Gloom in the Fake News Industry

Mark Hirsch, the founder of the Florida-based company MediaHitman, is not happy about the impact of the Center for Media and Democracy's two reports revealing TV stations' widespread and undisclosed use of video news releases (VNRs). Hirsch told PR Week that CMD's reports "have kept broadcasters and the PR industry on their heels for several months." He also commented that "the core of our industry's reliance on VNRs has always been public trust in broadcast news," a trust, he complained, that CMD's reports "have eroded." Hirsch is pinning his hopes for the future of the VNR industry on his colleagues adopting "a new, more innovative approach." What the "new approach" is he didn't say, but an article on his website -- titled "It's About Integrity" -- provides a clue. Instead of making a commitment to label each frame of a VNR to ensure disclosure, the company states that it "reserves the right to refuse 'overly-promotional' content."