CMD's VNR Catches: Four Case Studies

Case Study One

"Oil Lobbyist's 'News' Denies Inconvenient Truth:
WTOK-11's Hot Air Misleads Viewers"
Client(s): TCS Daily
Released: May 2006

There is virtually no scientific doubt that global warming is a real phenomenon, largely caused by human activities -- although the oil industry would have you believe otherwise. Much like the tobacco industry -- whose campaign to deny the health dangers of smoking can be summed up by an infamous internal memo stating "doubt is our product" -- the oil industry funds scientists, think tanks and organizations who dutifully challenge the large, varied and growing base of evidence of climate change. These unassailable truths might have led Big Oil to fake news.

In June 2006, the broadcast PR firm Medialink Worldwide put out a VNR, "Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?" In accompanying materials, the firm identified "TCS Daily Science Roundtable" as the client behind the segment. But Medialink didn't disclose that TCS Daily was a website then published by Tech Central Station, which is itself a project of the DCI Group, a Republican lobbying and PR firm. Or that the DCI Group counts among its clients ExxonMobil. Or that ExxonMobil gave the Tech Central Science Foundation $95,000 in 2003, for "climate change support."

The VNR features Dr. William Gray and Dr. James J. O'Brien, who are identified as "two of the nation's top weather and ocean scientists." Gray denies that there's any link between global warming and the severity of recent hurricane seasons. "We don't think that's the case," he says. "This is the way nature sometimes works." The VNR attributes increased hurricane activity to "the cycle of nature."

In reality, the link between climate change and hurricane severity has not been disproved. "No one doubts that since the early 1990s storms have increased in their intensity and no one doubts that average sea temperatures have increased slightly over the past 30 years," explained Andrew Buncombe in an August 2006 article for The Independent. "Whether there is a link between these two phenomena remains unanswered."

Peer-reviewed scientific studies on the issue have reached conflicting conclusions, though an in-depth analysis reported in September 2006 found "a large human influence" on rising sea-surface temperatures, which lead to stronger hurricanes. The same month, Nature magazine reported on a position paper from federal scientists that linked intensified hurricanes to global warming; the report was reportedly quashed by the Bush administration.

The TCS Daily VNR is correct in identifying Drs. Gray and O'Brien as meteorologists with extensive experience predicting hurricanes. However, Gray appears to have an ideological axe to grind with regard to climate change. In June 2006, he told the Denver Post that global warming is a "hoax," something that "they've been brainwashing us [about] for 20 years."

O'Brien has a history of associating himself with corporate-funded climate change skeptics. He's on Tech Central Station's "Science Roundtable" and is also listed as an expert at the George C. Marshall Institute, which receives ExxonMobil funding (including $170,000 in 2004 for "climate change activities").

Sadly, none of these affiliations, caveats or complexities was communicated when WTOK-11 (Meridian, MS) aired as "news" an edited and re-voiced version of the TCS Daily VNR, on May 31, 2006.

WTOK-11 anchor Tom Daniels introduced the segment by saying, "Hurricane seasons for the next 20 years could be severe. But don't blame global warming." Viewers were not told that what followed was nothing but hot air, paid by and scripted for oil company lobbyists.

In August 2006, the DCI Group was linked to a short, amateur-looking movie posted on the popular video-sharing website YouTube. The clip belittled the threat from global warming and ridiculed Al Gore's climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Wall Street Journal reporters Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey noted that "through Tech Central Station . . . DCI has sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Mr. Gore's film, placing skeptical scientists on talk-radio shows and paying them to write editorials." Thanks to WTOK-11, the disinformation campaign also reached TV news audiences

CASE STUDY TWO

"Signaling Support for Siemens:
Warning: Pilots and XETV-6 Viewers May See Red"
Client(s): Siemens
Released: June 2006

"Thanks to new technology, air travelers may soon be a little bit safer," said XETV-6 (San Diego, CA) anchor Brian Christie. "Not in the air, but on the runway."

In the June 20, 2006, segment, Christie casually mentioned that "the FAA reports about 300 runway accidents a year." That's a bit of an overstatement.

According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, recent years have seen some 300 runway incursions annually. An incursion includes "any occurrence in the airport runway environment involving an aircraft, vehicle, person or object . . . that creates a collision hazard." Nearly 90 percent of incursions "involved little or no risk of a collision," according to the FAA.

Such are the dangers of re-voicing a VNR.

In the original VNR, produced by Medialink Worldwide for Siemens, publicist and fake reporter Kate Brookes says that "the FAA reports about 300 runway incidents every year." When XETV-6 edited and re-voiced the VNR, the station's word switch misrepresented the usually-minor glitches in flight protocols as fiery crashes.

Siemens might not mind the blunder, however. The purpose of its VNR was to promote the company's new Runway Status Light System, an -- ahem -- pilot program using sensors and red lights to visually warn airplanes approaching an occupied runway.

The VNR featured Ed Runyon, who works for Siemens' "Airfield Solutions" division. In the XETV-6 segment, anchor Christie claimed that Siemens' runway system "is considered very revolutionary." The station then showed Runyon describing the product that his employer would like to install at thousands of airports across the United States. A similarly-skewed story on the website of WABC-7 (New York City) asks why the Siemens system is "still so far from being installed here."

Siemens' runway light system is currently being tested at the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego international airports. According to an April 2006 USA Today article, "The money-strapped FAA has not yet committed to fund the system," though an FAA official called it "very promising." The VNR appears to be part of Siemens' efforts to secure FAA approval -- and funding.

Yet one warning system completely failed: Although every frame of the aired segment came from the Siemens VNR, XETV-6 did not provide disclosure to its San Diego viewers. Perhaps the station's newsroom had its signals crossed?

Case Study Three

"Fake Newshounds with Worms:
Once Again, WCTI-12 Hosts Hidden Interests"
Client(s): Companion Animal Parasite Council
Released: July 2006

Even with the relatively modest number of VNRs tracked by CMD, a few television stations stand out as frequent VNR broadcasters. Oklahoma City's KOKH-25 was singled out as the worst repeat offender of CMD's "Fake TV News" report. But WCTI-12 of New Bern, NC, isn't far behind.

On July 18, 2006, WCTI-12 reporter Besa Tafilaj introduced a segment on pet parasites. "Those parasites that infect your pets also could get to you and your family," she warned. "According to the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], up to three million people will get infected with internal parasites this year." What followed was an edited VNR that she had re-voiced, closely following the VNR's original script.

The broadcast PR firm D S Simon Productions produced the VNR for the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAP-C). Like other D S Simon VNRs released following the "Fake TV News" report, the CAP-C video included two client notifications at its end -- an on-screen label and the narrating publicist's sign-off, "On behalf of the Companion Animal Parasite Council, this is Sonia Martin." WCTI-12 edited out both, actively denying disclosure to its news audience. Yet, following the segment, the station anchor directed viewers to CAP-C's website, for "more information on preventing animal parasites and keeping your pets healthy year-round."

D S Simon -- and WCTI-12 -- presented CAP-C as a "non-profit veterinary group," which is correct but not the entire story. Like many patient groups for human diseases, CAP-C receives funding from pharmaceutical and other companies whose market is the target group -- in this case, pet owners. CAP-C's 2006 "platinum" sponsors include Bayer, Merial, Novartis and Pfizer Animal Health, while its "silver" sponsors include Hartz, Idexx Laboratories, Schering-Plough Animal Health, VCA Antech, and Virbac Animal Health.

Of the mere 18 media mentions of "Companion Animal Parasite Council" in the Nexis news database, three involve endorsements of products or programs from CAP-C sponsors Bayer or Novartis. While the CAP-C VNR doesn't mention specific products, it does repeatedly encourage viewers to take their pets to the veterinarian regularly -- a message that must make CAP-C sponsors pretty happy -- including VCA Antech, which runs "a nationwide clinical laboratory system and over 375 free-standing animal hospitals" (NASDAQ symbol: WOOF).

Between the "Fake TV News" report and this study, CMD has documented WCTI-12 airing four different VNRs. Not once did the station disclose the source or nature of these segments to its news audiences. Will CMD's new study help an old dog learn new ethics? Stay tuned.

Case Study Four

"General Motors Gets a Free Ride in New York:
WPIX-11 Adds Soundtrack, But No Disclosure, To Fake News"
Client(s): General Motors
Released: August 2006

On August 4, 2006, WPIX-11 anchor Tiffany McElroy asked morning news viewers, "OK, you want a hybrid car, but the Toyota Prius just doesn't do it for you? Well, you're in luck." But the segment wasn't so auspicious for New York City viewers who want honesty in their newscasts.

What followed was a VNR from Toyota competitor General Motors (GM). The segment was filmed at the first-ever Hybrid Fest, a real event organized by volunteers and held in Madison, WI, in July 2006. The VNR featured Wisconsin state representative Joe Parisi and GM engineer Pete Savagian, who extolled the increasing variety of hybrid models available and the fuel savings enjoyed by hybrid owners.

For General Motors, the VNR was a soft sell. Its models weren't mentioned by name, although the camera lingered over a Saturn hybrid and the only auto expert interviewed is from the company.

The VNR is likely part of GM's efforts to establish itself in the hybrid market. In an April 2006 piece titled, "Challenging Toyota's Hybrid Hegemony," the New York Times reported on a new hybrid system jointly developed by BMW, Daimler Chrysler and General Motors, to "finally" give the three auto makers the "technology to counter Toyota, which is developing its third-generation hybrid."

Whatever GM's rationale, the VNR suited WPIX-11 just fine. The station re-voiced the narration, shaved a few seconds off the VNR, shuffled the order of the scenes and soundbites, and, just for kicks, added a soundtrack -- "Free Ride," performed by the Edgar Winter Group. WPIX-11 didn't add any of its own reporting to the segment, just standard B-roll footage of cars and gas stations. Yet the TV station failed to tell viewers that this "news" segment came courtesy of GM.

WPIX-11 is used to letting outside interests steer its newscasts. The station was cited in CMD's "Fake TV News" report, for airing a VNR from a computer security company without disclosure. And GM is certainly used to being in the driver's seat. The Hybrid Fest VNR is GM's seventh of eight tracked by CMD, all of which were produced by the PR firm Medialink Worldwide.