The propaganda regime. The Sunday Times is devoting major space to a sweeping examination of one of the pillars of the Bush program to institutionalize a controlled media, the video news release (VNR). This is a long-standing corporate public relations practice—a thoroughly corrupt practice, which succeeds only to the extent that all parties conspire to keep the public in the dark about it—being extended into the realm of government propaganda; we're now almost at the anniversary of this story first entering consciousness, in the flap over Karen Ryan's work for HHS shilling the Medicare drug benefits bill. Haven't had time to digest the piece yet, but it obviously gets the key points right, and makes them right up front.

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. ...

Federal agencies are forthright with broadcasters about the origin of the news segments they distribute. The reports themselves, though, are designed to fit seamlessly into the typical local news broadcast. In most cases, the "reporters" are careful not to state in the segment that they work for the government. Their reports generally avoid overt ideological appeals. Instead, the government's news-making apparatus has produced a quiet drumbeat of broadcasts describing a vigilant and compassionate administration.

Some reports were produced to support the administration's most cherished policy objectives, like regime change in Iraq or Medicare reform. Others focused on less prominent matters ... They often feature "interviews" with senior administration officials in which questions are scripted and answers rehearsed. Critics, though, are excluded, as are any hints of mismanagement, waste or controversy. 

An examination of government-produced news reports offers a look inside a world where the traditional lines between public relations and journalism have become tangled, where local anchors introduce prepackaged segments with "suggested" lead-ins written by public relations experts. It is a world where government-produced reports disappear into a maze of satellite transmissions, Web portals, syndicated news programs and network feeds, only to emerge cleansed on the other side as "independent" journalism.

David Barstow and Robin Stein, " Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News "

That last is an extremely telling point, indeed the crux of the whole matter. The news distribution system, loosely coupled as it is, serves admirably to launder propaganda as "news," while allowing almost everyone involved in the pipeline the opportunity to disclaim responsibility. Increasingly, that potential in the system is being used to rationalize it, to create ready channels for the quiet circulation of managed opinion. Yet it should be self-evident that a practice that depends on the public being kept gullible as to the origins of the "news" it's fed can only be useful for gulling the public.

The article catches up with Karen Ryan, by the way, still unrepentant: her complete inability to see a distinction between independent journalism and what amounts to running a PR con speaks volumes about the degree to which the news profession has already been corrupted by its cozy affiliation with corporate public relations. On that subject, Jay Rosen was eloquent when Karen's story broke a year ago; by all means supplement the Times piece with his PressThink take-out.

posted by michael  11:42:38 PM  
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