Monday, March 21, 2005

Calling All Propaganda Busters

We filed a complaint urging incoming FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin to investigate broadcasters who distribute government-sponsored news reports without identifying their source. It's a grand public welcome to his first day on the job.

Nearly 40,000 citizens have signed our petition calling on the FCC, Congress and local broadcasters to put an end to the propaganda . If you haven't signed it, please take a moment:

www.freepress.net/action/fakenews

These petitions are now piling up on Martin's doorstep. They demand "that the Bush administration stop using our tax dollars to create fake news reports" and that the FCC punish broadcasters who beam this propaganda to unsuspecting Americans.

Mass-Media Buy In
While it’s known that these covert "video news releases" were broadcast over hundreds of local newscasts, we've yet to put together a comprehensive roster of what programs aired on which stations, when and where. Tracking content on local newscasts is proving far more difficult than it would seem.

The local station mangers know whether they've beamed propaganda into American homes, but few are speaking out. And there's few to no local news monitoring services looking out for the public's best interests and flagging official VNR's when they air.

My request to MediaCitizens: Have you seen a government-sponsored "video news release" on your local station? I'm going to start compiling a record. But I need your help. Call your local station managers and ask them to reveal any VNR's that have come through their newsrooms. If they refuse to tell, report them to me and we'll start investigating. If they do tell, let us know about the VNR's and we'll begin compiling a public record.

The only way to stop propaganda is with a vigilant citizenry ready to call broadcasters and our government to account.

4 comments:

spyder said...

Up here(out here) in Spokane we have a cable access channel provided by ComCast that broadcasts hours of these VNR's. They have been running most of the Pentagon videos as well. They even have local military anchors for them. Likewise there are AG channels that run the VNR's from the USDA and USFS and such. The local news outlets don't have enough program time to run them, fortunately for us.

spyder said...

Is this a threat??? From the report on DoD's decision to not reopen investigations of abuse against Reuter's reporters in Iraq:

Di Rita concluded his letter by again urging journalists to embed with U.S. forces. "Of course, I reiterate my recommendation that you consider embedding your reporters with U.S. units. It is an excellent opportunity to cover U.S. military activities in Iraq," he said.

Anonymous said...

I find it disgusting they use our own tax money to preach their version of reality upon us.

Anonymous said...

Gannon is whining now about how those silly Congressional Democrats are taking up so much time debating fake news. Actually, he puts fake news in inverted commas, thus: "fake news". To him, it's a passing fad, a silly thing prolonged by bitter and hateful leftist types. He says it's just the Bush administration trying to get a fair reporting of their policies. Of course! That's what they're doing! They're not trying to assert Bush administration priorities onto people at all. Why on earth would they do that when they're totally honest and trustworthy in every way!? Liberals are just paranoid! Oh, and bitter! Don't forget to throw hateful into the mix!!