Like an early Christmas present Greenpeace has announced it will release its revised retailer rankings on December 9th. And it says there’s “more good news to report this time around.” Well of course there is. Greenpeace tried the doom-n-gloom approach with its last retailer ranking list and that went over like a lead balloon, so now it’s back with a much sunnier disposition. But let’s not be fool. Greenpeace will merely use this re-launch of its failed summer campaign to take credit for things it had no role in.

• Watch as Greenpeace insists its original rankings have had the desired effect and now, just months later, retailers that had dismal failing grades have miraculously come around to its way of thinking and now are using Greenpeace’s sustainability criteria.

• Be amazed as Greenpeace publicly takes credit for sustainability efforts spearheaded by other groups.

• Keep a look out for subtle fundraising messages embedded in the new rankings that expose its real objectives.

Greenpeace relies on Journalists who are not skeptical about its claims to report without questioning its motives and or its “facts.” The group’s self-serving distortions are easily unmasked with a few well researched questions. Its original rankings were not science-based and its arbitrary red list has been contradicted by its own organization.

My message to reporters on this one is– do your homework now, don’t let Greenpeace spoon feed you rhetorical hogwash that it will undoubtedly call evidence of progress.