Video news releases (like those featuring Karen Ryan) and pundit payola (like Armstrong Williams' promotion of the No Child Left Behind Act) are just two examples of how corporate and government interests have infiltrated news media, turning reporter

"For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel, the corporate radio giant." The pirate broadcasters' website contained "a manifesto about 'corporate-controlled music playlists' that took potshots at several local Clear Channel stations." But it was all a Clear Channel marketing campaign, to promote an Akron station's switc

Three new PR ventures "represent the globalization of a strategic concept that's been de rigeur in Washington for more than a decade: executing corporate PR campaigns as if they were political battles, in which someone wins, someone loses, and the client is the candidate," writes PR Week.