An expose by the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press caught 77 local stations passing off advertisements as legitimate news.
Free Press:
An expos by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press reveals that corporate propaganda has infiltrated local television news across the country.
CMD, which conducted the investigation, caught 77 local stations that had slipped corporate-sponsored “video news releases” — segments promoting commercial brands and products — into their regular news programming. These advertisements were passed off to unsuspecting viewers as legitimate news reports.
This deception is a breach of the trust between local stations and their communities. By disguising advertisements as news, stations violate both the spirit and the letter of their broadcasting licenses, which obligate them to serve public interest.