Some things need no commentary
30 May 2006 by Lya Kahlo
Bush ‘planted fake news stories on American TV’
A taste:
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.
“We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them,” said Diana Farsetta, one of the group’s researchers. “I would say it’s pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air.”
Ms Farsetta said the public relations companies commissioned to produce these segments by corporations had become increasingly sophisticated in their techniques in order to get the VNRs broadcast. “They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like,” she said.
The FCC has declined to comment on the investigation but investigators from the commission’s enforcement unit recently approached Ms Farsetta for a copy of her group’s report.
The range of VNR is wide. Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying “Thank you Bush. Thank you USA” in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.
Many of the corporate reports, produced by drugs manufacturers such as Pfizer, focus on health issues and promote the manufacturer’s product. One example cited by the report was a Hallowe’en segment produced by the confectionery giant Mars, which featured Snickers, M&Ms and other company brands. While the original VNR disclosed that it was produced by Mars, such information was removed when it was broadcast by the television channel - in this case a Fox-owned station in St Louis, Missouri.
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30 May 2006, on 8:28 am
I work in media and we have been aware of the VNRs for some time now. Let’s see if the general public gets any inkling of the concerns such propaganda raises before they head to the voting slaughterhouses in November.
And for those who would blame the media for these grotesque situations, ask yourself: what do we consume? How many Americans can name the Secretary of State as opposed to the final three contestants on American Idol?
“Every country has the government it deserves.”
- Joseph Marie de Maistre
30 May 2006, on 8:46 am
Exactly, Sean. Every time I mention someone in politics or world affairs and get that tilted-head dog look in return, I ask them who was kicked off Survivor the previous week. I’m never disappointed - that is, until I walk away in despair at how easily our attention is lead away from that which matters to that which isn’t worth a monkey fart in a mason jar.
30 May 2006, on 12:26 pm
What happened to passionate journalists? Apparently, the major media outlets want nothing to do with them, so they’re forced to the fringes while “news reports” about the benefits of Snickers replace critical analysis of politics. So, between VNRs, embedded reporters, Fox News, media deregulation by the FCC allowing Clear Channel and a small handful of others to buy up everything, the fourth estate is pretty much fucked. Thank FSM for the interweb, although we’ll probably lose that soon.
30 May 2006, on 12:32 pm
At least the net gives you a chance in the era of “fake but accurate”. Thank goodness for that.
30 May 2006, on 1:03 pm
The post 9-11 jingoism did its work in getting people not to question their government, even the media. The Ministry of Propaganda was able to flourish in this environment in a way that it never would have been able to before. THe MSM still seems to be asleep regarding much of what goes on in this administration. Maybe if they started covering the real stories instead of massaging the administration’s scrotum, we wouldn’t be in half the trouble we are.
The “news” has finally become what it’s always been threatening to become: A corporate entity that panders to it’s audience instead of informing them. Run a thousand stories about Brad and Angelina, run some propaganda, and then spend three weeks talking about white women in peril.
You’re correct, King Retard. The Fourth Estate is fucked. What I wonder is if people will finally realize that and the fact that if we can’t be properly informed of the truth, it might mean we’re fucked as well.
And the internet is only so helpful. The response I get far too often when trying to inform someone of some story that the MSM is not covering or covering poorly is, “You can’t believe what you read on the internet.”
30 May 2006, on 4:43 pm
As surprising as this isn’t, hah, it falls neatly into line with the Bushistas paying two columnists to tout their marriage initiative and
Armstrong Williams 240K to shill for “No Child Left”, oops, did I forget the “Behind”?
I used to think it might be the Photoshopped picture or the manipulated or CGI’d video that might threaten reality in this modern world, but I wasn’t prepared for the audacity of these pseudofascists now running the asylum. They repeat an untruth over and over- with such volume- until it becomes “truth”. If someone dares to make a statement that contradicts their “new truth”, they smear them- or blow their wife’s cover- and John Q. Public seems to miss the debunking of said smear that follows the initial story of it, but retaining that said contradiction was said by some “disreputable” source and therefore not true. Then, when all else fails, they fall back on the sex life of a Republican- they Pay for it. Whether it’s the VNRs, the abovementioned “journalists”, or filling the new Iraqi media with Pollyanna Pro-Americana stories, they weave a brand spanking new reality out of whole cloth that’s usually less complex and dumbed down from the original- like babyfood for an increasingly infantile populace.
30 May 2006, on 6:13 pm
“And the internet is only so helpful. The response I get far too often when trying to inform someone of some story that the MSM is not covering or covering poorly is, “You can’t believe what you read on the internet.”
There was a journalist from the local newspaper came to my Journalism class a month ago to talk and spent twenty minutes on how the blogs and the Internet were ruining the way news is sent out.
I really wanted to ask him why he and others at the paper are a bunch of religious wackos who lack the balls to ask the tough questions, but I stayed my hand because I was in a class that completely agreed with him and any opposing viewpoint was shouted down, which is why my article debunking Bush’s war drums for Iran was never printed, despite constant promises it would be.
“If someone dares to make a statement that contradicts their “new truth”, they smear them- or blow their wife’s cover- and John Q. Public seems to miss the debunking of said smear that follows the initial story of it, but retaining that said contradiction was said by some “disreputable” source and therefore not true.”
Welcome to the world of the conspiracy theorist, where we predicted this back in 2000 and no one listened.
30 May 2006, on 8:39 pm
I first heard about this a couple months ago, when a local paper (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) ran an article about one of the local stations using VNRs (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06097/680160-237.stm). Of course, this was a Sinclair station, same one that I believe gives gazillions to the Replublifasicts and was going to air the swift boat thing on John Kerry in 2004.
I guess if you don’t have any news that’s good, you might as well make something up, right - “Mission Accomplished.”