I'm Only Human, People.

According to an anonymous reader, the CCF (see the "PETA Kills Animals?!! PETA Kills Animals?!!" post below) may not be on the level. In response to my last article, a reader said, "Hey, Johnny, You're a day late and a penny short. The trial ended on Friday. The two PETA employees were convicted of littering. That's it. No cruelty. No misrepresentations." Some of you may have read the comment already. [By the way, reader, it's spelled J-O-N-N-Y. And yes I did that on purpose.]

I went to consumerdeception.com, the website the reader told me about, and was shocked when found this:

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit corporation run by lobbyist Richard Berman through his Washington, D.C.-based for-profit public relations company, Berman & Co. The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by Berman with a $600,000 �donation� from tobacco company Philip Morris.

Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into nonprofit societies of which he is the executive director. He then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit groups. Of the millions of dollars �donated� by Philip Morris between the years 1995 and 1998, 49 percent to 79 percent went directly to Berman or Berman & Co.

Richard Berman is an influence peddler. He has worked out a scheme to funnel charitable donations from wealthy corporations into his own pocket. In exchange, he provides a flurry of disinformation, flawed studies, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and trade-industry articles, as well as access to his high-level government contacts, who are servants of the industries he represents.

It went on to say that he has challenged organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Center for Disease Control and of course PETA in order protect the profits of his clients. Even media organizations and newspapers (including the Center of Media and Democracy and the Washington Post) have a problem with Berman. This might not necesarily mean that PETA doesn't waste animals (a part of me still doesn't trust them), but this does complicate things quite a bit.

I'll I can say is...I'm very sorry.

I should've done more research on the CCF. But a part of me is glad that I made this mistake because it taught me to be more careful. Of course I'm not the first person on Earth to make this mistake. Hell, even the New York Times messes up every now and then. And the same can (and probably has) happened to you. There's a lot of information out there that looks good and sounds good but may not be true. That's why it's always good not to be so quick to believe everything you read. You never know who is lying (Even consumerdeception.com might not be telling the whole story. You never know.). It's like I said in the last post: "It's hard to know who to trust these days."

By the way, the CCF also knows about the end of the trial. They said:

PETA Trial Final Scoreboard:
Holier-Than-Thou Animal Killers: 1
Justice: 0
Americans: Smarter

It's over, folks. A North Carolina jury has acquitted two PETA employees of Animal Cruelty and Obtaining Property By False Pretenses. Guilty verdicts were handed down for Littering, in connection with PETA employees Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook's improper disposal of their furry victims' bodies. Hinkle and Cook were each given suspended 10-day jail sentences, 12 months' probation, 50 hours of community service, a $1,000 fine, and nearly $3,000 in restitution. And PETA's "death van" has been confiscated by the town of Ahoskie, NC.
While we certainly didn't see these "Not Guilty" verdicts coming, we'll give PETA's highly paid lawyers credit for blowing enough smoke and sowing enough confusion to confuse a jury. (That's their job, after all.) But it has now been established in court that PETA, in fact, kills animals. Inevitably, more and more of PETA's naive supporters will get a clue.

It also compares Hinkle and Cook to O.J. Simpson. Do with this information what you will.

And keep the honest criticism coming. It's the only way I'll learn.