FCC Probing Fake-News Broadcasts

Posted on May 29, 2006

From the Free Press

Faux tech expert Robin Raskin offers video games as the antidote to “scary” iPod pornography. What Raskin doesn’t mention is that she’s on the payroll of the companies whose products she’s pushing. The FCC has now launched an investigation into the use of these “video news releases,” which are also produced in great quantity by federal agencies.

Federal authorities are investigating dozens of TV stations for running “faux news broadcasts” made by government agencies and corporations. (Via Huff Po.)
Earlier: See the report that kick-started the investigation.

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Independent:

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.

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