Self-styled 'consumer group' buys ads branding marketers as 'pickpockets'

摘要

The Consumers Rights League bills itself as a fighter for the little man's right to choose. Consumers, it warns, will be "pickpocketed at the pump" if Congress passes a marketer-sponsored bill that would allow retailers to negotiate interchange fees with card networks like Visa and MasterCard. But the little guy might have a hard time making contact with the Washington, D.C. group, which has slammed marketers as "allies of Big Oil" in full-page newspaper ads attacking the credit card reform bill. The League's website offers only a post office box as an address. The "800" phone number it provides is only an answering service, and directory assistance has no number for the organization. There is no record of the League registering as a business, for-profit or non-profit, with the District of Columbia government, and its website discloses no information about when the group originated, who funds it, or who runs it. The League's front man is James Terry. League letters, press releases and op-ed pieces describe him as the group's "chief public advocate."