Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy are running a new campaign called "No Fake News" that is already starting to create a buzz in the media. So much so that I have had trouble accessing their site this morning:
An exposé by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Free Press
reveals that corporate propaganda has infiltrated local television news
across the country. CMD, which conducted the investigation, caught 77 local stations that
had slipped corporate-sponsored “video news releases” — segments
promoting commercial brands and products — into their regular news
programming. These advertisements were passed off to unsuspecting
viewers as legitimate news reports.This deception is a breach of the trust between local stations and
their communities. By disguising advertisements as news, stations
violate both the spirit and the letter of their broadcasting licenses,
which obligate them to serve public interest.
Democracy Now, NPR, the New York Times and others are already running stories on this. Sounds like that supposed "wall" between the news desk and the sales desk at local TV stations is more like a curtain.