Video News Releases: The Fantasy vs. Reality

To get an idea of just how low news standards can fall, take a look at <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/vnr29" target="_blank">one of the VNRs we caught</a>, which promoted Victoria's Secret's new Beauty Rush line of candy-flavored lip glosses. The VNR, which was used as news by the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Daily_Buzz_(TV_Station)" target="_blank">Daily Buzz</a> morning news show, featured glamour shots of Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who sucked on a lollipop and declared that if you use Beauty Rush products, "I think you're cool.Television stations have maintained a studied silence about our report on the use of video news releases, but the print media has fewer qualms about discussing it. Saturday's Indianapolis Star carried an op-ed piece by Jeffrey McCall, a professor of communication at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. McCall described the use of VNRs as a "sneaky strategy" by "some wayward television news operations" that blurs the line "between reality and fantasy."

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