More Manipulation of the Press....Can this be legal?

[spanone]

<snip>

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.
To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html?hp&ex=1110690000&en=13c490d47a932e2e&ei=5059&partner=AOL

[punpirate]

1. If it is not identified as paid for by the government...

... then, yes, it is a violation of the law against the government propagandizing its own citizens, a law, I think, which goes back to 1948.

[TrustingDog]

2. what laws, you don't need no stinkin' laws...

unless it's to keep the rabble in line, i.e.

[netizens.news]

3. Another example of manipulation - bloggers and the mainstream media

I want to also point to the article I did a while ago in OhmyNews.

Here there are those who attacked a journalist who questioned the
US government activities in Iraq with regard to journalists. The
article appeared in OhmyNews

"Conservative Media Take Down CNN Executive
Reports blame bloggers and other amateur news media. But is that
the real story?

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=7&no=212112&rel_no=1

The US constitution's 1st amendment is intended to provide
protection for journalists who challenge the US government
and criticize it. However, it seems that this is being
turned on its head.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. I would think so

and this isn't even a real Iraqi is it? They haven't lived in Iraq in a long time, correct? Since they are an Iraqi-American. So how would they know about anything? It's like that stupid little show they did at the SOTU speech earlier this year where the woman didn't risk her life or jack. This Iraqi lives right here in the US! Duh. Why don't the news crew go over to Iraq FOR REAL and find a REAL Iraqi and ask them how they like everything. Why don't they go find a hurt man, woman or even better a child and ask them how they like it. Or someone who lost their mother, father, brother, sister, etc.

[cry baby]

5. It's an upside down world, my friend...

good article and welcome to DU!:hi:

[Kurovski]

8. welcome, netizens.news.

good article on what real journalists can find themselves up against.

[netizens.news]

10. Thanks for the welcomes !

Good to see the welcomes. Thanks :-)

I wondered if there has been a discussion of the need 
for a different sort of press in the US than the 
conventional mainstream media? I wanted to try to 
start a thread with the question but the software
said I hadn't posted within threads enough to start
a thread.

It seems hard to imagine how any reform of the political
situation we have now can happen without also finding a
way to start a broader form of progressive press.

OhmyNews, where the article I pointed to, was printed,
is an example in Korea of a broader form of newsmedia,
an online one, that has been successful in challenging the 
mainstream (conservative media) in Korea and helping to 
netizens there to make political change.

The discussion on DU is a good sign that there is a
realization that more discussion and interaction is 
needed among people who are not happy with our current
political status quo. But I haven't seen efforts in 
the US like OhmyNews in Korea, which can begin to 
offer a substantial challenge to the mainstream media.

It was the mainstream US media, that helped to end the 
Dean campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in
the Iowa primaries.

Has there been discussion on this issue on DU? i.e. on 
the issue of the need for some form of alternative to the 
mainstream media? And of what form such an alternative
would take?

[newyawker99]

9. Hi netizens.news!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[otohara]

6. This Is Stunning -

and it sickens me that this whole business was started by Clinton.

It is so propaganda and bullshit, and the excuses for ignoring the GAO's ruling. That stupid woman Karen Ryan excuse that "everybody in the industry is doing it". Reminds me of stealing music from the net, everyone was doing it and now if you're caught, you pay huge fines. These agencies will continue producing propaganda by tweaking the pieces to fit the "new rules"


As we know TV stations are Bush's PA system, their willingness to skirt the truth and edit those so called news segments is proof as to what whorish tactics they will use to get more consolidation from the government in charge. Which I might add was another stupid move on Clinton's part. The Telecommunications Act was the beginning of the end of journalism and any iota of free press.

[liveoaktx]

7. Are broadcast stations required to tell viewers where their source

material is from? I'm not talking about what they put on the television, they obviously don't identify it there, but if one calls? Has anyone called up a local station to ask them about specific spots?