77 American News Stations accused of releasing "Fake" news created by white house

[e-brake]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle621189.ece/

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.
Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.
"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air."
Ms Farsetta said the public relations companies commissioned to produce these segments by corporations had become increasingly sophisticated in their techniques in order to get the VNRs broadcast. "They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like," she said.
The FCC has declined to comment on the investigation but investigators from the commission's enforcement unit recently approached Ms Farsetta for a copy of her group's report.
The range of VNR is wide. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.
Many of the corporate reports, produced by drugs manufacturers such as Pfizer, focus on health issues and promote the manufacturer's product. One example cited by the report was a Hallowe'en segment produced by the confectionery giant Mars, which featured Snickers, M&Ms and other company brands. While the original VNR disclosed that it was produced by Mars, such information was removed when it was broadcast by the television channel - in this case a Fox-owned station in St Louis, Missouri.
Bloomberg news service said that other companies that sponsored the promotions included General Motors, the world's largest car maker, and Intel, the biggest maker of semi-conductors. All of the companies said they included full disclosure of their involvement in the VNRs. "We in no way attempt to hide that we are providing the video," said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel. "In fact, we bend over backward to make this disclosure."
The FCC was urged to act by a lobbying campaign organised by Free Press, another non-profit group that focuses on media policy. Spokesman Craig Aaron said more than 25,000 people had written to the FCC about the VNRs. "Essentially it's corporate advertising or propaganda masquerading as news," he said. "The public obviously expects their news reports are going to be based on real reporting and real information. If they are watching an advertisement for a company or a government policy, they need to be told."
The controversy over the use of VNRs by television stations first erupted last spring. At the time the FCC issued a public notice warning broadcasters that they were obliged to inform viewers if items were sponsored. The maximum fine for each violation is $32,500 (£17,500).

[hepkatmama]

product placement in the news is no more wrong than
prescription drug commercials aimed at consumers instead of doctors. **

[matt]

how so, hepkat?

[hepkatmama]

**insert sarcasm here**

(fixed for u matty-matt)

[/\/{Jubyl}\/\]

Originally Posted by hepkatmama

**insert sarcasm here**

(fixed for u matty-matt)

Actually, it's not exactly sarcasm unless you were trying to say there's nothing wrong with it at all, in which case you jus' missed your ride on the short schoolbus. What it was, I cannot say, but not sarcasm.

In my humbly honest non-sarcastic opinion, drug advertisements ARE a far greater evil because they perpetuate and even magnify the general public's misunderstanding of the way medicines work.

"Dr., gimme a vycoedin, dammit..." <<<< (classic use of sarcasm)

[zerojunkie]

What, like local stations don't run one-sided reports? Don't get your (inter)national news from your local TV station. If it weren't for them being the only TV outlet for local news I'd say screw them all together.

[hepkatmama]

Originally Posted by /\/{Jubyl}\/\

Actually, it's not exactly sarcasm unless you were trying to say there's nothing wrong with it at all, in which case you jus' missed your ride on the short schoolbus. What it was, I cannot say, but not sarcasm.

In my humbly honest non-sarcastic opinion, drug advertisements ARE a far greater evil because they perpetuate and even magnify the general public's misunderstanding of the way medicines work.

"Dr., gimme a vycoedin, dammit..." <<<< (classic use of sarcasm)

sarcasm: 1) A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 2) A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.

irony: a. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. b. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning. c. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See Synonyms of wit.

maybe i should have said ironic remark aimed at the media? is that better?

ok for the record (no not robin), imo commercials are bad.

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by zerojunkie

What, like local stations don't run one-sided reports? Don't get your (inter)national news from your local TV station. If it weren't for them being the only TV outlet for local news I'd say screw them all together.

Its not that the stories are one sided. Its that the stories are fake...as in actors pretending to be from Iraq, talking about pretend events that did not happen, produced by the state department and fed to news stations in a format that makes it look like a legit news story. THE NEWS STORIES ARE NOT REAL, MADE UP AND REPORTED TO YOU AS REAL EVENTS AND PEOPLE THAT DO NOT EXIST AND DID NOT HAPPEN

So when you are watching the news you dont know if you are watching the news, or just watching a sitcom of made up news.

[zerojunkie]

Originally Posted by e-brake

Its not that the stories are one sided. Its that the stories are fake...as in actors pretending to be from Iraq, talking about pretend events that did not happen, produced by the state department and fed to news stations in a format that makes it look like a legit news story. THE NEWS STORIES ARE NOT REAL, MADE UP AND REPORTED TO YOU AS REAL EVENTS AND PEOPLE THAT DO NOT EXIST AND DID NOT HAPPEN

So when you are watching the news you dont know if you are watching the news, or just watching a sitcom of made up news.

What? It doesn't say that in the article, and nothing I've read about it says that the 'news' they report didn't happen. Fake Journalists, fake setting, fake everthing else but the actual 'news' - if you want to call it that.

[bryAnt]

Originally Posted by zerojunkie

What? It doesn't say that in the article, and nothing I've read about it says that the 'news' they report didn't happen. Fake Journalists, fake setting, fake everthing else but the actual 'news' - if you want to call it that.

That's still bullshit man. It's the news. Hell, even Current Affair and Rescue 911 had the common courtesy to put "Dramatization" or "Reenactment" along the bottom of the screen. Whether the events are made up or not there's no room for any of that on a News program.

[e-brake]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release

* The New York Times, in a story titled "Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News" reported, on March 13, 2005, "In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production."[4]

* In 2004, a controversy with the Bush administration emerged when a VNR financed by the Department of Health and Human Services was aired on a number of local news programs around the country, thinking it was conventional journalism when in fact, it was produced to promote the new Medicare plan. The Karen Ryan video, named so because of the on-screen "reporter," was ruled to be in violation of federal law by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. government.

* In October, 2004 it was further revealed that the Department of Education had hired the Ketchum public relations firm to produce a similar video news release using Karen Ryan as a "reporter" touting the No Child Left Behind program of the Bush administration.[5]

* A website from the U.S. Census Bureau informs visitors: "U.S. Census Bureau Video News Feeds are available for creation of state-specific news reports. Targeted comments are provided by Census Bureau Redistricting Data Office Chief, Marshall Turner. Companion notification material includes references to websites for the newly released information. Please contact...Homefront Communications for hardcopies on Betacam SP and faxed/email notification copy."[6]

[e-brake]

Quote From Bush on the subject:
"But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, this news clip was produced by the federal government"

[alvin]

A cunning way to control and manipulate public opinion.

A subtle form of brain washing...

[Deff Gordon]

Originally Posted by alvin

A cunning way to control and manipulate public opinion.

A subtle form of brain washing...

and aren't you the guy that was trying to pass off a clip from the sitcom Reno 911 as a real DWI bust?

[J. Fees]

its propaganda, the U.S. will have you believe that there is no state sponsored propaganda, or there is no corruption. At the same time, it seems like most U.S. citizens wholly buy into this, and never question anything, all the while, talking of how corrupt other countries are(ie. Mexico). Using Mexico as an example, it too has corrupt officials,and it may be more prevalent than the U.S., or it the U.S. may just be better at covering things up.