California Television Stations Caught in Fake News Study
By Peter Phillips, Caitlin Lampert, and Ned Patterson
Project Censored
Channel 40 news in Sacramento and Santa Barbara KEYT-3 channel 5 both aired fake news stories according to a recent study from PR Watch.
Fox news Channel 40 in Sacramento aired a news story on June 10, 2005 about a new dental technique that would check saliva samples to determine possible diseases. The story was aired as Fox news, but was actually a video news release made MultiVu, a PR Newswire Company, who were paid by the American Dental Association. Fox news repackaged the video by replacing the voice from MultiVu and using the same images to present their story without telling their audience that the source was from a pre-packaged video news release (VNR) paid for by the American Dental Association.
A report by the Center for Media Democracy (PR Watch) was released April 6, 2006. The study was compiled by Diane Faresetta and Daniel Price over ten months in 2005. The research shows how fake news stories are making their way into the American mainstream corporate news programs. Fake news stories, VNRs, are created by public relations firms on behalf of corporate clients and released to news sources for broadcast.
Traditional journalism ethics have always demanded that reporters cite their sources and give objective honest accounts of news stories. The American public tends to believe news on television as unbiased, balanced and accurate.
Santa Barbara KEYT-3 channel 5 news, airs high tech stories by Robin Raskin, former editor of Family PC Magazine. Raskin does on-going news updates about personal computers and new technologies without telling the audience that she is being paid by Panasonic, Namco, and Techno Sources.
Similarly KOKH-25 in Okalahoma City shares stories on the latest technology advancements. On January 3, 2006 KOKH aired a feature story on the latest advancements in internet cable television. The technology featured in the report was limited to the Viiv media network platform from Intel. The entire story was taken from a VNR video created by D S Simon Productions and funded by Intel.
In Shreveport, LA, KSLA -12, channel 7 aired a two minute unedited VNR that discussed the vast changes in auto sales since General Motors launched the first online sales web site in 1996. Unfortunately, General Motors was not the first to have an automobile web site. The news reporters did not conduct independent research to fact check GM' claims.
According to PR Watch "the number of media formats and outlets has exploded in recent years, television remains the dominant news source in the United States. More than three-quarters of U.S. adults rely on local TV news, and more than 70 percent turn to network TV or cable news on a daily or near-daily basis, according to a January 2006 Harris Poll. The quality and integrity of television reporting thus significantly impacts the public's ability to evaluate everything from consumer products to medical services to government policies."
VNR use is widespread. Pr Watch found 69 TV stations that aired at least one VNR from June 2005 to March 2006 covering over half the population in the US.
To Access the Report
Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored a media research organization, Caitlin Lampert is an undergraduate sociology major at SSU and Ned Patterson is a graduating senior in sociology.
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