LETTERS to the Editor.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Flack Counterattack

As a veteran public relations counselor, I was delighted to be joined by my friend Steve Milloy of junkscience.com in being lauded in the article "Flack Attack" (Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, October issue) for our "ability to take those arguments out of the mouths of corporations and put them in the mouths of citizens who read their web pages and come away persuaded that there is a `green genocide agenda' that is `tangible, identifiable, and utterly relentless.'"

The only problem with the article is that it is eviscerated by a major flaw. I do not take any money from any corporation, association, or source other than the sale of a popular poster that the National Anxiety Center sells to fund the Center. It is paid for out of my own pocket and always has been since I founded it in 1990. Simply stated, I am no one's "flack."

The article, which presumably is meant to pass for a piece of journalism, is filled with errors and what you might call "spin." For example, I am not a member of the Public Relations Society of America, nor the International Association of Business Communicators. I am, however, a longtime member of the Society of Professional Journalists, something the authors ignored.

Moreover, the National Pest Control Association has never been a client of my firm, the Caruba Organization. As a professional writer on pest control topics, however, I have written for countless trade magazines, but never had, as the article asserts, a "biweekly column" in Earth Times. My writings as a business and science writer have appeared in many leading publications.

The reference to my paying to be listed in the Directory of Experts, Authors, and Spokespersons is typical of the misleading and erroneous "facts" put forth in the article. First of all, it's the Yearbook of Experts, Authorities, and Spokespersons, and among the others who purchase a listing in order to be accessible to the nation's press are the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Child Welfare League of America, and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Not exactly a bunch of "flacks," as the authors imply, and, presumably, the First Amendment still permits the freedom to express one's views, even if they don't like them.

That said, yes, I do earn my living as a public relations counselor (and advertise this on my three web sites!) and have done so since the 1970s. I have represented clients in the industries the authors...