PR Watch: Richard Berman (Dr Evil) Misleads on Restaurant Opposition to Higher Wages

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/08/12918/richard-berman-misleads-restaurant-opposition-higher-wages

Submitted by Jessica Mason on September 1, 2015 - 7:44am

By Jessica Mason and Kim Haddow

Richard Berman, whose PR firm and endless industry-backed front groups have led the fight against raising the minimum wage, sinks to a new low with a website that features restaurant owners ostensibly opposed to a $15 minimum wage.

The problem? Many of these restaurant owners, when contacted by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), turned out to support the higher wage and were not happy to hear that their businesses were caught up in Berman's spin machine.

Richard Berman, a.k.a. "Dr. Evil," Strikes Again

Berman’s lobbying and public relations firm, Berman & Company, serves clients in the fast-food, alcohol, and tobacco industries, all with a stake in keeping the minimum wage as low as possible. He has long been known for creating front groups and attack-dog websites to bedevil industry targets including consumer groups, environmental groups, the Humane Society, and even CMD. He was dubbed "Dr. Evil" by 60 Minutes in 2007 and exposed more recently in the New York Times.

A former restaurant industry executive, Berman also created a corporate-funded "think tank" the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) run by Michael Saltsman out of Berman's office, who presents himself as a "scholarly researcher" instead of a flack on the attack paid by Berman’s industry clients to pen endless op-eds warning of the dire consequences of raising the minimum wage.

FULL story at link

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