All the Fake News That's Fit To Air…
Via Freedom's Phoenix comes this U.K. Independent account of just how much ersatz news the Bush administration has been pushing (and TV stations have been airing) in these United States:
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.
Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.
Just think: If those VNRs had only included nipples or cuss words, the FCC would have been all over this years ago. Whole thing here.
Full disclosure: The Bush administration sent me this item.