Who's behind your news? Without disclosure, you just don't know if the report you're watching about a corporation was secretly funded by and produced for that corporation.

That's what the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) found in our groundbreaking exposé, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." This multi-media report is the culmination of an intensive, ten month investigation by CMD. It provides the most extensive account to date of how corporate-funded video news releases -- fake TV news -- are routinely aired, without disclosure, as though they were independent news reports.

Learn which TV stations we caught and watch footage of the VNRs we tracked, plus see how TV newscasts incorporated them and/or related satellite media tour "interviews," by reading our online report, here: http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/execsummary

And then tell the Federal Communications Commission that fake news must stop, by taking part in a joint CMD / Free Press action, here: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/fakenews

The thrill of winning Wimbledon, second only to being featured in McDonald's advertising.

Celebrity spokemodels are out, and burger-munching everypeople are in under the golden arches. By visiting McDonald's Global Casting Call website, fast food lovers from anywhere in the world can submit a photo and short essay in any of 16 languages. The competition will undoubtedly be fierce, with applicants being judged on the written and visual submissions that best capture the "I'm lovin' it" spirit with themes of "inspiration, passion and fun." It's a cheap ad campaign for McDonald's. Winners will be flown, with a friend, to London for a photo shoot, and will be housed and fed at the expense of McDonald's, but no mention is made of actual pay. Being featured on McDonald's packaging will have to be reward enough. Venus Williams would probably say that it is. She is quoted in a McDonald's press release as saying “Even though I’ve won major tennis tournaments, been on television, radio and numerous magazine covers, seeing my picture on McDonald’s packaging was one of the coolest and most exciting moments of my life – I literally beamed when I saw it.”

Sam Walton just might be spinning in his grave. He was said to detest public relations, preferring to let Wal-Mart products and services speak for themselves. Under the new regime, PR has taken on a special urgency, with company officials locking into a political campaign-like "war room" mentality to respond to critics of its labor and big box store siting strategies. Now comes word that the company is looking for "triage" and "emergency response" talent in its next key hires. Michael Barbaro reported that the executive search firm Crowe-Innes & Associates has been engaged to help find a director of media relations who can manage a "crisis communications program" and "triage" such crises "in rapid response mode." Hours of work: up to "24/7" according to the posting, which was released to the Times by one of Wal-Mart's biggest critics, Wal-Mart Watch. A second job posting seeks a candidate who can address "high profile political activities" and "operate successfully in a campaign mode." Wal-Mart does not seem to worry about low prices when it comes to high level PR: In November, 2005, the Times reported that the company had hired the Edelman public relations firm, including ex-advisers from the camps of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John Kerry.