Fake news

The term fake news has become synonymous with government and corporate sponsored pre-packaged news provided as video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs) to news outlets.

CMD Reports on Fake News

"Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed" is the title of a report released on April 6, 2006, by the Center for Media and Democracy. The multi-media report tracked television stations' use of selected VNRs over 10 months. The report summary states: "CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs or related satellite media tours (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers. Collectively, these 77 stations reach more than half of the U.S. population. ... In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety." [1]

On November 14, 2006, CMD issued a follow-up report, "Still Not the News: Stations Overwhelmingly Fail to Disclose VNRs." Although the research period for this report was shorter -- only six months -- dozens more undisclosed VNR broadcasts were documented. The report summary states: "Of the 54 total VNR broadcasts described in this report, 48 provided no disclosure of the nature or source of the sponsored video. In the six other cases, disclosure was fleeting and often ambiguous." [2]

Along with the release of each report, CMD and the media reform group Free Press filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting enforcement of the Commission's sponsorship identification requirements with regard to VNRs. In August 2006, the FCC sent letters of inquiry to the owners of the 77 television stations named in CMD's first report. [3] [4] (PDF)

History of the Term "Fake News"

A search of the Nexis media database indicates that the term was initially used more broadly. In May 1989 Adweek writer Barbara Lippert panned ads in which former newsreader Linda Ellerbee appeared in "in a fake news setting" hustling Maxwell House coffee. In August that year Ad Day's Ed Buxton criticised the use of "the fake news bite" where reporters re-enacted news events as part of a news story.

However it was a cover article by David Lieberman titled "Fake News" in a February 1992 edition of TV Guide that popularised the term. In his article Lieberman took the media and PR industry to task over video news releases. He argued that if footage from VNR's was used in news it should be labelled so that viewers were aware of its origin. If not, he argued, media outlets risked undermining their own credibility if they "pretend out of pride that what they broadcast is real news, instead of labeling it for what it is."

"There's a good chance that some of the news they [the public] see will be fake. Not that it's necessarily inaccurate. Just that it was made to plug something else. And it's something the PR community has grown skillful at providing," he wrote. The original article generated a dismissive response from the PR industry.

However, in June 1992 the Public Relations Service Council saw the need to assemble a committee to develop standards governing the level of disclosure in VNR's.

In April 1993 TV Guide once more returned to the subject with an article titled Fake News: All the PR that News Can Use". (See the Video news releases article for a more detailed review of the responses to Liberman's articles).

While controversy over VNR's diminished in the 1990's when it resurfaced in 2004 following Government Accountability Office investigation into government funded VNR's the fake news description was well established.

In late June 2005 the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment barring the White House and federal agencies for one year from contracting with PR firms and journalists to secretly promote policies through the use of fake news. "The passage of this amendment is a critical victory for the American people who, as a result of these secret government contracts with writers, broadcasters, and public relations specialists, have been unable to determine whether they are receiving real, objective news or government-sponsored propaganda," said Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), who chairs the Future of American Media Caucus and sponsored the amendment.

"A properly functioning democracy depends on a news media that is free of any conflicts-of-interest, especially with the government that it is supposed to be holding accountable." [5]

SourceWatch Resources

• Alexis Debat
• Audio news releases
• B-Roll
• Barbara Cochran
• Bush Teleconference with Soldiers in Iraq Staged
• Criticisms of PR
• Electronic Press Kit
• Fake TV news
• Lincoln Group
• manufactured journalism
• Pundit payola
• Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation
• Satellite Media Tours
• Video news releases

External Links

Government Reports on Williams/Ketchum PR Contracts

• Anthony H. Gamboa (General Counsel), "Letter to Frank R. Lautenberg and Edward M. Kennedy Subject: Department o Education—Contract to Obtain Services of Armstrong Williams", Government Accounting Office, September 30, 2005.
• Anthony H. Gamboa (General Counsel), "Subject: Department o Education—No Child Left Behind Act Video News Release and Media Analysis", Government Accounting Office, September 30, 2005.
• Gary L. Kepplinger, "Letter to Mr. Kent Talbert, Deputy General Counsel Department of Education Subject: Department o Education—No Child Left Behind Newspaper Article", Government Accounting Office, September 30, 2005.

Articles

• Barbara Lippert, "General Foods Maxwell House Coffee: For Maxwell House, Ellerbee Doesn't Quite Perk", Adweek, May 22, 1989.
• Ed Buxton, "Ad Simulations Require Honesty to Reach Audiences", Ad Day, August 22, 1989
• Darren Bosik, "TV Guide attack on VNRs is cheap shot, say video pros", O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, April, 1992.
• PRSC developing set of standards codes for VNRs, O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, June 1992, page 46.
• Darren Bosik, "Success of 'rotten' VNR told at seminar", O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, August, 1992.
• "TV Guide calls VNRs 'fake news,' again", O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, April 1993, page 10.
• Darren Bosik, "Video producers debate need for VNR ethics code", O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, April 1993, page 1.
• Greg Hazley, "Ethics questioned, VNR pros sound off", O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, April 2004, page 1.
• "Fake news is bad news for PR biz", Advertising Age, January 17, 2005, page 16.
• Jim Cameron, "PR & Media: The Perfect Ethical Storm" O'Dwyers PR Daily, June 2, 2005. (Sub req'd).
• "House Approves Hinchey Amendment To End Government Propaganda & Secret Contracts: Measure To Appropriations Bill Would Stop The Practice Of Agencies Hiring Writers & Broadcasters To Covertly Promote Administration Policy", Media Release, June 30, 2005.
• Erica Iacono, "House bill limits use of funds for promoting administration policies", PR Week, July 6, 2005.
• Josie Liu, "CHINA: Journalists too willing to write fake stories for cash, seminar told: Journalism professors warn that faking news is becoming a very serious problem in mainland China, South China Morning Post, July 20, 2005.
• "Weather for a price: The EPA pays a popular cable channel to broadcast reports on climate change", TimesUnion.com, July 24, 2005.
• David B. Caruso, "Fake News Abounds, but Vigilance on Rise," Associated Press (Yahoo! News), August 11, 2005.
• "New Jersey Paper Accepting City Money to Report 'Positive News'", Editor and Publisher, October 24, 2005.
• Jeffrey Gettleman, "To Publicize Its Good News, Newark Makes Deal With a Newspaper", New York Times, October 25, 2005.
• "Time for PR People to Come to the Defense of Media Freedom", Holmes Report, June 9, 2006.
• Trudy Lieberman, "The Epidemic," Columbia Journalism Review, March / April 2007.