport utility vehicles were, in effect, supporting terrorism by using large amounts of fuel imported from the Middle East.
FC partnered with the Command Trust Network, a support group of activists and personal injury lawyers that opposes silicone breast implants. In a 2003 press release, FC misrepresented the findings of a scientific study by suggesting that such implants posed proven health risks. The campaign was damaging to implant manufacturers; the following year a federal court concluded that scientific evidence did not support Fenton’s claims.
In 2004 Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental activist, retained Fenton’s services during a speaking tour of the U.S.
During the 2004 U.S. presidential election season, FC helped the pro-Democrat activist group MoveOn.org stage its “Vote for Change” tour. This initiative combined musical acts (such as Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellencamp, and the Dixie Chicks) with leftist advocacy groups like MoveOn and America Coming Together, and opposed the reelection of George W. Bush.
(Trevor S. Fitzgibbon, FC’s Director of Media Relations, assists in public relations strategy for MoveOn.org, the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, and Win Without War. According to FC, ”Fitzgibbon’s messaging and PR efforts on behalf of MoveOn.org have helped position the online advocacy group as a national political force in American life.”)
In 2004 FC coordinated the efforts of its then-newest client, the anti-war group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, to oppose President Bush’s bid for re-election.
That same year, FC became a leading public-relations conduit for Cindy Sheehan, who founded the anti-war group Gold Star Families for Peace.
In 2005 FC did some work for Win Without War. And in an effort to influence the 2006 midterm elections in favor of Democrats, the firm teamed up with the anti-war entity Appeal for Redress, whose members include active-duty and reserve soldiers. Emphasizing the group’s military background, the resulting campaign urged “political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq.”
Other clients of Fenton Communications have included the AFL-CIO, America Coming Together, Amnesty International, Air America Radio, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (renamed the American Association for Justice in 2006), the NAACP, the Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club, Global Exchange, the Open Society Institute, and Pew Charitable Trusts, the Institute for Policy Studies, Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, People for the American Way,Service Employees International Union, Working Assets, the TransAfrica, the magazine In These Times, the National Urban League, the World Wildlife Fund, the American Friends Service Committee, Rock the Vote, School of the Americas Watch, the Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, the Ford Foundation, the Heinz Family Foundation , the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Turner Foundation, Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the Columbia Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the Iraq Policy Information Project, among many others.
FC also counts among its clients a number of pro-Democrat law firms such as Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach.
Arlie Schardt, a senior consultant at Fenton Communications and Chairman ofEnvironmental Media Services, served as Al Gore’s national press secretary during his first presidential campaign.
Fenton Communications has received financial support from the Ford Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. ” From Discover the Networks
Fenton is really bad news. Have anymore dirt or info on them please leave it as a comment. They need to be stopped in there attempt to destroy Israel.

via avideditor.wordpress.com

Quoted by email using noahdavidsimon's posterous

The lefty jihadi alliance is reveled. Fenton the PR firm of the Left is now hired by Dubia to smear Israel so it could be destroyed by the jihadis

What is Arianna Huffington Telling David Fenton?

Know Fenton? They are the left wing PR group that promoted and made Cindy Sehan famous. Bacaily they are the biggest lefty PR company. Guess who there new target is?

Israel






Originally posted at  US PR firm paid to demonize Israel « FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

“Think about this: there is at least one American business that is paid to demonize Israel.

The employees, well-paid professionals, go to work every day and think up ways to make Israel look like a moral monster, a rogue state dangerous to world peace for which the only remedy — as in the case of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or apartheid South Africa — is more than just regime change, rather, a fundamental change in the nature of the polity which can only be effected by force.

They are creative people and they know their jobs. Their trade is building or wrecking the public images of politicians, products, organizations, companies and even nations.

Today their goal is to prevent the Jewish state from defending itself by creating a mass of public opinion that sees its self-defense as war crimes.To prevent the Jewish state from defending itself, so that its enemies can finally succeed in doing what they have been trying to do since Israel was born, destroy it.

They are Fenton Communications, and they are working on their current project as diligently as they did for MoveOn.org, The Body Shop, Greenpeace, Ben and Jerry’s and numerous other clients:

Fenton Communications, which has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, and San Francisco, signed two contracts last year with Qatar to develop “a communications action plan for an 18-month campaign” aimed at delegitimizing Israel and generating international support for the Hamas-run Gaza strip, documents filed with the Department of Justice show.
The campaign, known as the “Al Fakhoora Project,” has a very visible Web presence that boasts of rallying 10,000 activists “against the blockade on Gaza.”
Fenton signed the contracts, worth more than $390,000, with the Office of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the wife of the Qatari ruler, and a separate foundation she chairs. The contracts are ongoing, according to Fenton’s Foreign Agent registration forms…
The cash from Qatar bought a sophisticated U.S. media campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion to generate support for the Hamas-led government and the people of the Gaza strip.
It also included a full-scale fundraising effort aimed at generating a war chest of up to $100 million in addition to the money the Qatari sheikha provided. — Ken Timmerman

You can see Fenton’s registration as a foreign agent here (h/t: The Israel Project). I’ve extracted the part which describes more work to be performed by Fenton this year:

Extract from Fenton contract for Al Fakhoora project

Here is the top-notch website built for Her Highness by Fenton.

Fenton specializes in what they call “The Active Idea”: in this case the idea appears to be that Israel’s naval blockade and other restrictions on Hamas-controlled Gaza obstructs the ‘right to learn’ of Gaza’s children, thus denying them their human rights. In fact, the campaign has little to do with education per se, and everything to do with demonizing Israel.

A video statement made by Al Fakhoora’s director, Farooq Burney, describes his experiences as a passenger on one of the ships of the Free Gaza Flotilla (I presume that it was the Mavi Marmara, because he claims to have been next to a ‘peaceful activist’ who was shot to death). He claims that the passengers were attacked, etc. and asks that people ‘pressurize’ [sic] their governments to ‘punish’ Israel and to ‘bring them to justice’. He also asks that we sign a declaration demanding that all ships be allowed to land at Gaza without interference. So much for education.

Fenton also worked with The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in 2005 to “improve public understanding of the American Muslim community, promote pluralism, and inject the points of view of American Muslims into the national conversation.” Note that CAIR has been shown to have close connections with Hamas.

Of course, it’s entirely irrelevant to mention that Jeremy Ben Ami, director of the fake ‘pro-Israel’ group J Street, was a Senior Vice President at Fentonimmediately before joining J Street. Right.”

Amazing stuff right. Do not buy the Jihadi/ Fenton talking points. They are lies.

via avideditor.wordpress.com

In April 2008 Mother Jones Magazine reported that Fenton’s offices were the target of corporate spying between the years of 1998 and 2001.^[3] During this time a corporate security firm, Beckett Brown International, made up of former police officers and secret service agents "sat surveillance" outside of David Fenton’s home. BPI reportedly sorted through the garbage at both Fenton’s home and the firm’s offices. More investigation found that BPI collected data on Fenton Communication’s client lists, billing information, and personnel information.

via en.wikipedia.org

Fenton specializes in public relations for not-for-profit organizations.^[1] Its clients work on social issues such as the environment, peace, health, women, LGBT, and international issues.
When commenting on David Fenton and the work he and his firm does, the Washington Post noted that "[Fenton is] not the poster child of liberal causes; he’s the designer, producer, and distributor of the posters."^[2]
The firm is made up of about 70 employees with locations in New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

via en.wikipedia.org

The Israel Project reports on some disturbing relationships between Fenton Communications and the Gaza Flotilla operation. (Fenton's ties to the U.S. and international left are well known to AT readers.)

U.S. PR Firm on Payroll of Qatari Group that Took Part in Gaza Flotilla

Qatar-based Initiative Encouraged Action against Israel

Foreign Agents Registration Act document filed by Fenton Communications (pdf)
YouTube video of "peace activists" organizing Lebanese flotilla
More Flotillas Bound for Gaza in Coming Days and Weeks
Examples of previous Gaza-bound ships carrying weapons

A U.S. Justice Department document shows that Fenton Communications, a U.S. public relations firm, has been working for "Al Fakhoora," a Qatar-based pro-Palestinian initiative that participated in the illegal flotilla to Gaza last month and urged action against Israel .[1]

According the group's director, Al Fakhoora has "launched an advocacy campaign to file legal charges against Israel and change the public perception in the West about its actions."[2]

Al Fakhoora is supported by the office of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, the second wife of the emir of Qatar .[3] According to a document filed by Fenton under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Her Highness' office agreed to pay Fenton approximately $240,000 for communications services rendered from March 1 - Aug. 31, 2010.[4]

Fenton distributes materials through Al Fakhoora's Web site, which includes a Facebook page[5] and a "Flotilla Action Alert" urging activists to oppose Israel's blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza .[6]

Israel considers Gaza-bound convoys a security risk and has implemented a maritime blockade on Gaza because of Hamas' ongoing efforts to smuggle Iranian rockets and other weaponry since the Iran-backed group overthrew the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in a bloody coup there in June 2007.[7] Historically, ships bound for Gazahave carried tons of weapons among their cargo. Click here for examples of previous Gaza-bound ships carrying weapons.

via americanthinker.com

For Petraeus, one of the most successful commanders in the war on terror, Fenton fashioned an ad for Moveon.org in the New York Times that accused the general of betraying his country. Moveon.org is funded by billionaire George Soros, who likened President George W. Bush to a Nazi regime and is using his fortune made in the free market to try to institute socialism. By the way, Moveon.org also ran an ad likening Bush to Hitler. The Open Society Institute, Soro's foundation for doling out money to Moveon.org and other liberal groups, has been a Fenton Communications client.

via humanevents.com

I don't buy that this guy is a glorified poster artist

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