What do orgasms and TV news have in common?

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 1:41 PM on April 7, 2006.

A new report shines a light on a disturbing trend

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They've been faking it.

Clear Channel, News Corp./Fox Television, Viacom/CBS Corp, Tribune Co. and Sinclair Broadcast Group, among others, have all aired Video News Releases (VNR), corporate sponsored ads masquerading as news, according a report from the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press.

I feel so cheated, so used, so so so... betrayed. According to Tim Karr nearly half of the American public is reached by the stations implicated in the report and:

Despite repeated claims from broadcasters that they do not air VNRs as news, the new report reveals just the tip of the iceberg. Instances of fake TV news documented by CMD likely represent less than 1 percent of VNRs distributed to local newsrooms since June 2005. Fraudulent news reports have likely been aired on hundreds of more local newscasts in the past year.

The examples, like the one below would be comical but for the fact that it isn't a far cry from accepting this kind of deception from accepting, uncritically, the words of those in power. And speaking of the damage corporate journalism wreaks on the American public, according to Karr, the report "draw[s] a clear line between media consolidation and the broadcast of deceptive, pre-packaged propaganda. When all station owners care about is the bottom line, fake news can prove irresistible."

Clear Channel Delivers a Placebo

Carrie Lazarus hails a dietary supplement as a "major health breakthrough" for arthritis sufferers. She fails to point out that the sponsor of the VNR manufactures the supplement, nor mention that it barely outperforms a placebo.

(View the original VNR and then see how Clear Channel-owned WSYR in Syracuse faked it).

(MediaCitizen)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.

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Dark implications [Report this comment] Posted by: juvenal on Apr 7, 2006 2:34 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] This is truly disturbing. The mass media-tised culture which generates public space and opinion has overwhelming and frightening power; the 'news' based on actual events should always be viewed with caution, scepticism and wariness- the idea that media corporations have the bloody - and hellish - arrogance to create their own news stories to suit a political or corporate agenda is truly disturbing. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] orgasms and the nightly news [Report this comment] Posted by: feller on Apr 8, 2006 6:35 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I thought your article would be about things that get shorter and shorter. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Brain dead only [Report this comment] Posted by: AlienSlave on Apr 9, 2006 6:13 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] TV news has only the brain dead left as viewers. I personally know of no one in my community who watches TV news at all. TV journalism has been nothing more than a joke for the past 15 years. NBC’s failed attempt last week to MAKE news rather than find real news is the major cause of the contempt and jokes about lawyers and Journalism as water cooler entertainment. It seems the Venerated NBC DATELINE crew of journalistic incompetence tried to plant Arab-American “FANS” in the middle of a bubba red neck Joe-sixpack Martinsville VA’s NASCAR race. Hoping to be in the middle of an incited race war. The result was no reaction at all from Joe-sixpack. It does seem though that the crowd of Bubbaratzzi filled their cardboard cameras with all of the car wrecks and knew nothing of the plants. HAHAHAHA just another plain example of how far the press and journalism are disconnected from the reality of the common people. Out of touch and out of reality with life. AlienSlave [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] OOOOOOOOH Evan! [Report this comment] Posted by: LynnZTV on Apr 10, 2006 8:42 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Was this posting good for you? It was good for me, too. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Entertainment News [Report this comment] Posted by: ihatebush on Apr 10, 2006 9:57 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Once we progressives gain control of our government again, we should appoint an FCC Commissioner who will require strict standards for news organizations to prove their news is accurate, unbiased and not from an outside source. Otherwise they will have to headline their broadcasts with "Entertainment News" and a disclaimer that the information presented is ficticious and not based on reality or fact. Of course most progressives already know this but there is that 35% of Bush administration supporters who don't have a clue. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Not Mandatorily The News [Report this comment] Posted by: Roverton on Apr 10, 2006 10:29 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] We should send in a petition, letting them know the business loss they face with the American public for putting fake news ads on. I wonder how their other sponsors would feel about that? [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: Not Mandatorily The News Posted by: electriclady281 WatchDog [Report this comment] Posted by: watchdog on Apr 15, 2006 9:00 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] A bloodless coup. The GOP took the Whitehouse, Justice Department, CIA, Senate, Congress and the Supreme Court. And now, the Corporate Media ("liberal media" is a myth) has comandeered the "free press." The GOP has destroyed democracy and history will cite this as the end of the American experiment in freedom. Fuck bush. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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