Reply #8: OUR OPINION: GOVERNMENT SHOULD END COVERT EFFORTS AIMED AT U.S. VIEWERS [View All]

When the news isn't the news

OUR OPINION: GOVERNMENT SHOULD END COVERT EFFORTS AIMED AT U.S. VIEWERS

Considering that more Americans get their news from TV than from any other source, it's important to know the following: That happy news about Medicaid reform or progress in Iraq may look like news and sound like news, but it could be propaganda instead of the real thing. If you think you can tell the difference, think again.

The practice of having government agencies provide ''free'' video reports to TV stations has been around at least since the Clinton years, but it is vastly more widespread and insidious today, according to a recent report in The New York Times. At least 20 federal agencies distribute hundreds of ''video messages'' each year that wind up in TV news programs, often with no hint of their origin.


Doing a 'marvelous' job

These videos, which reach tens of millions of viewers, may be free to the TV stations, but they're paid for with tax dollars. The Agriculture Department's Broadcast Media and Technology Center alone has a budget of $3.2 million producing 90 ''mission messages'' each year that are delivered to local stations. They report the marvelous job that the department is doing, with many stations failing to identify the reporter as a government employee and editing out the fact that the segment was not of their making.

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This is wrong, and the Radio-Television News Directors Association says so plainly in its Code of Ethics: ''Clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by outsiders.'' Unfortunately, some stations don't live up to this code, and the association has no power of enforcement. At the very least, the Federal Communications Commission should require that stations identify government-produced reports.