The FCC is currently investigating televisions stations across the US for allegedly airing video news releases (VNRs) as news stories. These VNRs came from the Bush administration, as well as several corporations like Pfizer and Mars. The VNRs usually showed the producing entities in a more positive light than a less-biased news report may have. For example, the State Department released a VNR showing an Iraqi-American thanking Bush for the fall of Baghdad, according to the article from The Independent. The State Department was one of twenty federal agencies that produced and released VNRs.
I remember seeing a story they did on this a few weeks ago. I think it may have been on The Daily Show, but I’m not sure. Basically, the television stations would air these "stories" during the evening news. In many instances, the VNRs are basically a commercial for a product. However, the sources or producers of the VNRs were rarely, if ever, disclosed.
I know that there is bias and favoritism in all types of media, but I think that it should be made explicitly clear to the audience of a news program that they are viewing propaganda or advertisements, and not news stories. The American press has a responsibilty to be forthright with their readers and watchers. I hope that any station found to have aired VNRs as news stories face the appropriate penalty.
The news media became fat and lazy quite some time ago. They profess their impartiality, but people like Anderson Cooper get away with presenting the news emotionally. Press releases have become a major news source. Press releases are spun to present the releasor in the best possible light. Newsies take ideas, sentences, and even whole paragraphs from press releases, though. Then, of course, there’s Jason Blair, who just made his stories up.
I have to believe that things will get better. The Bush administration’s cynical manipulation of the media has got to inspire news outlets to tighten-up their information gathering and fact checking, right? They can’t just sit around at cocktail parties talking about how stupid W is, can they?
Speaking of partiality in the news media, there are two words that, for me, used to epitomize this dreadful and frightening trend…Fox News. However, I have noticed lately that some of the other news channels have been following suit. This could be in an effort to compete with what they view as the “successful” Fox model (success, obviously, measured in ratings numbers). As proof (to myself moreso than to anyone else) that it is not Fox that I hate but partiality in the news media in general, I need only look to my reaction to one CNN anchor who has recently taken this dispicable practice to an all new level. I think that Anderson Cooper is more than ten times the professional that Lou Dobbs is. I can not watch Dobbs’ show anymore without vomitting a little in my mouth (at the very least). I may agree with everything that he says on his show (which I most definitely do not), but the way in which he presents it makes me want to violently destroy expensive appliances. My parents sit there cheering Dobbs on whenever he gets on his high horse about the immigration debate, but I have to leave the room for fear of saying something I will regret (usually regarding lemmings or mindless drivel generally). I used to take comfort in the fact that blatant bias in political reporting was relegated to the realm of the Fox News Channel. Now, I can take no such comfort, and it pisses me off even more.