SMT star Julie Edelman shills for five companies

As the Center for Media and Democracy illustrated in its April 2006 report, "fake TV news" includes satellite media tour (SMT) interviews. According to PR Week, "Generating interest in an SMT requires innovation and imagination, and maybe even a stunt. ... The art of the successful SMT is in its subtlety, where the subject -- the product, movie, or any other property being promoted -- is almost incidental." PR Week describes an SMT produced for Bank of America by KEF Media Associates that featured NASCAR star Kasey Kahne. Another SMT, produced for E&J Gallo Winery by KEF, sought to promote wine "to more blue-collar sensibilities" with a tailgate setting. The SMT showed "upscale tailgating, like wine and shrimp, not beer and hot dogs," explained KEF's Linda Buckley. An SMT produced for Del Monte by MultiVu "utilized a kitchen set with an array of foods," to promote the canned food company's "Healthy Fuel for School" campaign. Lastly, an SMT produced for GlaxoSmithKline featured "Desperate Housewives" star and migraine sufferer Marcia Cross, to promote the pharmaceutical company's headache remedy.

"If you briefly clicked by Al Jazeera International on television, you might mistake it for the BBC," the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Dante Chinni writes, citing AJI's "understated, clean graphics," "more-global view of the news," and its anchors' British accents. But AJI has "an Arab voice" and trumpets its "fearless journalism." "In a story the channel did about its own launch ... it happily pointed out that everyone criticizes Al Jazeera. The piece included clips of Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi officials saying Al Jazeera is spreading US propaganda, juxtaposed against soon-to-be-former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calling the channel 'irresponsible.'" Chinni notes that when "a Lebanese cabinet minister was assassinated, and Syria renewed diplomatic relations with Iraq," AJI viewers had already been presented with "the broader news context of these regional events." It's too early to determine whether AJI will be "a mouthpiece for anti-American propaganda," he concludes. But it does "offer more in-depth coverage of the Middle East than anything else most Americans are going to see."

Bucking intense restaurant industry opposition, New York City has banned all added trans fats in restaurant food. The ban was passed by the city's Board of Health on December 6, 2006, and takes effect in July 2007. Donut makers get a one-year reprieve in order to find a substitute oil for the deep-fried dough. The board's action also included a requirement that restaurant chains post nutritional information. "We're not trying to take away anybody's ability to go out and have the kind of food they want in the quantities they want," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He said that health department estimates show that the ban on hydrogenated oils could save hundreds of lives annually. Dan Fleshler, spokesman for the National Restaurant Association responded, "We're deeply disappointed. We would prefer to do this voluntarily. Restaurants have been moving on their own in response to customer demand and eliminating trans fats." The Center for Consumer Freedom, a national front group for the restaurant and beverage industry, had vigorously fought the ban and immediately issued a statement headlined "Are Calories Next?", calling the ban "unprecedented in its paternalistic scope."

Medialink Worldwide publicist Kate Brookes "reports" for KSFY-13 on a medical device

Mark Hirsch, the founder of the Florida-based company MediaHitman, is not happy about the impact of the Center for Media and Democracy's two reports revealing TV stations' widespread and undisclosed use of video news releases (VNRs). Hirsch told PR Week that CMD's reports "have kept broadcasters and the PR industry on their heels for several months." He also commented that "the core of our industry's reliance on VNRs has always been public trust in broadcast news," a trust, he complained, that CMD's reports "have eroded." Hirsch is pinning his hopes for the future of the VNR industry on his colleagues adopting "a new, more innovative approach." What the "new approach" is he didn't say, but an article on his website -- titled "It's About Integrity" -- provides a clue. Instead of making a commitment to label each frame of a VNR to ensure disclosure, the company states that it "reserves the right to refuse 'overly-promotional' content."