The Ten Worst Corporations of 2003

"Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst companies, for sure," says Alternet researchers, but they screw up their courage and give it a college try anyway.

Here are the results (some with annotations):

Bayer ... a bad patent anti-cholesterol medicine ... criminal charges

Boeing ... for Pentagon contract corruption

Brighthouse ... "advertising/consulting/ strategic advice company ... claim to infamy is its Neurostrategies Institute, which undertakes research to see how the brain responds to advertising campaigns"

Clear Channel ... behemoth radio empire which became an aggressive drum-beater for Bush's Iraq War ... and threatened to end the careers of The Dixie Chicks for opposing it

Diebold ... peddlers of the famously hackable, touch-screen, electronic voting machines ... "Diebold has managed to demonstrate that it fails any reasonable test of qualifications for involvement with the voting process"

Halliburton ... well, duh

HealthSouth ... "runs a network of outpatient surgery, diagnostic imagery and rehabilitative healthcare centers ... Fifteen of its top executives have pled guilty in connection with a multi-billion dollar scheme to defraud investors"

Inamed ... "sought Food and Drug Administration approval for silicone breast implants"

Merrill Lynch ... "shady dealings with Enron" ... among other transgressions

Safeway ... "one of the largest U.S. grocery chains ... Under the company's proposals, workers and their families will lose $4,000 to $6,000 a year in health insurance benefits"