Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"We believe a court would find the 'style, tenor and timing' of the (video news release) to be 'promotional' in nature, thus triggering the requirement it be expressly authorized by statute," ruled the California state legislature's counsel, on a Schwarzenegger administration VNR. The undersecretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which produced the VNR to support changes in workers' break guarantees, earlier said that "the administration's lawyers concluded the videos were permissible." The Schwarzenegger administration made at least four VNRs without legislative authorization. In national news, the Federal Communications Commission has been asked by Senators John Kerry and Daniel Inouye (both Democrats) to investigate the broadcasting of government-funded VNRs.
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