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News :: Government Secrecy : Media : Regime |
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FCC Warns WCIA Ch3 along with other Broadcasters About 'News' Videos |
Current rating: 0 |
by via AP
(No verified email address) |
14 Apr 2005
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WCIA, local TV channel 3, was implicated in broadcasting program material supplied by the federal government without proper attribution. Despite the rather clear-cut nature of the violations and WCIA's denial that there was anything improper about it, the FCC apparently feels only a warning is needed. It remains to be seen if this will stop the illicit distribution of government proppaganda, since the Bush Administration has thumbed it nose at such legal concerns and asserted that it will continue the practice. Stay tuned for more and here's a link to earlier reporting on this issue on UC IMC: http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/27870/index.php |
WASHINGTON -- Responding to criticism over government videos being packaged as TV news reports, federal regulators reminded broadcasters Wednesday of rules requiring them to identify the source of such material.
Those rules "are grounded in the principle that listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them" with TV programming, the Federal Communications Commission said in a public notice to broadcast licensees and cable operators.
Tens of thousands of people have asked the FCC to investigate the failure of broadcasters to disclose the source of the government videos, said Commissioner Michael Copps, adding that his agency should investigate each case.
The FCC is soliciting comments on the decades-old sponsorship identification rules and may seek to clarify them further.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was criticized last year for a series of videos in which a narrator, sometimes identified as "Karen Ryan," said she was "reporting" on the office's activities. Separately, the Health and Human Services Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services produced video news releases, also narrated by "Karen Ryan," touting changes to Medicare.
The tapes were offered to local television stations for news programs. Some stations aired the videos without identifying their government origins.
Directly addressing such videos, the FCC said broadcast licensees and cable operators "generally must clearly disclose" to viewers the "nature, source and sponsorship of the material."
Violating the rules could result in a $10,000 fine, one year imprisonment or both.
"There's been a growing trend of broadcasters just putting on these so-called video news releases wholesale, and putting them on the air without letting the public know it may be from a government agency or it may be from a big corporation," said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "So the public thinks it looks like a news story, and they don't realize that in fact somebody that may have an agenda is trying to influence their thought."
In addressing the issue from the perspective of broadcasters, the FCC largely sidesteps recent disagreements between congressional investigators and the Justice Department over the legality of video news releases.
The Government Accountability Office in February warned federal agencies that such productions might violate a government prohibition against the use of taxpayer money for propaganda. But the Justice Department in March concluded the practice was appropriate as long as the videos presented factual information about government programs.
© 2005 The Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/ |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
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Activism Works |
by via email
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Apr 2005
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Dear Media Reformer,
Your efforts have paid off. The Federal Communications Commission and Congress are now taking steps to stop news fraud.
Last night, the FCC instructed all newscasters to fully disclose the origin of "video news releases" (VNRs) aired on their programs. The FCC took this action as a direct response to the more than 40,000 Free Press activists who signed our petition last month.
This morning, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) announced that he will call a Senate hearing next week on VNRs. Also, Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced their intention to introduce legislation to stop the government from putting out VNRs without clearly displaying their source.
The actions of Free Press activists prove -- once again -- that we can stop the spread of government- and corporate-sponsored propaganda, investigate payola pundits, block media consolidation and create a more democratic media system for generations to come. None of this would have happened without your help.
If you have not added your name to the "stop news fraud" petition, please do so now and help keep this issue in the headlines: www.freepress.net/action/fakenews
Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy are now working to identify local stations that use VNRs without full disclosure. We're collaborating with local groups to establish "citizen agreements" under which local broadcasters pledge not to use pre-packaged, government- or corporate-sponsored propaganda without prominently identifying the source.
To learn more about the FCC action, visit our "Stop News Fraud" pages.
We'll keep you posted on the next steps happening both on the national level and in your community. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to reclaim our media.
Onward,
Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
http://www.freepress.net/
http://www.freepress.net/action/signup.php |
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Senate Votes to Ban Video News Releases |
by Laurie Kellman
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Apr 2005
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The Senate passed a measure Thursday that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer funds to disguise video press releases as real news, putting the brakes on a product Democrats call propaganda. President Bush cautioned that some responsibility for full disclosure rests with news outlets.
"It's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed," Bush told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Thursday. "But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, 'This news clip was produced by the federal government.'"
Senators voted 98-0 to attach the measure, sponsored by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to the $80.6 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under it, taxpayer funds would be prohibited from being used for prepackaged news stories unless those stories contain "clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news" that discloses it was prepared or funded by a federal agency.
That way, said Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the authors of the packages cannot be held liable for news outlets that do not disclose the funding source on their own.
The amendment writes into law a Government Accountability Office opinion that said the Bush administration has violated rules against "publicity and propaganda" with releases from several agencies.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example, released a series of videos in which a narrator, sometimes identified as "Karen Ryan," said she was "reporting" on the office's activities. Separately, the Health and Human Services Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services produced video news releases, also narrated by "Karen Ryan," touting changes to Medicare.
The tapes were offered to local television stations for news programs. Some stations aired the videos without identifying their government origins.
The White House Office of Management and Budget on March 11 countered that the GAO report "fails to recognize the distinction between covert propaganda and purely informational video news reports."
In other action on the spending bill, the Senate voted to:
* Prohibit military hospitals from charging soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan for meals.
* Change the name of the death benefit given to soldiers' families from "death gratuity" to "fallen hero compensation."
* Provide $5 million to promote democracy in Lebanon.
© 2005 Associated Press
http://www.ap.org |
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FCC to TV: Tell the Truth |
by John Nichols
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Apr 2005
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Most television viewers don't know it, but a huge portion of what they watch on the local news programs aired by their favorite stations is not actually "news." Rather, local television stations around the country have in recent years been taking "video news releases" from the federal government and major corporations – particularly the big pharmaceutical companies – and airing them as if they were news reports.
Video news releases (VNRs) are so common these days that they actually dominate some newscasts, blurring the lines between advertising and news more blatantly than product placements in movies do the lines between advertising and entertainment.
But, from now on, VNRs will be identified as productions of the corporations that developed them, rather than pawned off as part of the news.
The Federal Communications Commission has called on television stations to disclose the origin of VNRs used on their news programs. "Listeners and viewers are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them with the programming offered over broadcast stations and cable systems," reads the FCC statement issued Wednesday, which was unanimously approved by all four FCC commissioners.
The FCC has instructed newscasters that they must abide by FCC sponsorship identification rules when they air VNRs and called for comments from license holders and cable operators about their use of the public-relations and advertising videos – including those produced by the government.
"Today's Public Notice… reminds broadcast stations, cable operators, and others of their disclosure obligations under our rules, if and when they choose to air VNRs, and to reinforce that we will take appropriate enforcement action against stations that do not comply with these rules," explained FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
The decision of the FCC came after a campaign organized by the Center for Media and Democracy and the media reform group Free Press, which filed a joint complaint regarding the issue on March 21. Accompanying the complaint was a petition signed by more than 40,000 Americans expressing concern about what the groups refer to as news fraud and that the Government Accounting Office has labeled "covert propaganda."
In the statement from the FCC, the commissioners cited the "large number of requests" for an investigation that had been received by the agency. "Citing the complaints, one commissioner urged the agency to aggressively investigate the use of VNRs that, according to the New York Times, have been produced using taxpayer funds by at least 20 federal agencies seeking to promote Bush administration policies.
"Recently, tens of thousands of citizens contacted the FCC demanding an investigation into the failure of broadcasters to disclose their use of government-generated ‘news' stories. They were right to do so," said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. "This Commission should investigate each such case. And it should strenuously enforce the rules against inadequate sponsorship identification."
That's the hope of John Stauber, the executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, who said after the decision, "Not labeling VNRs constitutes news fraud and violates the most basic ethical standards of journalism. It's now time for TV news producers to own up their responsibility to the viewing public and fully disclose their use of fake news."
John Nichols is a co-founder of Free Press (http://www.freepress.net), which, along with the Center for Media and Democracy (http://www.prwatch.org/), is helping community groups around the country to develop "citizen agreements" with local television stations. The agreements commit broadcasters to label VNRs produced by corporations and the government. For more on the campaign, visit www.freepress.net/propaganda
© 2005 The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/ |
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