Media

CMD & Free Press File 'Fake News' Complaint with FCC on Behalf of 40,000 Petition Signers

The Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press have filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission urging an investigation of the extensive airing of "fake news" by TV broadcasters who take government and corporate Video News Release (VNR) stories and run them unlabeled as real journalism. In just one week nearly 40,000 citizens have signed our petition calling on the FCC, Congress and local broadcasters to stop fake news.

For Ethnic Press, Access Is Separate, Unequal

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Government agencies "often don't return phone calls or provide relevant information" to the ethnic press, according to a survey by the Independent Press Association-New York. The association is a network of 115 "immigrant, African-American, and community newspapers." The most unhelpful federal agencies were the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Affairs, and the Department of Labor.

No
Main Source: 
Associated Press, March 18, 2005
Topics: 
Media
Race / Ethnic Issues
U.S. Government

On Iraq, Not All News Deemed "Fit to Print"

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"Many media outlets self-censored their reporting on Iraq," often out of fear of offending their audience, found a survey of more than 200 U.S. media personnel by American University's School of Communications. The "editing that went into content after it was gathered but before it was published" was significant.

No
Main Source: 
Editor & Publisher, March 18, 2005
Topics: 
Iraq
Media

Americans Still Believe Bush's War Propaganda

Submitted by John Stauber on

This weekend is the second anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq. The latest ABC News and Washington Post poll of public opinion shows that most Americans still believe, incorrectly of course, that Saddam's Iraq supported the 9/11 terrorists and had weapons of mass destruction.

No
Main Source: 
ABC News, March 15, 2005
Topics: 
Media
War / Peace

Fake News on the BBC

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"We have our very own fake journalists operating in the UK," writes David Miller of Europe's SpinWatch. Miller cites the British Forces Broadcasting Service, whose reports have been aired by the BBC. BFBS is run by the Services Sound and Vision Corporation, an entity "fully funded by the Ministry of Defence," which brags about its "considerable contribution" to the armed forces' morale.

No
Main Source: 
SpinWatch, March 15, 2005
Topics: 
International
Media

The New York Times Catches on to VNRs

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

New York Times reporters David Barstow and Robin Stein have written a lengthy report on the use of video news releases as covert propaganda. "Under the Bush administration," they write, "the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies ...

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, March 13, 2005
Topics: 
Media
Public Relations

Still in the Movie Business

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

In California, more video news releases produced by the Schwarzenegger administration have been identified. The VNRs tout administration proposals to reduce nursing staff levels in hospitals, to make teachers' pay merit-based, to make tenure more stringent, to lower prescription drug prices, and to end mandatory employee rest breaks.

No
Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2005
Topics: 
Media
Politics

Pages

Subscribe to Media