PR Watch, Second Quarter 2005, Volume 12, No. 2

This issue of PR Watch takes a look at fake news, specifically video news releases or VNRs. Since 1993, the Center for Media and Democracy, PR Watch's publisher, has been exposing VNRs and fake news as a tool of the public relations industry. Last year marked the first time the common use of VNRs broke into national headlines. But it wasn't until the March 13, 2005 New York Times front-page exposé on the Bush administration's use of VNRs that public outrage forced some political action.

According to the non-partisan, pro-democracy organization Freedom House's annual survey, "the United States has suffered 'notable setbacks' in press freedom,” slipping to 24th of 194 countries. One reason is the paid pundit and video news release controversies. Such fake news "may be even worse than poisoning public debate on specific issues,” said communications professor Martin Kaplan. "It corrodes the ability of real journalism to do its job.”

by Daniel Price

Nobody puts out more video news releases than the healthcare industry. But their easy-to-swallow propaganda comes with side effects.

On January 10, Indianapolis TV health reporter Stacia Matthews had some good news for women with metastatic breast cancer: there's a new drug called Abraxane that has twice the effectiveness of the leading chemotherapy treatment and fewer adverse reactions. The news report included compelling testimony from Annice O'Brien, a mother of two who had been battling breast cancer for eight years. "It made me once again feel like I'm going to beat this," she told Matthews.

How does a video news release get from the drawing board to the six o'clock news? It takes a few good publicists and a few bad journalists. Here's the five-step process of a standard VNR:

1. Conception

   The client has a message they want to get out to the public. They hire media consultants to find the best way to turn their product, service or agenda into a newsworthy item.


2. Creation

   The client employs a VNR production company to shoot a fully-polished 1-2 minute "news" feature. Although the VNR typically comes with scripted narration, the "reporter" never appears on-screen.

   
   

by Diane Farsetta

"Beef trade with Japan and Canada was on the minds of producers at the annual National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention in San Antonio, Texas," a man's voice intones, as the television news segment opens with a shot of a slowly rotating sign reading "U.S. Premium Beef." The voice continues, "Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns addressed the gathering and afterward took questions from the media."

The two-minute news piece examines trade issues surrounding bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad cow disease. Since the December 2003 discovery of a BSE-infected cow in Washington state, Japan has banned U.S. beef. In the February 10, 2005 TV segment, recently-appointed Secretary Johanns says he is "anxious to continue the effort [to lobby Japan] and reopen the border."

by Diane Farsetta

In some ways, Armstrong Williams got a bad rap. The conservative commentator, who was paid by the U.S. Department of Education to advertise and advocate for the controversial "No Child Left Behind" law, lost his syndicated newspaper column and was pilloried for not disclosing the payment.

Williams did betray the public trust, but he was a small fry - a subcontractor receiving a $240,000 piece of a $1 million deal between the Education Department and Ketchum, one of the world's largest public relations firms.

That deal, it turns out, was just the tip of the iceberg.

by Sheldon Rampton

Recent reports about the Bush administration's use of video news releases have helped highlight a problem that John Stauber and I have been exposing for more than a decade. It's nice to see the New York Times start to catch on and to see public activism starting to coalesce around the problem. I'd like to point out, though, that the problem isn't limited to the Bush administration or to government VNRs alone. In fact, corporate public relations is the biggest single source of video news releases, just as corporate PR is the biggest single source of other types of PR that pollute the media ecosystem. (The McDonald's VNR at right is a fairly typical example of the genre.)

by Bob Burton

Will ongoing investigations and public outrage be sufficient to end the debased media practices that result in fake news?

Producers of the fake TV news stories, or video news releases, hope not. Some are worried, though. "Crisis" is the word Kevin McCauley of the public relations trade publication O'Dwyer's used in a March 2005 column.

Even within the PR industry, VNR producers are struggling to find allies. For three weeks this spring, O'Dwyer's ran an online poll asking, "Should there be a limit on the U.S. Government's use of video news releases?" Seventy-two percent of respondents to date support VNR restrictions. (O'Dwyer's doesn't disclose the number of respondents.)

by Laura Miller

The U.S. Army celebrated Earth Day this year with a special campaign called "Sustaining the Environment for a Secure Future." The effort's website features links to an "Army Earth Day" message, an Earth Day video promotion, computer screen wallpaper, and a commemorative poster.

"We are a nation at war. The need to protect our homeland has never been clearer," the Army's message states. "The Army's Strategy for the Environment establishes a long-range vision that focuses efforts that sustain our mission. For success in the global war on terrorism we must carry out our responsibilities for the long-term. The land, air, and water resources we work and train on are vital to both our present and future missions. We must use those resources wisely in a manner that reflects our devotion to duty and respect for the needs of tomorrow's Soldiers."

CMD executive director John Stauber was joined by legendary journalist Bill Moyers at a "No Fake News!" reception for the Center in New York City. Sixty people filled host Sarah Stranahan's apartment, where Stauber recounted the Center's history and Moyers described the crisis facing the country and journalists, and the Center's important role.

by Diane Farsetta

"Listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them," wrote the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, in a Public Notice released in April.

The Public Notice was precipitated, in part, by the "large number of requests" asking the FCC to "consider whether the use of 'video news releases' or 'VNRs'... complies with the Commission's sponsorship identification rules." Those requests came from the more than 40,000 people who signed a petition circulated by the Center for Media and Democracy and the media reform group Free Press, as well as from two U.S. Senators.