How local TV embraced fake news

HOW LOCAL TV EMBRACED FAKE NEWS
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
A look at the pervasiveness of video news releases (VNRs), short clips of marketing propaganda produced in the language and style of real news and aired as part of local broadcast TV newscasts. P.R. firms send news stations thousands of such videos every year, the most sophisticated of which are virtually indistinguishable from honest news, featuring interviews with (paid) experts and voice-overs by (fake) reporters who subtly pitch products during their narratives. Surprisingly often, news channels broadcast these videos as real news; many times, the Center for Media and Democracy has found, the only edits that a station will make to a paid clip is to cut off the disclosure noting that the video was sponsored by a corporation. Late last year, the FCC began cracking down on the practice, levying fines against Comcast, which owns CN8, a Philadelphia station that has aired VNRs. But CMD, which continues to monitor stations, found that the practice continues.
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/03/19/true_enough_excerpt_3/inde...