Media

The Fakest Time of the Year: The 2007 Falsies Awards

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the year that the Falsies Awards have truly arrived!

Groucho maskHere at the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), we've dearly treasured our Falsies since we gave the first awards out in 2004. After 12 months of reporting on the cynical, manipulative and just plain anti-democratic pollution of our information environment, we love adding an extra dash of humor to our work. But this year's Falsies Awards are extra super special.

Greenwash Hoaxes

In January 2008, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will "examine carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates that claim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in one place to offset emissions elsewhere." It's part one of the agency's review of "green" marketing guidelines. The review was initially slated for 2009, but is being moved up due to the rapid increase in marketing things like carbon offset programs, a "$55 million market that is largely unregulated." A legal staffer for the U.S.

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That's Infotainment!

"Product placement is hardly a new phenomenon, and the morning [U.S. television] shows long ago mastered the quid pro quo of daily television: Actors give interviews timed to their latest projects; authors are recruited as experts just as their books hit the stores," writes Alessandra Stanley. "But the fourth hour of 'Today' has tipped the balance of the program. ...

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The Case of the Mysterious E-mails

When the Washington Post tried to contact 60 people who were listed as having "sent e-mails to the Federal Communications Commission opposing the proposed merger between the satellite radio networks XM and Sirius," the paper found "mostly unanswered phone calls and recordings saying the phones were disconnect

No

Studio Owners Try to Seem Reasonable, Like Big Tobacco

Reporter Nikki Finke, who has been closely covering the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, reports that the studio owners' group, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), "during the first days of the strike ... went out and hired Hill and Knowlton, the controversial global public relations and public affairs giant." Finke writes, "Remember that full page ad that ran November 15th in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times?

No

The U.S. Propaganda Blitz in Post-War Japan

A report written in 1959 by Mark May, a Yale University professor and expert on psychological warfare, detailed the extensive operations by the United States Information Service (USIS) in Japan after the end of World War II. The report was recently uncovered in the National Archives in Washington by Kenneth Osgood, an assistant professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. The report reveals that 23 of 50 USIS-sponsored programs were not publicly identified as U.S. funded projects.

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Al Jazeera's Struggle for U.S. Airtime

Andrew Stroehlein, the director of media and information at the International Crisis Group, reflects on why the English language version of Al Jazeera's television news operation "remains unavailable to most Americans." The quality of reporting from what is perhaps the best-funded television news network, he argues, is not the problem.

No

Roving Reporter

Former Bush administration political advisor Karl Rove has signed on as a columnist for Newsweek magazine, with his first column titled "How to Beat Hillary (Next) November." Charles Kaiser notes the irony in Rove's decision to join the mainstream media: "In public, Rove is one of dozens of conservatives who assiduously bash the press.

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