Center for Media and Democracy

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a nonprofit American-based media research group founded in 1993 by environmentalist writer and political activist John Stauber. It publishes PR Watch, a quarterly newsletter edited by Laura A. Miller. Stauber and CMD research director Sheldon Rampton have written five books describing what they call the murky world of public relations. Another CMD project is the SourceWatch website (formerly called Disinfopedia), a Wiki, which CMD describes as "a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests."

CMD has stated that it is not affiliated with a political party, but that it does not pretend to lack opinions or a point of view. It states its opposition to "the barriers and distortions of the modern information environment that stem from government- or corporate-dominated, hierarchical media." In contrast, it favors "grassroots citizen activism that promotes public health, economic justice, ecological sustainability and human rights."