NEW REPORT: 77 Stations Across U.S. Aired FAKE NEWS Over 10 Months

[kpete]

New report: 77 stations across U.S.
aired fake news over ten months...

Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed

A multimedia report on television newsrooms' use of material provided by PR firms on behalf of paying clients
Diane Farsetta and Daniel Price, Center for Media and Democracy

April 6, 2006
This report includes:

Video footage of the 36 video news releases documented in this report, plus footage showing how actual TV newscasts incorporated them and/or a related satellite media tours. http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/findings/vnrs

A map showing the locations of the 77 television stations throughout the United States that aired this fake news. http://www.prwatch.org/map/TV_Stations

A spreadsheet listing the 77 television stations that aired this fake news, by state. http://www.prwatch.org/pdfs/FakeNewsStnsByState.pdf
In Brief

Over a ten-month period, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) documented television newsrooms' use of 36 video news releases (VNRs)—a small sample of the thousands produced each year. CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs or related satellite media tours (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers. Collectively, these 77 stations reach more than half of the U.S. population. The VNRs and SMTs whose broadcast CMD documented were produced by three broadcast PR firms for 49 different clients, including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One. In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety.

Report highlights include:

lots more at:
http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary
via:http://www.rawstory.com/

[Earth_First]

1. Heck, FauxNews has been doing this for YEARS! n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

22. I think we all should start calling the fake news.......

exactly what it is - It's PROPAGANDA!

[JHB]

26. More accurately, they've been doing it since their inception

This problem faux-reporting by VNRs is older than Fox.

[blondeatlast]

2. LAZY, lazy, lazy--they get the PR feed and can't bother to pick

up the phone to get another side of the story.

Even if the media was biased our way, I'd fear their laziness more than anything.

Great find--K&R.

[deminks]

3. Smirky taught them well.

Bushco did this several times until the GAO got after them. I am not surprised that the corps would jump on this. Do we need stronger disclosure laws? One more thing to fix when we get Congress back.

[blondeatlast]

4. With all due respect, this'll die in GD. You might want to x-post in

GD/P where energies and obsessions are a bit more tempered!

:hi:

[Voltaire99]

34. "Tempered energies"

Yes, just what the party needs at this moment: tempered energies.

Too much dynamism, I've always said! To paraphrase Rodney King: Can't we all just limp along?

[Bozita]

5. News no longer must be true -- US Ct of Appeals said so

[Pierzin]

9. Shame!

:thumbsdown:

Shame on these Networks! With everything this country needs to work on, and they air fluff pieces??? I am positive they left out some stories that have aired in the Seattle area though, my My God!:think:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. It's odd

several states show nothing. These stations are very "clustered" I wonder if they are owned by the same people?

[stillcool]

8. the pdf has the owners....lots of the usual suspects

Owner
Liberty Corporation
Fox/News Corporation
New York Times
Journal Broadcast Group
ABC/Disney
Viacom
Smith Broadcasting Group
Viacom
Viacom
Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
Pikes Peak Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
Acme Communications
Waterman Broadcasting
Viacom
Post-Newsweek Corporation
Meredith Corporation
Gray Communications
Raycom Media
Sinclair Broadcasting
Nexstar Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
Nexstar Broadcasting
McGraw-Hill
Quincy Newspapers
Tribune Broadcasting
Belo Corporation
Raycom Media
Edwin Wray
Manship Media
Emmis Communications
Sunbeam Television
Sinclair Broadcasting
Draper Communications
Gray Communications
Fox/News Corporation
Heritage Broadcasting Co.
Hubbard Broadcasting
Surtsey Media
Fox/News Corporation
Fox/News Corporation
Bahakel Communications
Lamco Communications
Fox/News Corporation
Sinclair Broadcasting
Raycom Media
Journal Broadcast Group
Time Warner
Viacom
Granite Broadcasting

[myrna minx]

16. I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Fox and Sinclair would

do such a thing. :sarcasm:

[Kurovski]

7. K&R(nt)

[northofdenali]

10. PR watch screwed up. There is no Jonesboro, AK -

AK is Alaska
AR is Arkansas

When are these lower 48ers ever going to get it straight?

Aside from that little rant, great info here. Emailing and forwarding.

[Breeze54]

11. I remember fighting Sinclair a few months back...

in MA! "Justice Sunday"

This explains a lot!!!!!!
Holy crapola!!!
Thanks for posting this!!!
Now off to set some things straight with some neo-cons!!!
Argh!!! They never believe anything!! or want to...

:kick: and R'd!!

:thumbsup:

[leveymg]

12. Astroturfing is a related tactic and appears here at DU

Has anyone noticed all the posts here over the last few months touting ethanol and E-85 as a "green renewable" fuel, and panacea for everything from air pollution to reliance on Middle East oil? Some of this appeared in the Chevy truck make your own commercial thread started by EarlG. That post was an all-time greatest, so it attracted the corporate shills among us touting 2007 Chevy Trucks as "flexible-fuel" vehicles that can burn a gasoline-ethanol fuel mixture, known as E-85.

Postings at progressive issues sites by industry reps masquerading as activists is part of a comprehensive "new media" strategy. It is the corporate version of FBI political dirty tricks operations that plant agents provocatuer to steer and manipulate groups. This can have very unhappy results for the groups that are infiltrated. In the campaign to push acceptance of ethanol and F-85, huge agribusiness corporations are calling the shots.

Another aspect of new media pushing acceptance of ethanol is the fake news stories that some TV news producers run. Here's more of prwatch expose on that campaign:

A Planted Story on Ethanol Plants
Five stations run an optimistic news feature that's secretly fueled by profit

Client(s): Siemens AG

Released: January 2006

Aired By: 5 stations

Disclosed By: No stations
If you thought your job was tough, try being Kate Brookes, a local ABC news reporter in Nevada, a CBS reporter in Texas, a Fox reporter in Missouri, and an ABC reporter (again) in Louisiana.

Actually, Brookes isn't a reporter at all. She just plays one on TV. In reality, she's a publicist for Medialink, the world's first and largest provider of video news releases (VNRs). And yet, many TV stations have no problem adopting her into their newscasts as if she were one of their own.

In January 2006, Medialink sent Brookes to Iowa to shoot a VNR on the "Ethanol boom," the growing trend of using corn-based fuel as an alternative energy source. The two-minute feature included all-positive testimony from two industry experts, an ethanol plant builder, and a local corn farmer.

One can assume that Medialink didn't hold Brookes to any standards of journalistic objectivity, considering that the VNR was funded by Siemens AG, a worldwide engineering corporation who supplies process automation systems to two-thirds of the ethanol plants in the United States.

BTW: F-85 motor fuels retail at the same pump price as gasoline. But, here's the catck. Your car or truck burns 25-40% more of it. It thus costs the consumer 25-40% more, and increases the revenues of energy companies by an equal amount. Also, some of the new ethanol plants being built are coal-powered. So, whatever advantage F-85 might otherwise have for reduced hydrocarbon emissions are eliminated by added pollution in the production of ethanol-based fuels. Not a panacea, but very good for the bottom-line of agribusiness and energy companies.

______________________________________________
Response to: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x855558

[drm604]

20. I noticed those E-85 posts.

I was suspicious of them at the time. We have to respond to these posts when they occur, ask for cites, and challenge them with facts.

[Breeze54]

13. I thought this topic was being...

moved to GD/P??
:shrug:

:kick:

;)

[wicket]

14. K & R

:kick:

[derby378]

15. I can't get the website to load

Anyone else having problems?

[Breeze54]

19. Here ya go! All the stations ...by town/city & state!

KAIT-8 ABC Liberty Corporation Jonesboro AK 2
WBRC-6 Fox Fox/News Corporation Birmingham AL 1
WHNT-19 CBS New York Times Huntsville AL 1
KGUN-9 ABC Journal Broadcast Group Tucson AZ 2
KABC-7 ABC ABC/Disney Los Angeles CA 1
KCBS-2 CBS Viacom Los Angeles CA 1
KEYT-3 ABC Smith Broadcasting Group Santa Barbara CA 1
KMAX-31 UPN Viacom Sacramento CA 1
KPIX-5 CBS Viacom San Francisco CA 1
KTLA-5 WB Tribune Broadcasting Los Angeles CA 1
KTXL-40 Fox Tribune Broadcasting Sacramento CA 1
KRDO-13 ABC Pikes Peak Broadcasting Colorado Springs CO 1
KWGN-2 WB Tribune Broadcasting Denver CO 1
The Daily Buzz Synd. Acme Communications National FL 1
WBBH-2 NBC Waterman Broadcasting Ft. Myers FL 1
WBFS-33 UPN Viacom Miami FL 1
WJXT-4 IND Post-Newsweek Corporation Jacksonville FL 1
WGCL-46 CBS Meredith Corporation Atlanta GA 2
WRDW-12 CBS Gray Communications Augusta GA 1
WTVM-9 ABC Raycom Media Columbus GA 1
KGAN-2 CBS Sinclair Broadcasting Cedar Rapids IA 1
WCIA-3 CBS Nexstar Broadcasting Champaign IL 1
WGN-9 WB Tribune Broadcasting Chicago IL 1
WFXW-38 Fox Nexstar Broadcasting Terre Haute IN 1
WRTV-6 ABC McGraw-Hill Indianapolis IN 1
WSJV-28 Fox Quincy Newspapers South Bend IN 1
WXIN-59 Fox Tribune Broadcasting Indianapolis IN 1
WHAS-11 ABC Belo Corporation Louisville KY 1
KSLA-12 CBS Raycom Media Shreveport LA 1
KTBS-3 ABC Edwin Wray Shreveport LA 1
WBRZ-2 ABC Manship Media Baton Rouge LA 1
WVUE-8 Fox Emmis Communications New Orleans LA 1
WHDH-7 NBC Sunbeam Television Boston MA 1
WBFF-45 Fox Sinclair Broadcasting Baltimore MD 1
WBOC-16 CBS Draper Communications Salisbury MD 3
WILX-10 NBC Gray Communications Lansing MI 2
WJBK-2 Fox Fox/News Corporation Detroit MI 2
WWTV-9 CBS Heritage Broadcasting Co. Tustin MI 1
KAAL-6 ABC Hubbard Broadcasting Rochester MN 1
KFJX-14 Fox Surtsey Media Joplin/Pittsburg MO 1
KTVI-2 Fox Fox/News Corporation St. Louis MO 2
WDAF-4 Fox Fox/News Corporation Kansas City MO 1
WCCB-18 Fox Bahakel Communications Charlotte NC 1
WCTI-12 ABC Lamco Communications New Bern NC 3
WGHP-8 Fox Fox/News Corporation Greensboro NC 1
WLFL-22 WB Sinclair Broadcasting Raleigh NC 1
KASA-2 Fox Raycom Media Albuquerque NM 1
KTNV-13 ABC Journal Broadcast Group Las Vegas NV 1
NY1 Cable Time Warner New York NY 1
WCBS-2 CBS Viacom New York NY 2
WKBW-7 ABC Granite Broadcasting Buffalo NY 1
WPIX-11 WB Tribune Broadcasting New York NY 1
WSYR-9 ABC Clear Channel Syracuse NY 1
Ohio News Network Cable Dispatch Broadcast Group Cleveland OH 1
WCPO-9 ABC E.W. Scripps Company Cincinnati OH 2
WSYX-6 ABC Sinclair Broadcasting Columbus OH 1
WYTV-33 ABC Chelsey Broadcasting Youngstown OH 1
KOKH-25 Fox Sinclair Broadcasting Oklahoma City OK 6
KYW-3 CBS Viacom Philadelphia PA 1
WHP-21 CBS Clear Channel Harrisburg PA 1
WNEP-16 ABC New York Times Wilkes-Barre PA 2
WPGH-53 Fox Sinclair Broadcasting Pittsburgh PA 1
WPMT-43 Fox Tribune Broadcasting Harrisburg PA 1
WPVI-6 ABC ABC/Disney Philadelphia PA 1
WLTX-19 CBS Gannett Broadcasting Columbia SC 1
WHBQ-13 Fox Fox/News Corporation Memphis TN 1
WKRN-2 ABC Young Broadcasting Nashville TN 1
KLBK-13 CBS Nexstar Broadcasting Lubbock TX 3
KLST-8 CBS Nexstar Broadcasting San Angelo TX 2
KOSA-7 CBS ICA Broadcasting Odessa TX 1
KYTX-19 CBS Max Media of Montana Tyler TX 1
KZTV-10 CBS Eagle Creek Broadcasting Corpus Christi TX 1
WFAA-8 ABC Belo Corporation Dallas TX 1
WCYB-5 NBC BlueStone Television Bristol VA 1
WHSV-3 ABC Gray Communications Harrisonburg VA 1
WVTV-8 WB Sinclair Broadcasting Milwaukee WI 1
WVVA-6 NBC Quincy Newspapers Bluefield WV 1

[Jose Diablo]

23. Interesting information

I wonder if there is a correlation between the 'ownership' of the individual broadcasting stations and the underlaying ownership of the companies that own the stations.

A little more clarity from me. Each corporation has 'stockholders'. Is there an underlaying ownership of stockholders in each of these these corporations, that focuses ownership of all these broadcast companies into a small group of investors, that are spiking certain news, and encouraging wide dispersal of favorable news, to their agenda.

The mechanism of how to spike certain news, by owners, would remain hidden. But using advertisers would be easy. The advertisers are the ones supplying money for operations and would have a big hammer over local managers.

The mechanism of controlling the 4th arm of government appears well developed.

[DrGonzoLives]

17. Nexstar

owns both the NBC and Fox affiliates in Terre Haute, stations that broadcast over about a dozen counties in Indiana and Illinois. The Fox affiliate even has a 10 pm news broadcast using the NBC affiliate's news team.

Yeah, this isn't all that surprising.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. I used to volunteer as a receptionist for a non-commercial radio station

and calls would come in fairly frequently, asking if the station's news department would be interested in airing a "news report" or "documentary" about some new product or some company's new "campus."

Fortunately, the station didn't have a news department (it got BBC World Service feed), so I would just say sweetly, "If you want to advertise, I can direct you to our director of underwriting and grants..."

Click.

[patcox2]

21. Ironically, this report is a news release.

See, this report about "fake" news is an example of what it decrys.

Its a news release. The organization releasing it hopes it will be picked up and reported by the news.

Which is exactly what happens in the phenomena it describes.

[JanMichael]

24. True but I suppose the intent makes the difference.

While GM wants you to belive that they give a shit about the environment, and they're all "yellow" or some other media creation, there are media releases that don't have that sort of slant.

In addition stations should be required to identify the source of the "news" that they feed to the unknowing public.

[patmacsf]

25. Let's File Some FCC Complaints

Every one of these stations holds an over the air FCC license to broadcast their fake news. The real response from us should be letters to the FCC requesting that the individual station's license be revoked and/or not renewed.

[Mrspeeker]

27. WOW thanks for this post

Now its time to do some mailing :)

[Initech]

28. So Jon Stewart is not the only one airing fake news now?

Un fucking believable.

[Initech]

29. self delete

double post

[Blue_Tires]

30. pretty crappy journalism

luckily, i didn't see to much of that in my newsrooms, but i would CRINGE when we ran the astroturf ltte's (thanks to DU, they became VERY easy for me to spot)

[McCamy Taylor]

31. Stealth ads. Did $$ change hands? Did they do POLITICAL spots?

That would be even more unethical. Were similar canned "news" stories released by the government? (Yeah, for sure, they are called PSAs) Were any of them political and did Bush Co. have to twist arms or promise favors to get them run? That would be very very unethical. Stations that run this kind of crap should be investigate for worse stuff. Audit everything they did.

[sunyasi]

32. That's so...

we can lie to them over here so we don't have to lie to them over there.

[Voltaire99]

33. Good bit of analysis

No surprise to anyone nor is it likely to bring about any reform.

The wasteland of US television will remain that: a cesspool of disinformation and avarice.

[chill_wind]

35. FSTV- Democracy Now just aired this report tonite

Amy Goodman devoted almost the entire segment to it.
The two young researchers, and one of the paid faux journalists were interviewed. Also FCC Commissioner Jonathon Adelstein, who bluntly called it violation and propaganda. He said these stations were sent advisories from the FCC a long time ago. All the findings in this report have occurred SINCE those warnings. Among other penalties, he opined that these stations could have their licences revoked. The show cited up an action alert to deluge (my word)the FCC- a campaign that is linked at the report site.

Edit to add: one of the particular issues the segment hit a lot on is the blatant pharmaceutical advertising masquerading as 'medical' journalism. And the FDA requirements in print journalism and other advertising media about the known possible side effects, contraindications and adverse effects of drugs being marketed. These are slickly being omitted by the same companies altogether in the VNR's.