Video News Releases

GM Tries To Drive Young Journalists

"It seems what young student journalists would be 'learning' from this experience is how to take a free trip and meals from one of the company's larger corporations," wrote University of North Carolina business journalism professor Chris Roush. He had just received an email from one of General Motors' PR people, asking for help in promoting GM's "First College Journalists Event," in Las Vegas on September 9 and 10.

Prez Press Room Retrofit Aiming at Message Control?

Technological advances in a refurbished White House Press Room open the door (or wall, actually) to daily presidential video news releases, says Professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University. "The equivalent of press releases could go out without interruption or analysis," Thompson said of the new "video wall" that likely will be added to the press room when it reopens next year.

CMD's 'Fake TV News' Report Fuels FCC Investigation

The Washington Post reports, "The Federal Communications Commission has sent letters to 77 television broadcasters, asking whether their stations had properly labeled 'video news releases' ... before broadcasting them. ...

NEWS RELEASE: CMD Commends FCC Investigation of Fake TV News

For Immediate Release

Contact: Diane Farsetta or John Stauber, 608-260-9713

Center for Media and Democracy Commends FCC Investigation of Fake TV News

(Madison, WI 8/14/06) Diane Farsetta, senior researcher with the non-profit watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, released the following statement regarding the announcement by the Federal Communications Commission of its investigation of the fake TV news scandal documented by CMD.

Keeping Media "On Track" with Audio News Releases

Kate Corcoran, an account executive at the New York-based PR firm Articulate Communications, told PR Week that one of the benefits of audio news releases that run to a 60-second script is control. "This allows the message to be delivered in the exact way the company chooses," she said.

Video News Releases: The Fantasy vs. Reality

Television stations have maintained a studied silence about our report on the use of video news releases, but the print media has fewer qualms about discussing it. Saturday's Indianapolis Star carried an op-ed piece by Jeffrey McCall, a professor of communication at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. McCall described the use of VNRs as a "sneaky strategy" by "some wayward television news operations" that blurs the line "between reality and fantasy."

Confronted with Disclosure Demands, Fake News Moguls Cry "Censorship!"

Be afraid, be very afraid! If television stations are required to abide by existing regulations and label the corporate and government propaganda they routinely pass off as "news," the First Amendment will be shredded, the freedom of the press repealed, and TV stations will collapse overnight!

It's Clobberin' Time

Our senior researcher, Diane Farsetta, is one "bad mamma jamma" according to the author of "The Quincy Dump," who interviewed her for his blog about the Fake TV News report that she co-wrote and researched with Dan Price.

"Fake TV News" Report Now in PDF Form

With the U.S. Federal Communications Commission investigating the television stations that CMD documented airing corporate video news releases, you might want to read through the report that started it all.

Syndicate content