On November 3, 2005, KOKH-25 [1] (Oklahoma City, OK) ran a two-minute story on "phishing" scams: fraudulent e-mails designed by identity theives to trick people into divulging personal financial information. The news report featured testimony from Jessica Sweedler, a Bay Area phishing victim; Mikael Niehoff, a technology crime unit detective; and David Perry, and a computer security expert from Trend Micro Software [2]. In no uncertain terms, the report recommended PC-Cilin, a $50 Internet security program from Trend Micro, as "a first line of defense" against phishing scams.

What viewers couldn't have possibly known is that the KOKH-25 story was a scam in itself. The report was actually a video news release [3] (VNR) created by D S Simon Productions [4] and funded by Trend Micro. Without a hint of attribution, KOKH-25 dropped the complete and uncut VNR into their 9:00 PM newscast. To help disguise the promotional video as their own journalism, editors at KOKH-25 inserted station-branded text overlays and anchor Andrew Speno introduced the VNR's narrating publicist, Jim Lawrence, as if he were a local reporter.

Along with KOKH-25, the VNR was picked up by Kurt Knutsson [5], a KTLA-5 [6] (Los Angeles, CA) technology reporter whose "CyberGuy" [7] segments are syndicated through the Tribune Broadcasting Network [8] on newscasts in over 150 markets.

On November 9, Knutsson introduced his own edited version of the VNR, a shorter remix with new scene transitions, background music, and a re-dubbed voiceover provided by Knutsson himself. Although he kept in every mention of PC-Cilin, Knutsson failed to inform viewers that his entire story was provided by a broadcast PR firm and funded by the makers of the software being featured.

In addition to his KTLA-5 studio report, Knuttson appeared live via satellite on stations in at least four other cities, including WPIX-11 [9] (New York, NY), WGN-9 [10] (Chicago, IL), KWGN-2 [11] (Denver, CO), and WXIN-59 [12] (Indianapolis, IN).

A station-edited cut of the VNR also appeared on KRDO-13 [13] (Colorado Springs, CO), while an uncut version aired on KAIT-8 [14] (Jonesboro, AR). Yet another unedited version of the VNR, revoiced by station reporter Margie Ellisor [15], aired on KTVI-2 [16] (St. Louis, MO). In October, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) had documented KTVI-2 incorporating a Halloween VNR [17] from Masterfoods and 1-800-Flowers, again enlisting Ellisor to provide a reporter re-voice.

Of all these stations, none disclosed Trend Micro as the funding source of the story.

In the course of its ten-month study, CMD has observed KOKH-25 airing corporate-funded VNRs on six separate occasions. Along with Trend Micro, the station has aired VNRs from Panasonic [18], Intel [19], Cadillac [20], Chemistry.com [21], and Towers Perrin [22], all without attribution.

Click on the images below to see the original Trend Micro VNR, as well as the KOKH-25 news segment and the CyberGuy features from WPIX-11 and KTLA-5.