The Center for Consumer Freedom, defanged

I’ve been very tardy in writing about this development, but today was the day, I guess.

Longtime readers will know that I pledged some time ago not to link to the Center for Consumer Freedom, a liar-ly named Rick Berman site. When I did insert a link, it was to this explanation of why I wouldn’t link to it.  

Especially when J. Justin Wilson was working there, CCF was the rabid pit bull of misinformation, fronting for Big Food while claiming to be an independent advocacy group. They rode to the defense of chocolate milk in schools, practically invented the canard that “calories in, calories out” is the only valid diet rule, and did invent the term “food police” to tar those who disagreed with them.

They golden-showered us with bullshit half-truths, not the least of which was its name.  They equated food with joy, because who could possibly argue with curbing joy?  And they railed against the concept of food addiction with supreme ignorance: “If we weren't ‘addicted’ to food, we'd all starve to death.”  

But they’ve stopped! Apart from pummeling the Humane Society, CCF is all but silent nowadays, presumably because its funding dried up.

What can be said with certainty is that CCF lost its prime peacock, Wilson, who now shills for Institute of Justice, which I’m familiar with only because I looked up where Wilson was these days. Its causes include “economic liberty,” “school choice,” and “private property,” says its website, which describes Wilson as formerly “Vice President of a Washington, D.C.-based integrated public affairs firm.” This, of course, lays bare the cynicism behind the CCF’s name.

But we can’t know if he left because he got a better offer, or if he got canned when the money ran out and the Justice thing was the best landing spot he could get. I asked him about these things, but he ignored my request, just as he did the other times I tried reaching out. In 2010, I sent a copy of my first book, because if he was so clearly ill informed about food addiction, how could I deny him the opportunity to learn? But he never acknowledged that, either.

I concede that Wilson is a pretty good polemicist; I knew people who shied from mentioning CCF publically in any context, because they feared his blowback. But any admiration was tempered by his ignorance and/or his misuse of the truth.

Despite being pretty hard on CCF over the years, I never drew their notice, most likely because they regarded me, fairly, as a gnat not worth their effort.

At least, they've been silenced, and we won't have to hear their crap again.

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