Sunday, March 13, 2005

All the news that's fit to fake.


First, there was "Karen Ryan, reporting". Then, in quick succession, Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus, with their bogus journalism. And who can forget that studly, 8 inches cut, man whore Jeff Gannon? (You don't really need a link to that one, do you?)

And now, we have the Governator, pimping some fake news videos:

A week after Democratic legislators faulted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for using taxpayer money to produce "propaganda" in the form of a mock news video, the administration on Wednesday acknowledged making several others to advance its policies.

A state senator intends to question officials today about the funding and distribution of the videos.

Initially, legislators focused on one tape extolling an administration proposal to end mandatory lunch breaks for hourly workers. But additional videos have surfaced in which the administration is promoting a cut in the number of nurses required on duty in hospitals, pay for teachers based on merit rather than seniority and a more stringent tenure track.

Mercifully, that's the lot of them. No more. As Donald Rumsfeld would say, just a few bad apples. It's over.

Uh oh ...
:

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.

You mean, some of those news clips featuring joyful Iraqis praising the invasion of their own country ... fake? No. Say it ain't so. I suddenly feel so ... so ... violated.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this makes me sick.
today kpfa interviewed Laurie Garrett who had lots to say on the topic. not only did she quit her job, but she's telling the truth about why - and its not to "spend time with my family".
that takes cajones.

Janie For Mayor said...

What disturbs me most is the lack of outrage over this in the U.S. I don't expect the Bush administration to suffer any consequences over this whatsoever.

The effectiveness of propaganda is illustrated once again.