The question of who, if anyone, is resposible for coordinating and paying for the SUV wars is of interest to everyone, inlcuding law enforcement authorities. Mike Davis of
TheCarConnection.com ponders this issue and notes the role of a PR firm, Fenton Communications, in a number of anti-SUV campaigns ranging from Ariana Huffington's to the What Would Jesus Drive campaign. Mr. Davis also notes that Fenton lists as a client an organization called "TomPaine.com/monsense, which appears to embrace anything but common sense. On its Web site,
www.TomPaine.com, for example, seems to take credit for the trashing of Seattle by protestors during the World Trade Organization’s conference a while back."
Mike Davis explains that Fenton "boasts of representing plaintiff law firms, particularly those involved in the really big bucks of class-action suits. And it clearly is rather successful in clever manipulation of mainstream media... The idea is to demonize prospective defendants like auto companies and doctors, so that juries will slap on huge punitive judgments, of which the plaintiff lawyers walk off with upwards of one-third."
Does any of this prove that the plaintiffs' bar is associated with anti-SUV campaigns and possibly even vandalism? Of course not. But as the level of anti-SUV violence grows, so does the need to identify its supporters.
Read Mike Davis' column
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11-20-2003, 02:24 PM
