No Fake News!

On April 6, 2006, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a multi-media report titled, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed [7]." It provides the most extensive account to date of how corporate-funded video news releases [8] (VNRs) -- fake TV news -- are routinely aired by newsrooms, without disclosure, as though they were independently-gathered reports. The online report [7] contains footage of three dozen VNRs, plus footage from some of the 98 different TV newscasts that aired them or related satellite media tour [9] "interviews."

If you want to be sure that the news you watch and hear about a company or government agency is not funded by and produced for that company or government agency, inform yourself by reading the material below and take action to demand real disclosure!

What You Can Do

Send a letter [10] to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging that it investigate the violations of disclosure policy documented in CMD's report, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed [7]." The report found 77 television stations across the United States that aired VNRs or SMTs, without once disclosing the corporations behind the segments to news audiences. Ask the FCC to clarify and strengthen its disclosure requirements for fake news, and penalize TV stations that break the rules, by clicking here [10].
Inform yourself and others by reading the reports and resources listed below, talking to friends and family, writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper, and calling talk radio shows. It does make a difference!
Support the work of the Center for Media and Democracy by subscribing to PR Watch [11], making a donation [12], or throwing a house party to raise funds for our "No Fake News!" campaign. Email judithATprwatch.org for more information (replace "AT" with @).
Stay tuned to CMD's website, Weekly Spin email list [13] and quarterly publication PR Watch [14], to keep updated on our evolving campaign to stop fake news!

Exposing Fake News

CMD's award-winning publication PR Watch [14] focused on fake news in its Second Quarter 2005 [15] issue. That issue examines one of the public relations industry's most deceptive tools—video news releases [8]—and reports on U.S. government propaganda [16].

You can read the issue [15] online, and read other CMD reports and analyses on fake news by following the links below. Shorter news items compiled from various sources are listed at the bottom of this page.

CMD reports:

News items (highlighted in CMD's "Spin of the Day"):

Keeping Media "On Track" with Audio News Releases [45]
Red-Faced Broadcast Execs Resist Reform [46]
CMD Report "Fake TV News" Triggers FCC Investigation [47]
Edelman Calls VNRs 'Interesting,' 'Newsworthy' [48]
New Homes for Corporate Video, Robin Raskin [49]
PR Exec: Fake TV News is Good for You! [50]
B-Roll Bypasses Policies Against Fake News [51]
You Say 'Influence,' I Say 'Propaganda' [52]
U.S. Military Has No Problem with Propaganda [53]
On TV News, the Ads Never End (Part Two) [54]
Local TV News May Be Hazardous to Your Health [55]
Channel One: Zero Educational Value [56]
Lincoln Group: The Little Propaganda Shop that Could [57]
Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (and Possibly Elsewhere) [58]
Los Angeles "News" Show for Sale [59]
Rumsfeld: Gee, Propaganda Is Wrong [60]
U.S. State Dept To Splurge on Persian Media [61]
The UK and US: Similar Fake News, Iraq Occupations [62]
At Lincoln Group, the Propaganda Never Ends [63]
U.S. Government Media Contracts Revealed [64]
Fake News without the Gatekeepers [65]
Even Propagandists Need Good PR [66]
On TV News, the Ads Never End [67]
Propaganda - In the Eye of the Beholder? [68]
Steven Milloy, the Usual Suspect in Paid-For Punditry [69]
An Inclusive Approach to Fake Radio News [70]
Simon's Prediction: VNR Disclosure Will Increase in 2006 [71]
Reporter Says Scrushy Stacked the Media and Jury [72]
Lincoln Group Focuses on U.S. Media [73]
Fumento's Genetically Engineered Columns [74]
Pentagon Will Better Plan Propaganda in 2006 [75]
New U.S. Army PR Bypasses MSM [76]
Pentagon OK's Online Propaganda [77]
Another Journalist on the U.S. Payroll, in Haiti [78]
Iraq Propaganda, Sunni Side Up with a Rubin [79]
Iraq Information Operations Increase [80]
From Geeky Kid to Iraq's Rich Fake News Flack [81]
'Bye to Hi,' U.S Middle East Propaganda Failure [82]
Americans Oppose Fake News in Iraq [83]
Cutouts Speak Out [84]
Fake Op/Eds: Think Tanks and Piggy Banks [85]
I Wouldn't Kick Him Out of Embed [86]
Where's the Fire? [87]
Giving Up the Ghostwriters [88]
The Information War [89]
Baghdad Press Club Membership Has Its Privileges [90]
The PR Submarine [91]
Rumsfeld Targets Blame at Lincoln Group [92]
Fake News = Weakened Democracy [93]
Shocked (or Not?) at PR and PsyOps in Iraq [94]
Lincoln Group Bombards Iraq with Fake News [95]
That's Advertainment [96]
Fake News for a Good Cause? [97]
The Fake News Hydra Still Bites [98]
And Now, for the Local Fake News [99]
Ketchum Catches No Heat, Gets New Contract [100]
Only You Can Prevent Propaganda [101]
'Information Operations' Defined [102]
Fake News Gets Called on the Carpet [103]
Hughes Gets a Little Help from a Friend [104]
Propaganda, Iraq Style [105]
Pay-for-Plate [106]
Aid Money Goes to PR Effort to Highlight Aid [107]
Hughes To Deploy Public Diplomacy 'SWAT Teams' [108]
Spreading Something Besides Democracy in Iraq [109]
Harrah's Hits the Compassion (and Fake News) Jackpot [110]
The Education Department's Paid Apple Polishers [111]
Immigrating Opinion for the White House [112]
Uncle Sam Wants Your Parents [113]
You Can't Be Neutral on a Freedom Walk, Media Told [114]
Voice-Over America [115]
Big Bird as Red Herring [116]
When Is a Commercial Not a Commercial? [117]
Fake News as Free Speech [118]
One Small Step for Full Disclosure [119]
Disclosure for Video (but Not the Radio) Stars [120]
Stauber Debates Fake News on WBUR's "On Point" [121]