Fake TV News - Widespread and Undisclosed.

[reprehensor]

http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary

Over a ten-month period, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) documented television newsrooms' use of 36 video news releases (VNRs)—a small sample of the thousands produced each year. CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs or related satellite media tours (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers. Collectively, these 77 stations reach more than half of the U.S. population. The VNRs and SMTs whose broadcast CMD documented were produced by three broadcast PR firms for 49 different clients, including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One. In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety.

Report highlights include:

* KOKH-25 in Oklahoma City, OK, a FOX station owned by Sinclair, aired six of the VNRs tracked by CMD, making it this report's top repeat offender. Consistently, KOKH-25 failed to provide any disclosure to news audiences. The station also aired five of the six VNRs in their entirety, and kept the publicist's original narration each time.

* In three instances, TV stations not only aired entire VNRs without disclosure, but had local anchors and reporters read directly from the script prepared by the broadcast PR firm. KTVI-2 in St. Louis, MO, had their anchor introduce, and their reporter re-voice, a VNR produced for Masterfoods and 1-800 Flowers, following the script nearly verbatim. WBFS-33 in Miami, FL, did the same with a VNR produced for the "professional services firm" Towers Perrin. And Ohio News Network did likewise with a VNR produced for Siemens.

* WSJV-28 in South Bend, IN, introduced a VNR produced for General Motors as being from "FOX's Andrew Schmertz," implying that Schmertz was a reporter for the local station or the FOX network. In reality, he is a publicist at the largest U.S. broadcast PR firm, Medialink Worldwide. Another Medialink publicist, Kate Brookes, was presented as an on-air reporter by four TV stations airing a VNR produced for Siemens.

* Two stations whose previous use of government VNRs was documented by the New York Times, WCIA-3 in Champaign, IL, and WHBQ-13 in Memphis, TN, also aired VNRs tracked by CMD. The March 2005 Times article reported that WHBQ's vice president for news "could not explain how his station came to broadcast" a State Department VNR, while WCIA's news director said that Agriculture Department VNRs "meet our journalistic standards."

more@link

[Gabi Hayes]

1. crickets on this? KR

this IS 1984, folks

this IS their vision of the future

nobody gettin this?

pretty obvious

they have the Washington Post firmly in their grip

http://pics.livejournal.com/engulfed/pic/0000c0et/s640x480

[spanone]

2. Bush* democracy. Very frightening. When we lose the 'media' we've lost.

[Initech]

3. So it's not just limited to Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert anymore?

Just when I think this country cant get any stupider... :argh:

[depakid]

4. Every one of these stations should have its license yanked

at renewal time. Too bad Reagan made it almost impossible to do that- and Clinton had NO problem going along.

Don't like the way the media behaves- then make damn sure not to support another Clinton type Dem who'll keep pandering to them.

What's needed is divestment and re-regulation- the kind that worked for 50 years prior to Reagan/Bush/Clinton.

[klook]

8. I strongly agree

The public owns the airwaves. Those who use them should be held to the same standards of public accountability that existed for the several decades before Reagan's policies put foxes in charge of all the henhouses.

[greekspeak]

5. Crickets are a symptom of our shell shock

There is just so MUCH utter shit out there for us to absorb that we on the left cannot absorb it all. So please be forgiving. Humans can only process so much at once. And right now we have a LOT to digest and react to right now. Throw it into the pot of RW mendacity and stir it in.

[Faux pas]

6. This has to be against the law, doesn't it? All I have the strength

to do is say "no mas". I can't handle any more deceit.

[electron_blue]

7. I'm soooo glad I'm unplugged from this mess

[rman]

9. Democracy Now had a special on that a few days back

Thursday, April 6th, 2006
Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed... How Corporate-Funded Propaganda Is Airing On Local Newscasts As "News"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/06/1432239

[annabanana]

10. VNR's are not hard to spot..

The are complettely news-free, the "reporter" is someone you've never seen before. There is often a "new" product or service that is being highlighted. They are ubiquitous and they should be complained about. It is white noise and it numbs the senses.

When you see one of these, you should bitch to the station that you saw it on.