Is that News your watching really News?
 

A number of people, including some legislators have asked the FCC to look into the widespread production of Video News Releases (VNR's) by the Bush Administration and government departments.

To be accurate, it should be noted that the Clinton Administration also used this vehicle, as has major industry for years. It appears that the present administration has taken it to a much higher level.

These VNR's look very much like standard news reports, complete with actor/readers doing "standups" and "voiceovers" and signing off "(insert name) Reporting from (wherever).

Some TV and radio stations run these without comment.

When I directed newscasts, we had (and I think most major news organizations still do) to label any piece of video we used that we didn't shoot with a visual identifier of who provided the pictures.

Are you all aware of this practice, and what do you think of it?

It just shows how lazy (and cheap) news reporting has become. I see professional reporters today put less effort into packages than I did when I was given a 4 hour deadline working on my college newscast, armed with a camera on loan from the school, a halogen light, a tripod, and analog editing decks... Sad.

http://www.toddandpenguin.com/comics/tap20050323.gif

or

http://www.toddandpenguin.com/comics/tap20050309.gif

new one

http://www.toddandpenguin.com/comics/tap20050325.gif

I don't totally agree, but...

Actually, the real abuse here, in my mind, is that it is really PR, not news. To be fair, it is much more likely to see small market stations using an entire package like this.

In any event, you're certainly only geting one side of the story, and it's scary to me when a unit of government is dictating that side. I see it as less sinister (although sometimes not much) when it comes from GM or Ford telling you about their new model gas guzzler.

To use the dreaded word from the Cold War -- It's Propaganda.

true, true, all words spoken here have been true

I'm really worried about the free press since it seems to be being abused a lot lately. Not only are people not caring, but it is being maniupalted and bought. That makes me a sad panda :(

First Amendment? huh?
 

and many seem to prefer the propaganda..... i remember being taught to be very analytical and thoughtful in my high school classes... granted they were mostly GT and might not have been the "normal" experience, but has that much changed with young people in 10 years.... oy....

and it amazes me when i hear people say it is "unpatriotic" to question the President or local, state, and federal govt.... i remember being taught it was a civic duty to be involved and public discourse was the norm....


U.S. students say press freedoms go too far

US teens 'reject' key freedoms


A significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey.
Over a third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.

Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval.

The two-year, $1m survey across US schools - in which 8,000 teachers were also interviewed - suggested students held a number of misconceptions about the First Amendment, and were more censorious on some issues than their elders.

Some 83% of students polled felt people should be allowed to express unpopular views, as opposed to 97% of teachers.

Roughly half the students polled wrongly believed the US government had the right to censor the internet, while two-thirds believed it was illegal to burn the US flag - another misconception.

The survey concluded that better teaching and a bigger emphasis on student journalism could raise awareness of the First Amendment in American classrooms.

the liberal monopoly broken
 

the liberal monopoly broken

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Article...e.asp?ID=21011

The Plot to Shush Rush and O’ReillyBy Brian C. Anderson
City Journal | January 24, 2006


The rise of alternative media—political talk radio in the eighties, cable news in the nineties, and the blogosphere in the new millennium—has broken the liberal monopoly over news and opinion outlets. The Left understands acutely the implications of this revolution, blaming much of the Democratic Party’s current electoral trouble on the influence of the new media’s vigorous conservative voices. Instead of fighting back with ideas, however, today’s liberals quietly, relentlessly, and illiberally are working to smother this flourishing universe of political discourse under a tangle of campaign-finance and media regulations. Their campaign represents the most sustained attack on free political speech in the United States since the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts.