No Fake News!

On April 6, 2006, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a multi-media report titled, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." It provides the most extensive account to date of how corporate-funded video news releases (VNRs) -- fake TV news -- are routinely aired by newsrooms, without disclosure, as though they were independently-gathered reports. The online report contains footage of three dozen VNRs, plus footage from some of the 98 different TV newscasts that aired them or related satellite media tour "interviews."

If you want to be sure that the news you watch and hear about a company or government agency is not funded by and produced for that company or government agency, inform yourself by reading the material below and take action to demand real disclosure!

 

What You Can Do

 

  • Send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging that it investigate the violations of disclosure policy documented in CMD's report, "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed." The report found 77 television stations across the United States that aired VNRs or SMTs, without once disclosing the corporations behind the segments to news audiences. Ask the FCC to clarify and strengthen its disclosure requirements for fake news, and penalize TV stations that break the rules, by clicking here.
  • Inform yourself and others by reading the reports and resources listed below, talking to friends and family, writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper, and calling talk radio shows. It does make a difference!
  • Support the work of the Center for Media and Democracy by subscribing to PR Watch, making a donation, or throwing a house party to raise funds for our "No Fake News!" campaign. Email judithATprwatch.org for more information (replace "AT" with @).
  • Stay tuned to CMD's website, Weekly Spin email list and quarterly publication PR Watch, to keep updated on our evolving campaign to stop fake news!

 

Exposing Fake News

 

CMD's award-winning publication PR Watch focused on fake news in its Second Quarter 2005 issue. That issue examines one of the public relations industry's most deceptive tools—video news releases—and reports on U.S. government propaganda.

You can read the issue online, and read other CMD reports and analyses on fake news by following the links below. Shorter news items compiled from various sources are listed at the bottom of this page.

 

CMD reports:

News items (highlighted in CMD's "Spin of the Day"):

Topics: 
Activism
Media
Public Relations
Video News Releases
U.S. Government