video news releases

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at how Barbie celebrates Earth Day, why Freedom's Watch is under scrutiny, and how some environmental groups could think giving "clean coal" a closer look makes sense. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we run down Merck's long history of using spin to counter their Vioxx scandal. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The giant of the fake news business, Medialink Worldwide, has fallen out of favor with investors. In the last year the company's share price has plummeted from $5.81 to its current level around the $1.70 mark. In its latest annual report, the company glumly states that sales in 2007 in the U.S. from its "media communications services" -- which includes the production of video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs) -- dropped by 4.8% compared to 2006. The only upside was that revenue from fake news grew by 28% from its United Kingdom office. Despite this, the company recorded a net loss of just over $4.6 million on revenues of $33.4 million. Medialink notes that while Federal Communications Commission action enforcing on-air disclosure of the sponsors of VNRs and ANRs would not preclude their use, it "could have the effect of reducing the number of broadcasters that air our clients' material." The FCC acted in response to CMD's Stop Fake News campaign.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at China's information blackout on Tibet, how PR builds, and sells, bridges, and who cheerfully refers to her job as "whore TV." In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we take a closer look at the drug industry's lobby group, PhRMA. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The PR firm MultiVu has a new "social media news release targeting the U.S. Hispanic audience," reports PR Week. Its "Interactivo Multimedia News Release" (IMNR) distributes fake news "broadcast content, photos, and text to Hispanic social networks and news sites. Video content will also be distributed to video-sharing sites such as MiGente and HispaVista. And IMNR content will appear in Spanish on the Reuters billboard in Manhattan's Times Square." MultiVu parent company PR Newswire purchased Hispanic PR Wire in January. MultiVu's new division, "MultiVu Latino," is headed by Hispanic PR Wire co-founder Manny Ruiz.

Robin RaskinIn his new book True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, Farhad Manjoo covers video news releases (VNRs) by looking at "VNR Queen" Robin Raskin. Manjoo describes a high-tech holiday gifts segment by Raskin, in which she warned that Apple's iPod makes kids vulnerable to "iPorn." While the Radio-Television News Directors Association -- which opposes any action to ensure VNR disclosure -- refused to talk with Manjoo, Raskin did. "I actually joked with my own colleagues that, 'Hey, I'm off to go do Whore TV'," she told him. "I was fully aware that that's what it was. And yet it's such a commonplace thing. I mean, there are people hawking drugs, guns, war. The worst that could happen to someone watching my segment is that you might buy a game you don't like."

Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he expected the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move forward on "a large raft" of complaints against television stations, for undisclosed video news releases (VNRs). He said, "Whether dealing with payola or VNRs or product placement, the commission's fundamental concern is the same. The American public deserves to know when someone is trying to persuade them ... and so I am glad we are really bringing that to the forefront of our enforcement efforts." Based on the Center for Media and Democracy's three reports on the fake news spots, CMD and Free Press filed complaints with the FCC against 112 television stations. In September 2007, the FCC proposed its first-ever fines for fake news. Comcast received (and appealed) liability notices for its cable channel CN8 having aired five VNRs without disclosure. The complaints against the other 111 stations are still pending.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at how why drug prices are so high, and it's not why you think, the resurrection of the Swift Boaters, and what Marvel Comics and the U.N. are up to. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from nasty election-year smears to the person tasked with promoting the U.S. as a beacon of democracy to the rest of the world. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The migration of sponsored video news releases (VNRs) and B-roll footage from television stations to websites is increasing. Major companies are "bypassing the press and going directly to the masses," in part because of increased scrutiny of fake news, according to Brandweek. An Allstate representative said posting the videos to their website "started as an experiment," but is now the norm. General Motors's director of broadcast communications explained, "We're just trying to get impressions out." Bev Yehuda of the PR firm MultiVu agreed: "Our customers are no longer reliant on broadcasters to tell their stories." In related news, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) marked the holiday season with "a series of initiatives to offer consumers tips for avoiding pirated music," including an alarmist VNR. As Consumerist.com noted, the RIAA video was "leaked (promoted?) heavily by the [public relations] company that produced it," so "keep your bullshit 'stealth marketing' sensors up."

A public relations trade publication has editorialized in favor of video news release (VNR) disclosure ... sort of. "The Federal Communications Commission is correctly serving the US citizens' right to know where footage originates," writes PR Week. "And no amount of rhetoric will change the fact that a corporate-produced video is less likely to be critical of a particular subject than an independent, news-produced video." The magazine suggests that "broadcasters and news producers" agree on "a universal VNR disclosure standard. ... The news organizations must realize either through proactive means or via the brunt force of the FCC, tomorrow's VNRs will be broadcast with labels." In other words, the PR and broadcast industries still might be able to forestall independent oversight if they promise, once again, to do a better job of policing themselves.

by Diane Farsetta and Daniel Price

The following are a few examples of VNRs from our new report. The entire report, including VNR footage and video of the newscasts that used them, is available at stopfakenews.org.

Case Study One

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