US government faked Bush news reports

[playahata1]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1170534,00.html

(More propaganda and bullshit. The Dems need to get on the ball here.)

US government faked Bush news reports


Chris Tryhorn
Tuesday March 16, 2004

TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged.
The

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The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits.

Investigators are examining the film segments, in which actors pretending to be journalists praise the benefits of the new law passed last year by President Bush, to see if they could be construed as propaganda.

Two of the films are signed off by "Karen Ryan", who was an actor hired to read a script prepared by the government, according to production company Home Front Communications.

Another video, intended for Hispanic viewers, shows a government official being interviewed in Spanish by a actor posing as a reporter with the name "Alberto Garcia".

(more)

[monarch]

1. Isn't this some kind of crime--

obtaining something of value (television coverage that should have been paid advertising) under false pretenses (pretend news)?

[joshdawg]

2. I believe Hitler did this in 30's Germany, but

he did not pay, he used threats on their lives if they did not cooperate with his "government."

[DarkSim]

3. read the below one, this one was a mistake. nt

[DarkSim]

4. Hmmm... Something comes to mind here...

1984 by George Orwell. I'm sure that not even the nazi were this crooked.

[gulliver]

5. The Daily Show had this yesterday.

Kerry should be saying something about this.

[stanwyck]

6. Taxpayers paid for these VNRs

Video News Releases. Yes, we paid $22 million through the Health and Human Resources Dept. (who contracted the VNRs with a PR agency) for this Bushian propaganda. These were sent to news stations who "accidentally" aired the clips as news stories. Oops! Grabbed the wrong tape! Where's that prissy Michael Powell when he's really needed? Sure he was around when Janet Jackson's breast made an "unscheduled" appearance. But now that we're under the iron rule of fascists who are using our money in a well constructed campaign of misinformation, our watchdog appears to be asleep. Guess he knows who has control of his leash.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. NPR had a show about * Administration faking Medicare data Wed.

http://www.moretothepoint.com/

You can listen to the entire program in this link.

[stanwyck]

9. Thank you

I appreciate your taking the time to give us the link.

[Trajan]

8. More sources ....

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/bush_medicare_reports_040315-1.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16TUE2.html?8br

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0315-05.htm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0403150182mar15,1,2576544.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed (req reg)

http://www.unknownnews.net/040315fakereporters.html

http://petey.dailykos.com/story/2004/3/15/55250/8704

Some of these are based on the same NY Times copy ...

[MrPrax]

10. This is S.O.P.

Maybe the best part about the exposure of this charade will be to expose the fact that 'health news' segments on ALL mainstream media are independently produced PR ads, given out free and essentially tied into a product placement...

CNN was one of the pioneers that took these ads and built entire 'show pieces' around them...

Why?

Several reasons:
1) cheap free filler for news outlets in order to save money
2) unfiltered analyst/editorial by the various firms
3) product tie-ins (a segment on FIBER will lead into an oat brand cereal commercial)
4) end runs around the mandated allotment commercial space per hour
5) 'spin' and 'manipulation' on important issues like GMOs, pharms, pesticides, suntan lotions...

Surprisingly there is very little cry among the so-called journalism profession over this practise and has been going on for years...
Some news (public broadcasters like CBC or BBC) ban them...the private sector loves them.

In fact some have suggested that this is the future trend of all news--independently produced 'news' segments that use the traditional respectability of the 'anchor' newscasts...essentially this is occurring anyway due to the willingness of the news media to simply place microphones in front of politicians, law enforcement, scientists, pundits, business brokers, etc...

Basically given the expense of 'convergence' and the bloated debt of media companies, this is a win-win for shareholders--just 'contract it out' and to hell with editorial controls are those are dictated by head office anyhow...

Anyone interested in the PR industry should peruse the archives at PRWatch:
http://www.prwatch.org/index.html

It is chock a block full of corp led campaigns and details some of the various health scams...

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