Corporate Propaganda Still On the News: Study Finds Local Stations Overwhelmingly Fail to Disclose VNRs

Corporate propaganda on the six o'clock news --- A new study by the Center for Media and Democracy says Americans are still being shown public relations videos disguised as news reports on newscasts across the country. The fake reports are called Video News Releases, or VNRs. They're produced by marketing firms hired to promote products or political messages.

If this story sounds familiar, it's because dozens of stations have already been caught in the act. As we reported on Democracy Now! in April, the Center for Media and Democracy identified seventy-seven stations using VNRs in their newscasts. The findings led to an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission.

Well, despite the controversy, ten of those stations are still airing VNRs today, for a total of forty-six stations in twenty-two states. Most of the VNRs have aired on stations owned by large media conglomerates, such as News Corp., Tribune, and Disney. They've also been sponsored by some of the country's biggest corporations, including General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, and Allstate Insurance.

In all but six cases, the television stations failed to identify where the VNRs came from. In twelve cases, television stations even edited out disclosures included in the original fake report. And in four cases, the television stations failed to disclose the reporters on the screen were actually publicists.

We're going to speak with one of the authors of the report in a minute, but first, let's take a look at one of the VNRs that made it to air. In June of this year, the PR firm Medialink Worldwide put out a VNR that sought to disprove the link between Global Warming and Hurricanes.

* Original TCS Daily VNR, created by Medialink.

This VNR was produced for the firm "TCS Daily Science Roundtable." Until last month, TCS was owned by the Republican lobbyist DCI Group. TCS was also the recipient of a $95,000 dollar grant from the oil giant ExxonMobil for QUOTE: "climate change support."

But when ABC affiliate WTOK-11 in Meridian, Mississippi aired the VNR in May, none of these details were mentioned. Instead, viewers were shown an edited version of the VNR, with the station's news anchor reading the same script.

* WTOK-11 10PM newscast, May 31, 2006.

We asked a representative of ABC affiliate WTOK-11 in Meridian, Mississippi to join us on the program but we did not get a response. Another fifteen stations either turned down our request or did not respond.

We did hear back from a few stations. Fred D"Ambrosi, news director at the San Diego CBS affiliate KFMB-TV, responded to our request about a VNR that failed to disclose the "reporter" was actually a publicist hired by General Mills. D"Ambrosi says the fake report aired by mistake and that he doesn't think VNRs should air at all without proper disclosure.

We also called the Radio-Television News Directors Association They sent a petition to the FCC last month urging them to halt their investigation into VNRs. They declined our request to join us on the program today.

Diane Farsetta joins is co-author of the Center for Media and Democracy study, it's called "Still Not the News: Stations Overwhelmingly Fail to Disclose VNRs" . She joins us from Washington DC.

* Diane Farsetta, senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy.

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