Readers' Comments

Imagine if the Republican Party was going to sponsor a similar effort with a library group. Silly to think that their agenda would not screw up the library.

Technorati is an index!!

The fact that there has not been more outrage over Edelman's move just underscores how insulated and naïve PR bloggers can be. That's sad.

- Amanda Chapel

Since it is now approximately a week since I posted a response to Grant above and on the SourceWatch talk page I posted a note to the relevant article on his blog. Hopefully he'll respond soon. Bob

All I can say is I can't wait to see an Inconvenient Truth by our
rightful president. I hope he considers running again. Although
the sheeplike public who allowed the Bush years to happen don't
deserve him.

"Weight obsession is a social disease. If we cared as much about
CO2 as BMI, there would still be time!"

I am baffled by the president (among others) who claim that alternative fuels could ever replace mideast oil imports. Here are two things that make me question this logic.

1. Oil products are used for a whole lot more than automobile fuel. In his tough talk about oil bush fails to mention how his solutions are going to help us manufacture plastic products. Most of our modern consumer society depends on petroleum as a key ingredient in almost everything.

2. Will we ever have enough land to support the massive crops that would be needed to support a biofuel future? It just doesn't seem to make sense. There are millions of cars burning fuel every day - how long do biofuel crops take to grow? Aren't we already using all available land and caging in wildlife? It would be interesting to see a scientific assesment of his promises - they just doesn't seem to add up.

Visit Peak Oil News for the latest articles relating to world oil production and supply concerns. Biodiesel Fuel News is a good place to keep up to date on developments in biofuel and alternative fuels.

May 25, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
[:cmd/bios.php/Diane_Farsetta|Diane Farsetta], [[Center for Media and Democracy]], 608-260-9713
Craig Aaron, Free Press, 202-265-1490

FCC Investigates TV Stations for Airing Fake News

Investigation into Video News Releases and Activist Pressure May Lead to Fines, Better Disclosure

WASHINGTON -- The [[Federal Communications Commission]] has launched an investigation of dozens of television stations, for airing corporate-sponsored and -scripted segments on news programs, without disclosing their sources.

The investigation comes in response to an investigative report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and an online activist campaign spearheaded by Free Press. The official probe by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was reported today by Bloomberg News.

The report, titled "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," identified 77 television stations across the country that aired corporate PR as news over a 10-month period. Not one station disclosed the clients behind these segments to its viewers.

"We commend the FCC for taking the issue of fake news seriously," said Diane Farsetta, the Center for Media and Democracy's senior researcher and the co-author of the report. "With the FCC's enforcement bureau getting involved, hopefully TV stations will finally practice full disclosure."

Although CMD tracked just 36 of the thousands of video news releases, or VNRs, distributed each year, it identified 69 TV stations that aired at least one VNR. Eight other stations aired satellite media tours, which are live but highly scripted interviews often scheduled and aired in conjunction with VNRs. The list of TV stations, along with footage of the VNRs and the newscasts that showed them, can be found at www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary.

In conjunction with the release of the report on April 6, 2006, Free Press launched a "No Fake News" online activist campaign. Since then, more than 25,000 concerned citizens have contacted the FCC to urge the agency to enforce and strengthen its disclosure requirements.

"The FCC should be applauded for listening to its real constituents -- the American public," said Craig Aaron, communications director of Free Press. "The official FCC probe puts the nation's biggest media companies on notice that their viewers won't stand for fake news on the public airwaves. We hope the FCC will back up its strong statements on covert propaganda with decisive action."

In its April 2005 Public Notice, the FCC stated, "Whenever broadcast stations and cable operators air VNRs, licensees and operators generally must disclose to members of their audiences the nature, source and sponsorship of the material." The FCC declined to comment on today's report about the investigation.

CMD and Free Press also filed a formal complaint with the FCC last month, urging that all VNRs be accompanied by a continuous, frame-by-frame visual notification and verbal disclosure of their source. The complaint is available at www.freepress.net/docs/fcc_complaint_4-06-06.pdf.

###

The Center for Media and Democracy ( www.prwatch.org ) is a nonprofit, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism.

Free Press ( www.freepress.net ) is a national, nonpartisan organization working to involve the public in media policymaking and to craft policies for a more democratic media system.

My dad has ran his business for year by solely word of mouth advertising... I, on the other hand can't even speak about my business. I guess I gotta figure out a way to reach all these moms.

In order to get something you've never had, you've got to be willing to do something you've never done.
my blog

I wonder what Berman is going to do at the end of his life when he has to account for all he has done? How does a conscience reconcile
misleading the public about global warming and contributing to the
demise of the human species. Or smearing the few avenues of power
left to the little people, like labor unions. Can this creep
possibly be motivated only by money and power? Does he have some
deep seated inferiority complex that compells him to be "successful" at all costs. Does he have misanthropic tendancies that causes him to secretly delight in screwing humanity? Are the conspiracy theoriest right? Maybe someone somewhere has pictures of him in a compromising photo with a donkey and evil forces are keeping him enslaved. I truly do not get a person like this. When I think of the most dedicated union member I know, a firefighter who does more in an hour for his fellow man than Berman has done in his whole life, I don't see how they both can be considered in the same species. (Not to mention the firefighter is a whole lot cuter than Berman!)
*#@%^ But this man and his whole corporate cabal are a drain on humanity!!!!! May they be the first to melt in global warming!!!!

may have been slightly dramatic on that post.
when The No-Spin Padre said Bush should be tried
as a war criminal that made me wonder what the
The No-Spin Padre would like to happen to the
President.

According to today's [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114791345665656111.html?mod=home_whats_news_us Wall Street Journal] (sub req'd), the industry-funded, lobbyist-run [[Tech Central Station]] launched another attack site on Schlosser, but then pulled it:

The nation's largest fast-food chain is also funding TCS Daily, an arm of the Washington lobbying and public-relations firm [[DCI Group]], that is making more pointed attacks against Mr. Schlosser and his work. Last week, TCS Daily launched a Web site called Fast Talk Nation that called his theories "rhetoric" and argued that he wants to decriminalize marijuana, based on excerpts from one of his other books, "Reefer Madness," about sex, drugs and cheap labor in the American black market.

Last Friday, TCS Daily abruptly closed the Fast Talk Nation site two days after its launch. [[James Glassman]], who says he "hosts" the TCS Daily site, says he closed the Fast Talk Nation site because he wanted to pool his resources with the broader industry's Best Food Nation site.

This article is excerpted from "Who's After Schlosser" in the in 5/15/06 Advertising Age online at http://www.adage.com/article?article_id=109192

"The site [BestFoodNation] was registered on May 3 to [[Charlie Arnot]], president
of [[CMA Consulting]], Kansas City, Mo., an issues management, public
relations and communications firm. Mr. Arnot is a long-time pork
industry consultant and worked for Premium Standard Farms.
Bestfoodnation has links to groups such as the American Council on
Science and Health, which at one time received 40% of its funding
from companies including Burger King, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Coca-
Cola Co. Fasttalknation.com says it's sponsored by TCSDaily.com, a Web site of
[[Tech Central Station]], published by public and government affairs firm
[[DCI Group]], Washington, DC. On the TCS site, it lists "a small group
of sponsors," including the American Beverage Association, [[McDonalds]]
Corp., [[ExxonMobil]], General Motors Corp. and Merck."

Here is the attack on Schlosser on [[Tech Central Station]]'s website, a website funded in part by [[McDonalds]]:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=031103E

Islamic terrorists use their religious ideology to promote and strengthen their causes. Western religions also use their dogma, superstitions and brainwashing techniques on the gullible. In order to counter this and establish religious rationality a new ideology must be established; this can be Transcendology.

Transcendology is the application of Transcendentalism to twenty-first century spirituality. It asserts that truthfulness and rationality in religions are truths that can be substantiated by science or those that can not be proven to be incorrect. It is a doctrine and proclamation that spiritual transcendence and spiritual interaction, if one believes this to be an actuality, could only be possible between the spiritual existence and the "spirit" of man. Supernatural acts performed by physical or spiritual beings in the physical universe are not capable of existing or transpiring.

Transcendology would benefit ALL religions and eliminate superstitions within them. It could unify them and it would eliminate superstitions, religious related terrorism and brainwashing.
~ Kurt Kawohl

If North450 would be President of the Usa you would be shot for treason.
Furthermore your statements are pack of lies.
Bush never had the imformation to prevent 911.
Bush has never trampled individual rights.
The fact that they rounded up a thousand arabs was
for the protection of the country,
Remember what they did to the japanese after Perl
Harbor.