Peter Hancock portrays left-wing group as a consumer-protection group

In an May 11 article about a possible FBI investigation involving former officials in Gov. Sam Brownback's administration, Lawrence Journal-World reporter/political activist Peter Hancock shared several quotes from Craig Holman of Public Citizen, which Hancock characterized as "a Washington-based group that advocates for consumer protection and campaign finance reform."

This is yet another example of why it is important to look behind the people associated with groups with innocuous-sounding names. We can find Public Citizen's board of directors on its website.

Public Citizen Foundation board members include David Halperin, who "has advised groups including Greenpeace, Democracy for America, Public.Resource.Org, and, in the 1990s, Public Citizen." Democracy for America is listed as an organization that is part of the "Progressive Infrastructure" in Erica Payne's The Practical Progressive: How to Build a Twenty-first Century Political Movement. Halperin was also an adviser to Howard Dean's presidential campaign and a senior vice president of the Center for American Progress, which is also part of the "Progressive Infrastructure."

Cynthia Refro, another foundation board member, was a consultant to the Iraq Peace Fund of the Tides Foundation. Wade Rathke was a founding board member of the Tides Foundation and continues to serve as senior advisor of the San Francisco-based organization. Rathke was also the founder of ACORN.

The Public Citizen, Inc. board includes Barbara Ehrenreich and Jim Hightower, who are both associated with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Ehrenreich is a DSA honorary chair, while DSA honored Hightower with its Eugene V. Debs Award in 1995. That award, presented annually, is named after the Socialist Party presidential candidate.

Joy Howell, another board member, was the communications director to U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.).

Obviously, Public Citizen is a far-left organization, yet Hancock presented it as being merely a consumer-protection group.