{"id":128,"date":"2006-04-06T14:03:41","date_gmt":"2006-04-06T21:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=128"},"modified":"2006-10-14T20:53:27","modified_gmt":"2006-10-15T03:53:27","slug":"fake-news-corporate-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Fake News – Corporate Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Center for Media and Democracy<\/a> has conducted a study that documents the use of Video News Releases<\/em> from corporations seeking to promote their products through positive news<\/em> coverage. These VNRs are produced by corporate PR firms and designed to look like actual news reports. The stations that air them do not disclose their origin and, even worse, often re-record introductions and voice-overs with their own reporters to integrate them further into the station’s broadcast. They also do not fact-check any of the claims made by the VNRs.<\/p>\n

The disparity in perceptions about VNRs is demonstrated in a report in the New York Times<\/a>. They cite Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, as charging that regulating VNRs amounts to government intrusion into the affairs of news broadcasters. Then they quote FCC commissioner, Jonathan S. Adelstein, calling the practice a, “disgrace to American journalism”<\/span> and evidence of “potentially major violations”<\/span> of F.C.C. rules.<\/p>\n

Clearly the RTNDA is more concerned about preserving the right to distribute propaganda than they are about preserving the integrity and credibility of television journalism. And they obviously don’t care much about the public’s right to know either.<\/p>\n

But Ms. Cochran is right on one level when she says, “It is up to the individual stations to look at their practices and tighten up.”<\/span> While the FCC should be monitoring deceptive practices in the press, the stations are not prohibited from behaving ethically on their own. That may be a lot to ask of an industry that has also aired VNR propaganda produced by government agencies<\/a> and found to be illegal.<\/p>\n

FreePress.net<\/a> has more info on this and makes it easy for you to communicate your views to the FCC. It only takes a minute, but its impact can be substantial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Center for Media and Democracy has conducted a study that documents the use of Video News Releases from corporations seeking to promote their products through positive news coverage. These VNRs are produced by corporate PR firms and designed to look like actual news reports. The stations that air them do not disclose their origin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-24","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":0},"title":"Radio Free Ohio: Clear Channel Attacks Themselves","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/30\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of a promotion for a new progressive talk station in Akron, Ohio, Clear Channel has embarked on an unconventional advertising campaign to woo the wild liberals from their sanctuary. At the Web site for Radio Free Ohio (since replaced by just a logo), they posted a manifesto that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49044,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=49044","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":1},"title":"HUH? Fox News Hack and GOP Senator Say Corporations are ‘Kind of Scary’","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/12\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is a remarkably resilient toxin that has infected the American body politic. They have abandoned any sense of reason or rationality. And if they have to contradict even their longest held \"principles\" (to the extent they exist) in order to sustain whatever outrage they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News, Censorship","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-censorship-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-censorship-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-censorship-logo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10388,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10388","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":2},"title":"Rupert Murdoch Fears That Bribery\/Hacking Investigation Could “Kill The Corporation”","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/17\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Independent is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is under investigation as a \"corporate suspect\" over the charges that the company engaged in unlawful activities including bribery and hacking the phones, email, and computers of hundreds of politicians, celebrities and private citizens, including a missing schoolgirl who later turned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":78,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=78","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":3},"title":"Television Whores Just Can't Get Enough","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/10\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Nielsen Media Research has released data for last season that confirms NBC's status as the top whore in television. NBC acheived this milestone by doubling the number of its product placements in the 2003-04 season. CBS came in second with Fox close behind in 3rd. Primetime product placements increased more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25478,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=25478","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":4},"title":"Whose Top Corporate Donors Are Among The Most Hated Companies In America?","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/8\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline of a current Fox Nation article just begs to be mocked. Accompanying a photo of a cackling Hillary Clinton, the headline blares \"Hillary Clinton's Top Corporate Donors Are Among The Most Hated Companies In America.\" Please click here to SHARE this On Facebook Oh really? So which companies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox Nation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-hillary-corporate-donors.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-hillary-corporate-donors.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-hillary-corporate-donors.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":245,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=245","url_meta":{"origin":128,"position":5},"title":"Let My Newspapers Go","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/2\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"American newspapers are passing through an era... in which a corporate ownership model seems increasingly unworkable.\" Tim Rutten The Tribune Company is emblematic of the pitfalls of corporate ownership of media. It's portfolio includes 11 daily newspapers, 25 television stations, and cable superstation WGN, as well as WGN-AM radio, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}