Wise-use wiseguys

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1997:

Alleging trademark violation, the National
Parks and Conservation Association has forced the
Property Rights Alliance, of Washington state, to restructure
the “National Park Watch Homepage,” which NPCA
counsel Libby Fayad contends “sought to sidetrack people
seeking legitimate park information” via ParkWatcher, an
NPCA web page designation, “and expose them to paranoid
fears about the National Park Service and those of us who
work to maintain the parks.” The PRA site reportedly
accused the NPCA, Audubon Society, Sierra Club,
Wilderness Society, and other groups of promoting paganism
and trying to turn over U.S. parks to the United Nations.

“It has come to our attention,” the North Shore
Animal League posted to its web site on April 11, “that a
popular Internet link, the Internet Exchange, allowed visitors
to our home page [direct] access to sites that were not
compatible with our mission of saving animals’ lives. We
immediately removed this link feature, and look forward to
your continued visits.” North Shore had been advised just 66
minutes earlier, via ANIMAL PEOPLE, that a reporter for
the Hartford Courant had discovered an advertisement for a
gun dealer as an unauthorized header to its home page, with
single-click links to hunting how-to and Ted Nugent’s
United Sportsmen of America Home Page.
Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility marked Earth Day with press conferences in
Washington D.C. and Seattle to release three new reports on
violence against activists and environmental law enforcement
personnel: Earth Day Repealed: The Violent Agenda of the
Anti-Environmental Lobby, by Western States Center
research director Tarso Ramos; Epidemic of Violence, by
PEER program director and counsel Jeff Ruch; and Target
Democracy: The Effect of Anti-Environmental Violence on
Community Discourse, by Clearinghouse on Environmental
Advocacy and Research director Daniel Barry.
“A week after the USDA questioned the use of
checkoff funds by the National Pork Board to pay a public
relations company that monitored environmental groups,”
Associated Press business writer Tom Seery reported on
April 5, National Pork Producers Council president Jerry
King said his group had reimbursed the NPB and would welcome
a federal audit. “The group’s leaders said they were
looking for evidence that anti-meat activists and animal rights
supporters were working with farm activist groups that
oppose the rise of large-scale hog farming,” Seery explained.
Michigan in April became the 13th state to adopt
a “food slander” law, making criticism of foods or food products
without a “scientific basis” a civil offense prosecutable
by lawsuit. As with hunter harassment laws, now on the
books in all 50 states, legal experts believe most “food slander”
laws are unconstitutional, but also as with hunter harassment
laws, they have rarely been tested. “Their real intent is
to intimidate activists and concerned consumers,” charges
Pure Foods Campaign coordinator Ronnie Cummings.
Mother Jones magazine has posted to the World
Wide Web a searchable data base of the top 400 contributors
to candidates, political parties, and political action committees
in the 1996 federal election campaign, at >>http://www.mojones.com/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/mojo_400.html<<.