Fake TV News: Findings - Advice from a Store-Bought Expert

by Daniel Price

At holiday time, a seemingly-impartial consumer advocate shills for three corporations in the guise of offering shopping advice

On December 2, 2005, WPGH-53 in Pittsburgh, PA, ran a holiday feature on the best and worst high-tech gifts for children. In it, technology expert and " Internet Mom" Robin Raskin warned parents about two potentially dangerous items on the market while praising four that are safe and fun for kids.

What WPGH's viewers didn't know is that the story was actually a VNR created by D S Simon Productions and jointly funded by Panasonic, Namco and Techno Source. By no coincidence, all of the products Raskin recommended -- the Oxyride battery, the Pac-Man and We Love Katamari games, and the Coleco retro gaming system -- came from either Panasonic, Namco or Techno Source.

Even more insidious, the two products Raskin deemed unsafe -- Apple's Video iPod and Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo handheld gaming device -- are direct commercial competitors of two of the three VNR sponsors. Panasonic offers a rival line of MP3 players while Techno Source battles Tiger Telematics in the handheld gaming market.

On Pittsburgh's WPGH-53, Robin Raskin promotes products from the VNR funders.

By itself, this VNR is little more than a tri-company infomercial that plugs numerous products while trashing its competitors. And yet when laundered through the credibility of TV journalism, viewers are deceived into thinking they're watching an independent news report with an impartial consumer expert.

Of the seven stations that incorporated the VNR into their newscasts, none disclosed the source of the story. In addition to WPGH-53, three stations -- KOKH-25 (Oklahoma City, OK), KTBS-3 (Shreveport, LA) and WCTI-12 (New Bern, NC) -- ran the VNR without a single edit, introducing the narrating publicist, Sonia Martin, as if she were a reporter at their station. Three additional newscasts -- WLFL-22 (Raleigh, NC), WSYX-6 (Columbus, OH) and WPVI-6 (Philadelphia, PA) -- deceptively weaved pieces of the Raskin VNR into their own stories. The investigative reporter at WSYX-6, Kent Justice, blended a full minute of the VNR into his regular consumer segment, ironically called " On Your Side."

In addition to the VNR, Raskin appeared live in a satellite media tour (SMT), a coordinated series of remote interviews in which a subject interacts directly with the station anchors. The SMT, like the VNR, was coordinated by D S Simon Productions on behalf of Panasonic, Namco and Techno Source. Two stations, KGUN-9 (Tucson, AZ) and WBRC-6 (Birmingham, AL), ran the live SMT without informing viewers that Raskin's appearance was funded by the makers of the very products she was praising.

Following the release of the CMD report, WBRC-6 news director Mike McClain contacted us, claiming that his station had, in fact, disclosed the Raskin SMT to its viewers. McClain's assertion was based on anchor Janice Roger's introduction to the segment:

I recently talked with Robin Raskin -- the Internet Mom -- thanks to several tech companies and here's what she had to offer to keep your kids safe and keep you sane!

CMD maintains that the anchor's introduction did not comprise disclosure, since WBRC failed to identify that the interview was arranged by D S Simon Productions and, more importantly, that it was funded by Panasonic, Namco and Techno Source.

A month after the Raskin " interview," KGUN-9 aired another SMT featuring homemaking " expert" Julie Edelman, which was sponsored by five different corporations. WCTI-12 subsequently aired fake news reports from the education finance company Sallie Mae and DaimlerChrysler. CMD also documented KOKH-25 running unlabeled VNRs on five additional occasions, for Trend Micro Software, Intel, Cadillac, the dating website Chemistry.com and consulting firm Towers Perrin.

Robin Raskin was also the featured expert in a technology SMT sponsored by Motorola, Nokia, Texas Instruments and Swiffer. It aired live on three stations: KEYT-3 in Santa Barbara, CA, WCYB-5 in Bristol, VA, and WLTX-33 in Columbia, SC.