"Beef trade with Japan and Canada was on the minds of producers at the annual National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention in San Antonio, Texas," a man's voice intones, as the television news segment opens with a shot of a slowly rotating sign reading "U.S. Premium Beef." The voice continues, "Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns addressed the gathering and afterward took questions from the media."
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
In an "uncharacteristically aggressive recruitment effort," the U.S. Army National Guard is launching a new campaign, called "The American Soldier." The campaign includes "sending eight mobile information and recruitment centers (with another 12 in production) to sporting events and shopping malls across the country, increasing direct mailings to three times annually, and signing a sponsorship deal with NASCAR driver Greg Biffle," reports PR Week.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The report by the Education Department's inspector general on Armstrong Williams, a pundit paid $240,000 to advertise and advocate for the No Child Left Behind Act, notes that the White House "was told about potential problems," but that di
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Following the FCC's Public Notice on "fake news," the U.S. Senate approved, by 98 to 0, a measure requiring "clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news story" for all fake news produced with federal funding.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"The United States did not properly analyze two suspected cases of mad cow disease in 1997," reported Canada's CBC News. The U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian who investigated the cases, Dr.
"Listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them," noted the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, in a Public Notice (PDF file, Word file) released last night.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Missions that might be considered conflicting are not new for Porter Novelli," a PR firm that "has worked for both the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and for Guinness stout and Johnnie Walker Scotch." But Porter Novelli's $2.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update the food guide pyramid concerns some.
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In testimony before the U.S.
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A week ago Ray Kotcher, the CEO of the PR firm Ketchum, responded in writing to a series of questions from PR Week about the controversy over Armstrong Williams promoting the U.S. No Child Left Behind law.
Will ongoing investigations and public outrage be sufficient to end the debased media practices that result in "fake news"?
Producers of the fake TV news stories called video news releases (VNRs) hope not. Some are worried, though. "Crisis" is the word Kevin McCauley of the public relations trade publication O'Dwyer's used in a recent column.
VNR producers are struggling to find allies, even within the PR industry. For the last three weeks, O'Dwyer's has been running an online poll asking, "Should there be a limit on the U.S. Government's use of video news releases?" Seventy-two percent of respondents to date support VNR restrictions. (O'Dwyer's doesn't disclose the number of respondents.)
VNR producers may very well be thanking their lucky stars for the Bush White House.
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